References (50)
[The theme of fear/dread permeates the entire story of Gideon. The fear reflected in this story is a normal human fear that can arise in the face of the unknown or when faced with a challenge. But it must be overcome.]
The angel of the Lord came to Ophrah [on the plain of Jezreel] and sat under the terebinth tree belonging to Joash of the Abiezrites. Gideon, his son, was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites (so that they would not see or get to it).
[A generally accepted view is that the angel of the Lord is Jesus pre-incarnate, i.e., Jesus appearing as a messenger of the Lord before taking human form. The city of Ophrah is mentioned in connection with the Jezreel Valley and Mount Tabor. It seems to have been exposed to attack in the middle of the plain and is often identified with today's Afula. Gideon means "one who cuts down," which is an appropriate name considering his first mission to tear down the altar of Baal and the Asherah pole, see .]
Gideon replied, "But, Lord (Adonai), if the Lord (Yahweh) is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracles our fathers told us about when they said how the Lord (Yahweh) brought us out of Egypt? Now the Lord (Yahweh) has forsaken us and given us into the hands of the Midianites."
And Gideon went in and prepared a kid and unleavened cakes from an ephah [standard measure for measuring dry goods – 22-36 liters] of flour, and he put the meat in a basket and the broth in a bowl, and brought it out to him under the terebinth tree and set it before him.
And Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord (Yahweh), and Gideon said, "Alas (oh no), Lord of lords (Adonai Yahweh), for I have seen the angel of the Lord (Yahweh) face to face."
And Gideon built an altar there to the Lord (Yahweh) and named it Yahweh-Shalom (the Lord is peace, health, prosperity, and all good things). To this day it still stands in Ophrah, the land of the Ezri.
And Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord (Yahweh) had spoken to him, and it came to pass that because of fear of his father's house and the men of the city, he could not do it by day, but did it by night.
And they said to one another, "Who has done this?" And when they investigated and inquired, they said, "Gideon, the son of Joash, has done this."
And on that day he was called Jerubbaal, and he said, "Let Baal fight (defend himself) against him, since he has broken down his altar."
But the Spirit of the Lord (Yahweh) clothed Gideon, and he blew a shofar, and the Aviezers gathered after (behind) him.
And Gideon said to God (Elohim), "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have said [promised],
And Gideon said to God (Elohim), "Do not let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak only once more. Let me test it, I beg you, but this time with the fleece. Let it be dry on the fleece and full of dew on the ground."
And Jerubbaal
[the name that Gideon's father gave him, see ], who is
Gideon, and all the people who were with him
[from Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, see ] rose early and camped at
Ein-Charod [meaning: "trembling spring" or "source of fear"]. The Midianites' camp was
[8 km] north of them at
[Mount] Givat-More in the valley
[Jezreel Valley].
[Camping at a spring was strategically advantageous. From Mount Gilboa, one can also see across the Jezreel Valley and the Midianite camp just under a mile northwest of them. The name of the spring, which comes from the verb for to fear, Hebr. , suggests that the name of the water also reflected the attitude of the troops. We do not know if Gideon still feared the Midianites, but from we understand that the majority of the troops did. The mountain is literally called "the mountain of the teacher." Several important events have taken place here: Saul visits a fortune teller (), Elisha raises a woman's son in Shunem (, ). It is also on the other side of the hill that Jesus raises a woman's son in Nain ().]And the Lord (Yahweh) said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are far too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel exalt themselves against me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.
And the Lord (Yahweh) said to Gideon, "The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. And it shall be that those of whom I say, 'They shall go with you,' shall go with you, and those of whom I say, 'They shall not go with you,' shall not go with you."
And he brought the people down to the water, and the Lord (Yahweh) said to Gideon, "Everyone who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who kneels down on his knees to drink."
And the Lord (Yahweh) said to Gideon, "With the 300 men who lapped, I will save (deliver) you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the people go, every man to his place."
And when Gideon came, behold, there was a man recounting his dream to his neighbor, saying, "Behold, I dreamed a dream, and a cake of barley bread rolled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it, and it fell and turned upside down so that the tent lay flat."
And his neighbor answered and said, "This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel; into his hand God (Elohim) has given Midian and all the army."
And it came to pass, when Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped and returned to the camp of Israel and said, "Arise, for the Lord (Yahweh) has given the army of Midian into our hand."
When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also shall blow the trumpets on every side of the entire camp and say, 'For the Lord (Yahweh) and for Gideon!
And Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch [the second watch – from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.] when they had just set out on guard duty (changed guards), and they blew the shofars and smashed the jars they had in their hands to pieces.
And the three groups blew their shofars and smashed the pots and held the torches in their left hands and in their right hands the shofars that they blew, and they cried out, "Sword to the Lord (Yahweh) and to Gideon!"
And Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim [which stretched from Bethel, north of Jerusalem, up to the plain of Jezreel—the area later called Samaria], saying, "Come down against Midian, and take the waters before them as far as Beit-Bara and even the Jordan." And all the men of Ephraim gathered together and took the waters as far as Beth-barah and even the Jordan.
And they took two of the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and they struck Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they struck in the winepress of Zeeb, and they pursued the Midianites. And they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.
And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and his 300 men who were with him, weak, but still pursuing [the Midianites].
And Gideon said, "Therefore, when the Lord (Yahweh) has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh (your bodies) with the thorns of the desert and with thistles (Hebr. barkanim)."
And Gideon went up along their way who dwell in tents [the route taken by caravans and nomads] east of Novach and Jogbeha and smote the army [by surprise], for the army was [believed to be] secure.
And Gideon, the son of Joash, returned from the battle from the ascent of Cheres.
And Zebah and Zalmunna said [to Gideon], "Get up and fall upon us—for as the man is, so is his strength." And Gideon got up and struck [killed] Zebah and Zalmunna and took the moon pendants from the necks of their camels. [The Hebrew word saharon means "small moons" and is the name of a neck ornament worn by men and women, but also by decorated camels (; ). Presumably, there was gold in the adornments worn by their camels. Verses 25-26 mention that the camels' necklaces were made of gold.]
And the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us, you and your son and your sons' sons, for you have saved us from the hand of the Midianites."
And Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, nor shall my sons rule over you; the Lord (Yahweh) shall rule over you."
And Gideon said to them, "I have a request to make of you, that each of you give me an earring from his spoil." For they had earrings of gold, because they were Ishmaelites [a people related to the Midianites, see ].
And Gideon made an ephod [perhaps an image of a high priest; to determine God's will, see ] out of it and placed it in his city, in Ophrah, and all Israel went after it (literally: prostituted themselves with it), and it became a snare to Gideon and to his house.
So Midian was subdued (they were forced to bow their knees—Hebr. kana) before the sons of Israel, and they no longer lifted up their heads. And the land had rest for 40 years in the days of Gideon.
And Jerubbaal [another name for Gideon; ], the son of Joash, went and lived in his own house.
And Gideon had 70 sons who had gone out (been born) from his lands, for he had many wives.
And Gideon, the son of Joash, died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash, his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and served Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god (elohim). [Baal-berith means 'Baal of the covenant', cf. El-berith 'God of the covenant' in .]
And they showed no mercy (loving kindness – Hebr. chesed) to the house of Jerubbaal, Gideon, after all the good he had done for Israel.
And Avimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, went to Shechem to his mother's brothers and spoke with them and with all the family of his grandfather's house. He said:
"Please speak in the ears of all the men of Shechem: What is better for you, that all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are seventy men, rule over you, or that one man rule over you? Remember that I am your bone and your flesh."
And he went to his father's house in Ophrah and struck his brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, 70 men, on a stone, but Jotham, Jerubbaal's youngest son, was gone because he had hidden himself.
And know that if you have acted in truth and sincerity in making Avimelech king, and if you have done good to Jerubbaal [Gideon] and his house, and have done to him according to what his hands deserve,
if you have acted in truth and sincerity toward Jerubbaal and toward his house today, then rejoice in Avimelech, and let him also rejoice in you.
so that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal came upon them, and their blood was laid on Avimelech, their brother who killed them, and on the men of Shechem who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.
And Gaal, the son of Ebed, said, "Who is Avimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal? And Zebul his commander? You may serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem, but why should we serve him?
and all the evil of the men of Shechem, God (Elohim) repaid upon their heads, and brought upon them the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal.
Then the Lord (Yahweh) sent Jerubbaal [Gideon, see ] and Bedan [probably another name for Barak, see ] and Jephthah [] and Samuel [he mentions himself as the last judge; some Greek manuscripts of the Septuagint and the Syriac translation write Samson, see ] and delivered you from the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety.
Who struck down Abimelech [], the son of Jerubbesheth [Gideon]? [Abimelech was Gideon's son, see . Gideon was also called Jerubbaal, see , here in a different spelling where the idol Baal is replaced with boshet, which means shame, see also Eshbaal/Ishbosheth (; ). Jerubesheth literally means 'shame shall contend'.] Was it not a woman who threw the upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died in Tabeeth? [Today the city of Tubas, 15 km northeast of Shechem, see ] Why did you go so close to the wall? Then you shall say, 'Your servant Orija the Hittite is also dead.'"
What more shall I say?
I would not have time to tell about
Gideon [who won victory with a small army of 300 men, see ],
Barak [who obeyed the prophetic words of the judge Deborah. Together they defeated the enemy, see ],
Samson [who finally understood that his strength did not come from himself, see ],
Jephthah (Jiftach) [born out of wedlock, driven away by his brothers, but allowed to join in defeating the Ammonites and became a judge, see ],
David [Israel's most famous king, see ; ],
Samuel [Israel's great prophet, see ]
and the prophets,
