1 The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds. 3 So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them; 4 and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey. 5 For they came up with their livestock and their tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it. 6 Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh. 7 It happened, when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh because of Midian, 8 that Yahweh sent a prophet to the children of Israel: and he said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; 9 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land; 10 and I said to you, "I am Yahweh your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell." But you have not listened to my voice.'" 11 The angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. 12 The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, "Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!" 13 Gideon said to him, "Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, 'Didn't Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?' But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian." 14 Yahweh looked at him, and said, "Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven't I sent you?" 15 He said to him, "O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." 16 Yahweh said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man." 17 He said to him, "If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me. 18 Please don't go away, until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you." He said, "I will wait until you come back." 19 Gideon went in, and prepared a young goat, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal. He put the meat in a basket and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it. 20 The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." He did so. 21 Then the angel of Yahweh stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of Yahweh departed out of his sight. 22 Gideon saw that he was the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, "Alas, Lord Yahweh! Because I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face!" 23 Yahweh said to him, "Peace be to you! Don't be afraid. You shall not die." 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it "Yahweh is Peace." To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 25 It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, "Take your father's bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it; 26 and build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold, in an orderly way, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down." 27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as Yahweh had spoken to him: and it happened, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night. 28 When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it, and the second bull was offered on the altar that was built. 29 They said one to another, "Who has done this thing?" When they inquired and asked, they said, "Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing." 30 Then the men of the city said to Joash, "Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has broken down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the Asherah that was by it." 31 Joash said to all who stood against him, "Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? He who will contend for him, let him be put to death while (it is yet) morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because someone has broken down his altar." 32 Therefore on that day he named him Jerub-Baal, saying, "Let Baal contend against him, because he has broken down his altar." 33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and encamped in the valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of Yahweh came on Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together after him. 35 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; and they also were gathered together after him: and he sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali; and they came up to meet them. 36 Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken, 37 behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry on all the ground, then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken." 38 It was so; for he rose up early on the next day, and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. 39 Gideon said to God, "Don't let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once. Please let me make a trial just this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew." 40 God did so that night: for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.
The Israelites again do evil, and are delivered into the hands of the Midianites, by whom they are oppressed seven years, Judges 6:1, Judges 6:2. Different tribes spoil their harvests, and take away their cattle, Judges 6:3-5. They cry unto the Lord, and he sends them a prophet to reprehend and instruct them, Judges 6:6-10. An angel appears unto Gideon, and gives him commission to deliver Israel, and works several miracles, to prove that he is Divinely appointed to this work, Judges 6:11-23. Gideon builds an altar to the Lord, under the name of Jehovah-shalom; and throws down the altar of Baal, Judges 6:24-27. His townsmen conspire against him; he expostulates with them, and they are pacified, Judges 6:28-32. The Midianites and Amalekites gather together against Israel; Gideon summons Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, who join his standard, Judges 6:33-35. The miracle of the fleece of wool, Judges 6:36-40.
INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 6
In this chapter we have an account of the distressed condition Israel was in through the Midianites, Judges 6:1, of a prophet being sent unto them to reprieve them for their sins, Judges 6:7 of an angel appearing to Gideon, with an order to him to go and save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites, Judges 6:11 and of a sign given him by the angel, whereby he knew this order was of God, Judges 6:17, and of the reformation from idolatry in his father's family he made upon this, throwing down the altar of Baal, and building one for the Lord, Judges 6:25, and of the preparation he made to fight the Midianites and others, Judges 6:33, but first desired a sign of the Lord, that Israel would be saved by his hand, which was granted and repeated, Judges 6:36.
(Judges 6:1-6) Israel oppressed by Midianites.
(Judges 6:7-10) Israel rebuked by a prophet.
(Judges 6:11-24) Gideon set to deliver Israel.
(Judges 6:25-32) Gideon destroys Baal's altar.
(Judges 6:33-40) Signs given him.
2. The Times of Gideon and His Family, and of the Judges Tola and Jair - Judges 6-10:5
In this second stage of the period of the judges, which did not extend over an entire century (only ninety-five years), Israel was only punished for its apostasy from the Lord, it is true, with a seven years' oppression by the Midianites; but the misery which these enemies, who allied themselves with Amalekites and other Arabian hordes, brought upon both land and people, so far surpassed the pressure of the previous chastisements, that the Israelites were obliged to take refuge from the foe in ravines, caves, and strongholds of the mountains. But the more heavily the Lord punished His rebellious nation, the more gloriously did He set forth His nearness to help, and also the way which would lead to a lasting peace, and to true deliverance out of every trouble, in the manner in which He called and fitted Gideon to be its deliverer, and gave him the victory over the innumerable army of the hostile hordes, with only 300 chosen warriors. But the tendency to idolatry and to the worship of Baal had already become so strong in Israel, that even Gideon, that distinguished hero of God, who had been so marvellously called, and who refused the title of king when offered to him from genuine fidelity to the Lord, yielded to the temptation to establish for himself an unlawful worship, in a high-priestly ephod which had been prepared for his use, and thus gave the people an occasion for idolatry. For this reason his house was visited with severe judgments, which burst upon it after his death, under the three years' reign of his son Abimelech; although, notwithstanding the deep religious and moral depravity which was manifested in the doings of Abimelech, the Lord gave His people rest for forty-five years longer after the death of Abimelech under two judges, before He punished their apostasy with fresh hostile oppressions.
The history of Gideon and his family is related very fully, because the working of the grace and righteousness of the faithful covenant God was so obviously displayed therein, that it contained a rich treasure of instruction and warning for the church of the Lord in all aGes. The account contains such an abundance of special notices of separate events and persons, as can only be explained on the supposition that the author made use of copious records which had been made by contemporaries and eye-witnesses of the events. At the same time, the separate details do not contain any such characteristic marks as will enable us to discover clearly, or determine with any certainty, the nature of the source or sources which the author employed. The only things peculiar to this narrative are the use of the prefix שׁ for אשׁר, not only in reports of the sayings of the persons engaged (Judges 6:17), but also in the direct narrative of facts (Judges 7:12; Judges 8:26), and the formula לבשׁה יהוה רוּח (Judges 6:34), which only occurs again in 1-Chronicles 12:18; 2-Chronicles 24:20. On the other hand, neither the interchange of ha-Elohim (Judges 6:36, Judges 6:39; Judges 7:14) and Elohim (Judges 6:40; Judges 8:3; Judges 9:7, Judges 9:9,Judges 9:13, Judges 9:23, Judges 9:56-57) with Jehovah, nor the use of the name Jerubbaal for Gideon (Judges 6:32; Judges 7:1; Judges 8:29; Judges 9:1-2, Judges 9:5,Judges 9:16, Judges 9:19, Judges 9:24, Judges 9:28), nor lastly the absence of the "theocratical pragmatism" in Judg 9, contains any proof of the nature of the source employed, or even of the employment of two different sources, as these peculiarities are founded upon the contents and materials of the narrative itself.
(Note: Even Bertheau, who infers from these data that two different sources were employed, admits that ha-Elohim in the mouth of the Midianites (Judges 7:14) and Elohim in Jotham's fable, where it is put into the mouth of the trees, prove nothing at all, because here, from the different meanings of the divine names, the author could not have used anything but Elohim. But the same difference is quite as unmistakeable in Judges 8:3; Judges 9:7, Judges 9:23, Judges 9:56-57, since in these passages, either the antithesis of man and God, or the idea of supernatural causality, made it most natural for the author to use the general name of God even it did not render it absolutely necessary. There remain, therefore, only Judges 6:20, Judges 6:36, Judges 6:39-40, where the use of ha-Elohim and Elohim instead of Jehovah may possibly have originated with the source made use of by the author. On the other hand, the name Jerubbaal, which Gideon received in consequence of the destruction of the altar of Baal (Judges 6:32), is employed with conscious reference to its origin and meaning, not only in Judges 7:1; Judges 8:29, Judges 8:35, but also throughout Judg 9, as we may see more especially in Judges 9:16, Judges 9:19, Judges 9:28. And lastly, even the peculiarities of Judg 9 - namely, that the names Jehovah and Gideon do not occur there at all, and that many historical circumstances are related apparently without any link of connection, and torn away from some wider context, which might have rendered them intelligible, and without which very much remains obscure, - do not prove that the author drew these incidents from a different source from the rest of the history of Gideon, - such, for example, as a more complete history of the town of Shechem and its rulers in the time of the judges, as Bertheau imagines. For these peculiarities may be explained satisfactorily enough from the intention so clearly expressed in Judges 8:34-35, and Judges 9:57, of showing how the ingratitude of the Israelites towards Gideon, especially the wickedness of the Shechemites, who helped to murder Gideon's sons to gratify Abimelech, was punished by God. And no other peculiarities can be discovered that could possibly establish a diversity of sources.)
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.