Judges 6:11-24

Judges 6:11. On the angel of Yahweh see Judges 2:1; Genesis 16:7 *. For oak read terebinth. While the primitive Semites were animists, the Israelites came to associate Yahweh's own presence with sacred trees (p. 100, Genesis 18:1).

Judges 6:12. With the assurance Yahweh is with thee cf. the faith grandly expressed in the name Immanuel, God is with us (Isaiah 7:14). On hearing the words Yahweh is with thee, Gideon replies, Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us (used five times in Judges 6:13). He cannot detach himself from the community. He becomes heroic because he has a public soul.

Judges 6:14. Looked upon him is better than turned towards him. Thus far Yahweh's angel is to Gideon a Traveller Unknown, though His glance is so searching. His tones so commanding. He has more faith in Gideon than Gideon in himself. Go in this thy might is an injunction to a hero to realise himself. He is to go in the strength of his manhood with all his physical and moral force, native and acquired.

Judges 6:15. Gideon has that humility which is praiseworthy if it remembers, blameworthy if it forgets, the Great Companion. He keenly feels his insufficiency, till Yahweh, at once rebuking and reassuring him, promises, Surely I will be with thee (cf. Exodus 3:13; 2 Corinthians 3:5).

Judges 6:17. Gideon prepares a meal, which to his astonishment becomes a sacrifice. When the stranger touches the food with the tip of his staff, a supernatural fire leaps from the rock, and consumes the food. Realising at length that he has seen Yahweh's angel face to face, Gideon fears death (cf. Judges 13:22). [The rock may have had one or more cup-holes on the surface, into which the broth would be poured. Many examples have been discovered in Palestine of rocks in which cup-like holes had been carved, some of them of considerable size. They date back in many instances to the pre-Semitic cave-dwellers of the Neolithic period. An easily accessible account is given in Handcock's The Archaeology of the Holy Land. A. S. P.]

Judges 6:21. The departure of Yahweh's angel is mentioned too soon, for he still speaks in Judges 6:23. The words have probably been misplaced from the end of Judges 6:23.