Judges 6:1-27

Gideon

1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.

3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country.

4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.

5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.

6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.

7 When the Israelites cried out to the LORD because of Midian,

8 he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land.

10 I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.

12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

14 The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

16 The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.

18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” And the LORD said, “I will wait until you return.”

19 Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah^[a] of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.

20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so.

21 Then the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared.

22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!”

23 But the LORD said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

24 So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

25 That same night the LORD said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old.^[b] Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole^[c] beside it.

26 Then build a proper kind of^[d] altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second^[e] bull as a burnt offering.”

27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

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Judges 6:1-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 6

In this chapter we have an account of the distressed condition Israel was in through the Midianites, Jud 6:1-6, of a prophet being sent unto them to reprieve them for their sins, Jud 6:7-10 of an angel appearing to Gideon, with an order to him to go and save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites, Jud 6:11-16 and of a sign given him by the angel, whereby he knew this order was of God, Jud 6:17-24, 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, Jud 6:25-32, and of the preparation he made to fight the Midianites and others, Jud 6:33-35, but first desired a sign of the Lord, that Israel would be saved by his hand, which was granted and repeated, Jud 6:36-40.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

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Cross References 52

1. S Judges 2:11
2. S Genesis 25:2; Numbers 25:15-18; Numbers 31:1-3
3. 1 Samuel 13:6; Isaiah 5:30; Isaiah 8:21; Isaiah 26:16; Isaiah 37:3
4. Isaiah 2:19; Jeremiah 48:28; Jeremiah 49:8,30
5. Job 24:8; Jeremiah 41:9; Hebrews 11:38
6. Numbers 13:29; Judges 3:13
7. S Genesis 25:6; Isaiah 11:14; Jeremiah 49:28
8. Leviticus 26:16; Deuteronomy 28:30,51; Isaiah 10:6; Isaiah 39:6; Isaiah 42:22
9. S Genesis 10:19
10. S Deuteronomy 28:42; Judges 7:12
11. Judges 8:10; Isaiah 21:7; Isaiah 60:6; Jeremiah 49:32
12. S Judges 3:9
13. S Judges 3:9
14. Deuteronomy 18:15; 1 Kings 20:13,22; 2 Kings 17:13,23; Nehemiah 9:29; Job 36:10; Jeremiah 25:5; Ezekiel 18:30-31
15. S Judges 2:1
16. Joshua 24:17
17. S Numbers 10:9; Psalms 136:24
18. Psalms 44:2
19. S Exodus 20:5; 2 Kings 17:35
20. S Joshua 24:15; Jeremiah 10:2
21. S Genesis 16:7
22. S Joshua 18:23
23. ver 29; Judges 7:14; Judges 8:13,29
24. S Numbers 26:30; Joshua 17:2
25. Judges 7:1; Judges 8:1; Hebrews 11:32
26. Ruth 2:17; Ruth 3:2; 1 Samuel 23:1; 1 Chronicles 21:20
27. Nehemiah 13:15; Isaiah 16:10; Isaiah 63:3; Lamentations 1:15; Joel 3:13
28. S Joshua 1:5; Ruth 2:4; 1 Samuel 10:7; Psalms 129:8; Judges 13:3; Luke 1:11,28
29. Judges 11:1
30. S Joshua 3:5
31. 2 Samuel 7:22; Psalms 44:1; Psalms 78:3
32. S Deuteronomy 31:17; 2 Chronicles 15:2
33. Hebrews 11:34
34. ver 36; Judges 10:1; 2 Kings 14:27
35. Isaiah 60:22
36. Exodus 3:11; 1 Samuel 9:21
37. Exodus 3:12; S Numbers 14:43; Joshua 1:5
38. ver 36-37; S Genesis 24:14; S Exodus 3:12; S Exodus 4:8; Isaiah 38:7-8
39. Judges 13:15
40. S Leviticus 19:36
41. Genesis 18:7-8
42. Judges 13:19
43. S Exodus 4:2
44. S Leviticus 9:24
45. Judges 13:16,21
46. Genesis 32:30; Exodus 33:20; Judges 13:22
47. Daniel 10:19
48. S Genesis 16:13; S Deuteronomy 5:26
49. S Genesis 22:14
50. S Joshua 18:23; Judges 8:32
51. ver 26,28,30; Exodus 34:13; S Judges 2:13; Deuteronomy 7:5
52. S Genesis 8:20

Footnotes 5

[a]. That is, probably about 36 pounds or about 16 kilograms
[b]. Or "Take a full-grown, mature bull from your father’s herd"
[c]. That is, a wooden symbol of the goddess Asherah; also in verses 26, 28 and 30
[d]. Or "build with layers of stone an"
[e]. Or "full-grown" ; also in verse 28