18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and shout, 'For Yahweh and for Gideon!'"
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon - The word חרב chereb, "sword," is not found in this verse, though it is necessarily implied, and is found in Judges 7:20. But it is found in this place in the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, and in eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. The reading appears to be genuine.
When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that [are] with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, (i) [The sword] of the LORD, and of Gideon.
(i) That is, the victory shall be the Lord's and Gideon's his servant.
When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me,.... He being at the head of one of the three companies, Judges 7:19 perhaps the middlemost, which might stand for the body of the army; and the other two be one to the right and the other to the left of him, and so could more easily discover his motions:
then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp; for it seems they were so disposed as to be around the camp, which when the trumpets were blown at once on every side, with such a blaze of light, and crashing of the pitchers, must be very terrifying, as if there was no way for them to escape, and especially when they should hear the following dreadful sounds:
and say, the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon; or "for the Lord, and for Gideon"; and which may be supplied, either the light is for the Lord, and for Gideon; or the victory is for the Lord, and for Gideon; we supply it from Judges 7:20. The name Jehovah, these Heathens had often heard, as the God of Israel, would now be dreadful to them, and the name of Gideon also; whose name, as appears by the interpretation of the dream, was terrible among them; for which reason Gideon added it, and not out of arrogance and vanity; and puts it after the name of the Lord, as being only an instrument the Lord thought fit to make use of, otherwise all the glory belonged to him.
Of Gideon - He mentions his own name, together with God's, not out of arrogance, as if he would equal himself with God; but from prudent policy, because his name was grown formidable to them, and so was likely to further his design. See Judges 7:14.
*More commentary available at chapter level.