Judges 7

Then Jerubbaal, who is also called Gideon, and all the men with him got up early and camped beside the spring of Harod. The camp of the Midianite army was north of them, in the valley near the hill of Moreh.

1Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.

Note"Jerubbaal" is a second name given to Gideon earlier in the story (Judges 6:32). It was explained there as meaning something like "let Baal contend against him," after Gideon tore down an altar of the god Baal. The narrator uses both names for the same man. "Harod" comes from a Hebrew root meaning trembling or shaking, the same word used two verses later of the frightened soldiers who are sent home. The spring and the hill of Moreh lie in the broad Jezreel valley in northern Israel.

2The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men with you for me to hand Midian over to them. If I did, Israel might boast against me and say, 'My own strength saved me.'

2And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.

3So now announce this so all the men can hear it: 'Anyone who is afraid and shaking may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.'" So twenty-two thousand of the men went back home, and ten thousand stayed.

3Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

NoteMount Gilead is puzzling here: Gilead is normally the highland region east of the Jordan River, while this battle is being fought west of it. Some take it as the name of a local hill not otherwise recorded, some as a scribal slip; the Hebrew is simply what it is, and the difficulty is left standing. The Hebrew for "afraid and shaking" echoes the name of the spring of Harod in verse 1.

4Then the LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sort them out for you there. If I tell you, 'This one will go with you,' he will go. And if I tell you, 'This one will not go with you,' he will not go."

4And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.

5So Gideon brought the men down to the water, and the LORD said to him, "Put by himself every man who laps up the water with his tongue the way a dog laps, and do the same with every man who kneels down to drink."

5So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.

NoteThe Hebrew of this verse is compressed and difficult, and the two ancient groups are hard to distinguish precisely. More importantly, the story never says why one way of drinking was better than the other, or which group was the better soldiers. The test is simply a way of cutting the number down; no reason is given.

6Three hundred men lapped the water, lifting it to their mouths with their hands. All the rest of the men knelt down to drink.

6And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.

7Then the LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men who lapped the water I will save you and hand the Midianites over to you. Let all the other men go home."

7And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.

8So the three hundred men took the supplies and the horns, and Gideon sent all the other Israelites home to their tents and kept those three hundred men. The Midianite camp lay below him in the valley.

8So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

NoteThe "trumpets" are shofars, rams' horns. They were signaling instruments, not musical ones: a horn blast summoned troops, gave orders in battle, or raised an alarm. A single horn normally stood for a whole unit of men, which is why three hundred of them blowing at once could sound like a vast army.

9That same night the LORD said to Gideon, "Get up and go down against the camp, because I have handed it over to you.

9And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand.

10But if you are afraid to go down, take your servant Purah with you down to the camp,

10But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host:

11and listen to what they are saying. After that you will have the courage to go down and attack the camp." So Gideon went down with his servant Purah to the edge of the camp, where the armed men were posted.

11And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host.

12The Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the other peoples from the east were spread out in the valley, as many as a swarm of locusts. Their camels could not be counted; there were as many as the grains of sand on the seashore.

12And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.

NoteThe Amalekites were a nomadic people of the southern desert, long-standing enemies of Israel; "the peoples from the east" is a general term for tribes from the desert beyond the Jordan. The King James "grasshoppers" means locusts, not harmless insects but the swarming kind that strip a country's crops bare, which is exactly what these raiders had been doing to Israel's harvests. Camels in this period were the animals of desert raiders, giving them the speed to strike farmland and vanish.

13When Gideon arrived, a man was telling a friend about a dream. He said, "Listen, I had a dream. A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent so hard that the tent turned over and collapsed flat."

13And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.

NoteBarley was the cheap grain, grown by settled farmers and eaten by the poor; wheat was the better bread. A tumbling loaf of the farmers' bread flattening a nomad's tent would have been an obvious picture of Israelite peasants overturning the camel-riding raiders, which is why the second man reads the dream as he does.

14His friend answered, "This can only mean the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has handed Midian and the whole army over to him."

14And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.

15When Gideon heard the dream and what it meant, he bowed down and worshiped. Then he went back to the camp of Israel and said, "Get up! The LORD has handed the Midianite army over to you."

15And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.

Note"He bowed down and worshiped" translates a Hebrew verb that means physically prostrating oneself, lying face down on the ground. It describes the posture, not a state of mind.

16He divided the three hundred men into three groups. He gave every man a horn to blow and an empty clay jar, with a torch inside the jar.

16And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.

NoteThe jars are large pottery water jars. A burning torch sealed inside one gives off no light, so three hundred men could get into position in the dark unseen; smashing the jars all at once made three hundred fires appear from nowhere. Since each man now held a torch in one hand and a horn in the other, no one had a hand free for a weapon.

17He said to them, "Watch me and do the same thing I do. When I get to the edge of the enemy camp, do exactly what I do.

17And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do.

18When I and everyone with me blow our horns, then you blow your horns too, all around the camp, and shout, 'For the LORD and for Gideon!'"

18When 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, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.

NoteIn this verse the Hebrew shout is simply "For the LORD and for Gideon"; in verse 20, when they actually shout it, the word "sword" is there. The slight difference between the two is in the original text and has been kept.

19Gideon and the hundred men with him came to the edge of the camp at the start of the middle watch of the night, just after the guards had been changed. They blew their horns and smashed the jars they were holding.

19So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.

NoteThe night was divided into three watches, each about four hours, with a fresh set of sentries taking over at each change. The middle watch ran roughly from ten at night to two in the morning. Attacking just after the changeover meant the new guards had barely settled and everyone else was deeply asleep.

20All three groups blew their horns and smashed their jars. They held the torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands to blow them, and they shouted, "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!"

20And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.

21Each man stood in his own place all around the camp, and the whole enemy army ran, shouting as they fled.

21And they stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.

22When the three hundred blew their horns, the LORD made every man in the camp turn his sword against the man next to him, all through the army. The army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, to the edge of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.

22And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath.

NoteThese are places running east and south-east, down the valley toward the Jordan River, the direction of the raiders' escape route home.

23Then the men of Israel were called out from the tribes of Naphtali and Asher and all of Manasseh, and they chased after the Midianites.

23And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites.

NoteNaphtali, Asher and Manasseh were the Israelite tribes whose territory lay in and around this northern valley; they were the men closest to hand and the ones the raiders had been plundering.

24Gideon sent messengers all through the hill country of Ephraim, saying, "Come down and fight the Midianites. Take control of the water crossings ahead of them, as far as Beth-barah at the Jordan River." So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they took the crossings as far as Beth-barah at the Jordan.

24And Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan.

NoteThe Jordan could only be crossed on foot at certain shallow places, called fords. Seizing them ahead of the fleeing army (Ephraim's hill country lay to the south, between the Midianites and the river) meant the raiders arrived at the water with no way over and nowhere to go.

25They captured Oreb and Zeeb, the two leaders of Midian. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they kept chasing the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.

25And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan.

NoteThe names Oreb and Zeeb mean "raven" and "wolf." The rock and the winepress were later named after the men killed there, which is the narrator's way of noting that these places still carried the names in his own day. A winepress was a basin cut into rock where grapes were trodden. Carrying an enemy commander's head back was standard proof that he was genuinely dead. "The other side of the Jordan" here means the eastern side, where Gideon had already crossed in pursuit.