God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and what was I able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger was abated towards him when he said that.'

Note the double repetition of ‘in comparison with you'. Like his father he was a diplomat and by it he pacified the prickly Ephraimites. Contrast the way in which the more abrasive Jephthah dealt with them (Judges 12:2). But we can see from this why God had been afraid that Israel would vaunt themselves (Judges 7:2) if they won the battle in any other way. The use of ‘God' rather than Yahweh draws attention to their wrong attitude. They were out for their own glory and not the glory of Yahweh.

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