Verse 1. - Midian. In Numbers 22:7 we read of the Midianites as allied with the Moabites in their hostility to the children of Israel, and we find them willing agents of Balaam s iniquitous counsels (Numbers 25:6, 17, 18; Numbers 31:7, 8), and suffering a terrible chastisement from the Israelites in consequence. An abiding national feud was the natural consequence; and this, added to their love of plunder, no doubt led to the present invasion in company with the Amalekites (Judges 3:13, note). Observe the contrast between the victory described in Numbers 31. and the defeat narrated in this chapter.

Verse 2. - The dens... and caves. In the writer's time certain hiding-places called by the above names were traditionally known as the places where the Israelites took refuge during the terrible Midianite invasion. The limestone hills of Palestine abounded in such caves.

Verse 3. - Children of the east. We first find this term in Genesis 29:1, where it is applied to the people of Haran. Comparing the analogous phrases, "the east country" (Genesis 25:6), the mountains of the east (Numbers 23:7), "the men of the east" (Job 1:3), "the east" (Isaiah 2:3; Matthew 2:1), we gather that the country lying to the east of Palestine as far as the river Euphrates was called the east country, and that the various tribes of Arabs and others who peopled that desert were called "the children of the cast" (see ver. 33 and Judges 7:12; Judges 8:10).

Verse 4. - Left no sustenance, etc., i.e. neither grass, nor corn, nor fruit. It is added, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. These all either died for want of food or were seized by the Midianites. The next verse explains that the enormous multitudes of their cattle and camels consumed the whole produce of the ground.

Verse 5. - As grasshoppers. See the striking description of the destruction caused by locusts in Joel 3. I have heard travellers in India describe the sudden darkening of the sky by a flight of locusts.

Verse 8. - A prophet. Literally, a man, a prophet, just as Deborah was described as a woman, a prophetess (Judges 4:4). It is interesting to observe the flow of the spirit of prophecy in those early days between Moses and Samuel, before the dispensation of the prophets had risen to its height. I brought you up from Egypt. Note the constant reference to the exodus as a fixed point in their national and religious life (see ver. 13; Judges 2:1).

CHAPTER 6:11-24

Verse 11. - An angel, etc. Rather, the angel of the Lord, otherwise called "the angel of his presence" (Isaiah 63:9). In vers. 14, 16, 23, for the angel of the Lord we have simply the Lord (see Judges 2:1, note). An oak. Rather the oak, or terebinth, as it should be rendered. It was doubtless a well-known tree still standing in the writer's time (see ver. 19). Compare the mention of the oak (terebinth) at Shechem (Genesis 35:4); the great oak (terebinth) in which Absalom was caught (2 Samuel 18:9); Deborah's palm tree (Judges 4:5, where see note). Observe the simple way in which the ministration of the angel is introduced, as if it were a matter of course in the eyes of him who is the Lord of the millions of the heavenly host, those ministers of his who do his pleasure. Human scepticism, the twin sister of human selfishness, would blot out all creation except itself. To hide it, etc. These graphic touches give a lively picture of the straits to which the Israelites were reduced by the Midianite occupation.

Verse 12. - Appeared. Angels were not always visible when present (see Numbers 22:31; 2 Samuel 24:17; 2 Kings 6:19, etc.).

Verse 13. - If the Lord be with us, etc. The utter dejection caused by the Midianite oppression breathes in every word spoken by Gideon. But how reassuring the angel's words were. Which our fathers told us cf. This is a distinct reference to the national traditions, which are elsewhere alluded to (cf. Exodus 12:26, 27; Psalm 44:1; Psalm 78:3-5; Jeremiah 16:14).

Verse 15. - Wherewith shall I save Israel? etc. Compare the unwillingness of Moses (Exodus 3:11; Exodus 4:10, 13), of Saul (1 Samuel 10:21, 22), of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:6), of Amos (Amos 7:14, 15), and of St. Peter (Luke 5:8). Also in ecclesiastical history that of Ambrose, Gregory the Great, and others. The least fit are usually the most forward, the most fit the most backward, to undertake great offices (Judges 9:8-15). True humility is the usual companion of true greatness (see 2 Corinthians 2:16; 2 Corinthians 3:5).

Verse 17. - A sign that thou talkest with me - that it is indeed thou thyself that speakest to me, even God, and that there is no illusion.

Verse 18. - My present. Minehah means sometimes a present made to man, as in Judges 3:18; but it more commonly means a sacrificial offering (Genesis 4:3 5), which seems to be its meaning here, as explained vers. 19, 20. When coupled with zevach, the animal sacrifice, minchah means the meat and drink offering.

Verse 19. - Unleavened cakes (Genesis 19:3; 1 Samuel 28:24). The necessary haste gave no time for the use of leaven, which is one explanation of the unleavened bread at the passover (Exodus 12:33, 34, 39). Presented it. A word specially used of sacrifices and offerings (Amos 5:25).

Verse 20. - Lay them upon this rock, as upon an altar, and pour out the broth, as a drink offering or a libation (see Judges 13:19).

Verse 21. - There rose up fire, etc. The consuming of the sacrifice by fire from heaven was the token of its being accepted (cf. Judges 13:20, 23; also 1 Kings 18:23, 33, 38; 1 Chronicles 21:26). The angel of the Lord departed, etc. In the very similar case of the angel who appeared to Manoah (Judges 13:15-20), the angel ascended in the flame of the altar. It is probable that he did so in the present instance, though it is not expressly stated how he disappeared (cf. Acts 8:39).

Verse 22. - Gideon perceived, etc. Gideon's suspicious were now turned into a certainty. It was indeed God that had spoken to him by his angel (ver. 17). Alas, etc. Gideon speaks thus in terror of the death which he thought must be the penalty of seeing the angel of the Lord (see Judges 13:22, and note). Because. Rather, therefore, or to this end, viz., that I should die.

Verse 23. - Peace, etc. Cf. Daniel 10:19, and John 20:21, 26; Luke 24:36-39. Hence the name of the altar, Jehovah-shalom - "The Lord is peace," is at peace with me.

Verse 24. - For naming altars built in commemoration of particular events see Genesis 22:14; Genesis 31:47-49; Genesis 33:20; Joshua 22:34, etc.

Verse 25. - The grove. See Judges 3:7. The size of the asherah is indicated by the order in ver. 26 to use it for the altar fire.

CHAPTER 6:25-32 Verse 25. - The same night, etc. The iron was hot; it was time to strike. As regards what follows, there are two ways of understanding the verse. One, that of the A.V., supposes that only one bullock is spoken of, and that "the young bullock" belonging to Joash is further described as "even the second bullock of seven years old;" to which it is objected that a bullock of seven years old is not "a young bullock," "the bullock of an ox," as the Hebrew phrase is, and that there is no explanation of the meaning of "the second bullock;" and that the Hebrew manifestly describes two bullocks:

(1) Joash's young bullock, and

(2) the bullock of seven years old.

The other supposes two bullocks, and instead of has the more natural rendering and. The only objection to this, by far the most natural rendering, is that Gideon is not told what to do with the first bullock. But it is a simple explanation that the two bullocks were used in the laborious work of demolishing the altar of Baal, and removing the earth and the stone to build the altar of the Lord, and that when the work was finished one of the bullocks - the seven-year-old - was sacrificed. For the grove see Judges 3:7, note.

Verse 26. - This rock. Rather, the keep or stronghold of Ophrah, where also the high place was; just as the temple was in the stronghold of Zion, and the hold of the house of Baal-Berith at Shechem was in the citadel of the place (Judges 9:46). In the ordered place. The meaning of this phrase is uncertain. It may either be rendered as in the A.V., meaning on the levelled ground ordered and prepared for the building of the altar; or it may more probably be rendered with the arranged material, i.e. the stones which were laid in order at the bottom, and the wood which was laid in order upon the top of the altar (cf. Genesis 22:9). The material may either refer to that taken from the altar of Baal, which had been thrown down, and which was then ordered to be used in building the altar of the Lord, or to its own arranged material or superstructure, the wood of the asherah.

Verse 27. - Then, i.e. the next night. He would have done it the next day; but even his father's household, as well as the men of Ophrah generally, were so infected with the idolatry of the times, that he was afraid of being interrupted by violence.

Verse 28. - The grove. See ver. 25. The second bullock. There must be some special meaning in this description, the second. Can it refer to his place in the team, the young bullock being the leader, the first, and the seven-year-old the wheeler, the second?

Verse 29. - They said, Gideon hath, etc. No doubt one of the ten servants (ver. 27) employed by him had spoken about it.

Verse 31. - Stood against him. The words describe their hostile, menacing, attitude, clamouring to have Gideon brought out that they might kill him. Will ye plead, etc. The emphasis is on the ye. Joash met and silenced their pleading by threatening death to any that should plead for Baal. Baal shall plead for himself. Joash's courage was rising under the influence of his son s brave deed.

Verse 32. - Jerubbaal, i.e. Jarov Baal, let Baal plead. In Judges 7:1; Judges 8:29, 35; Judges 9:1, etc., Jerubbaal is used as the synonym of Gideon, just as in English history Coeur de Lion is used as a synonym for Richard. The name Jerubbaal appears as Jerubbesheth; besheth or bosheth, meaning shame, i.e. a shameful idol, being substituted for Baal, as in the name Ishbosheth, for Eshbaal (see 2 Samuel 2:8; 1 Chronicles 8:33).

CHAPTER 6:33-40

Verse 33. - The Midianites, etc. See ver. 3, note. The valley of Jezreel. Rather, the plain, "the great plain of Esdraelon," as the Book of Judith styles it (Judith 1:8; see Judges 4:13, note). The great plain of Jezreel, or Esdraelon (which is the Greek form of the name), through which the Kishon flows, is eight hours in length from east to west, and five hours (twelve miles) in breadth from north to south. It is described as "a very extensive and fertile plain shut in between the mountain ranges of Samaria and Mount Carmel on the south, and of Galilee on the north," and extending from the Mediterranean at the Gulf of Caipha, or Haipha, to the valley of the Jordan. The access to it from the fords of Jordan in the neighbourhood of Bethshan (or Beishan, called by the Greeks Scythopolis) made it the natural place for invasion by the wild tribes east of Jordan, as it is to this day. Particular parts of this great plain are called "the valley, of Megiddo" and "the plain of Samaria." For a full account of the plain of Esdraelon see Stanley, 'Sinai and Palestine,' ch. 9. Went over, i.e. crossed the Jordan. It appears from vers. 3-5 that these invasions were repeated at certain seasons. When they had plundered all they could get, and eaten up all the produce of the land, they would go back for a while to their own country east of Jordan, and then return again. So they did now, but they met with a different reception this time.

Verse 34. - The Spirit of the Lord, etc. See Judges 3:10; Judges 11:29; Judges 13:25; Judges 14:6, 19; cf. Isaiah 11:2; Isaiah 61:1; John 20:22; Acts 13:2; Acts 20:28; and 1 Corinthians 12:4. Abi-ezer. His own family (ver. 11; see Joshua 17:2). In Numbers 26:30 the name appears as Jeezer, by a very defective transliteration - Aiezer represents the Hebrew letters. The b has probably fallen out by accident. Here we have the immediate fruit of Gideon s daring in the cause of God. The whole family of Abi-ezer, numbering probably thousands, sprang to his side.

Verse 35. - He sent messengers, etc. Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali were the adjacent tribes - Manasseh (i.e. the half tribe of Manasseh, west of Jordan) on the south, Asher on the west, and Zebulun and Naphtali on the north. Three of these were the very tribes who had fought under Barak, and it is pleasing to see Asher now joined with them instead of abiding in his breaches. This ready compliance with the call was the consequence of the Spirit of the Lord being upon Gideon. Came up. No doubt Gideon was eneamped upon one of the southern hills that overlooked the plain, probably Gilboa, just as Barak was on Mount Tabor (see ch. 8:8-12). To meet them, i.e. Gideon and the Abi-ezrites.

Verse 36. - If thou wilt save, etc. There is something touching in Gideon's diffidence of himself, even now that he found himself at the head of a large force. The thought that he was "the least in his father's house" seems still to possess him, and he can hardly believe it possible that he is to save Israel. In his humility he craves a sign that he is indeed chosen and called.

Verses 37-40. - It is difficult to guess what led to this somewhat quaint sign which Gideon asked. Possibly the dews were usually heavy upon the hill of Gilead (Judges 7:3, note) where Gideon was encamped, as they seem to have been on Mount Gilboa (2 Samuel 1:21) and on Hermon (Psalm 133:3), and sheep-skins may have been a common protection against the cold nights, as in Afghanistan; and he may have noticed how often in the morning both the skin that covered him, and the ground around, was wet with the heavy dew. And this may have suggested the double test, by which his faith was, through God's condescending mercy, confirmed and established.