Judges 6:15

_AND HE SAID UNTO HIM, OH MY LORD, WHEREWITH SHALL I SAVE ISRAEL? BEHOLD, MY FAMILY IS POOR IN MANASSEH, AND I AM THE LEAST IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

11-24 Gideon was a man of a brave, active spirit, yet in obscurity through the times: he is here stirred up to undertake something great. It was very sure that the Lord was with him, when his Angel was with him. Gideon was weak in faith, which made it hard to reconcile the assurances of the presence of God with the distress to which Israel was brought. The Angel answered his objections. He told him to appear and act as Israel's deliverer, there needed no more. Bishop Hall says, While God calls Gideon valiant, he makes him so. God delights to advance the humble. Gideon desires to have his faith confirmed. Now, under the influences of the Spirit, we are not to expect signs before our eyes such as Gideon here desired, but must earnestly pray to God, that if we have found grace in his sight, he would show us a sign in our heart, by the powerful working of his Spirit there, The Angel turned...

Verse Judges 6:15. _WHEREWITH SHALL I SAVE ISRAEL?_] I have neither men nor money. _BEHOLD, MY FAMILY IS POOR IN MANASSEH_] הנה אלפי הדל, _Behold, my_ _thousand is impoverished_. Tribes were anciently divided into _tens_, and _fifties_, and _hundreds_, and _thousands_; the _thousands_ therefore marked grand divisions, and consequently numerous families; Gideon here intimates that the families of which he made a part were very much diminished. But if we take אלפי _alpey_ for the _contracted form_ of the _plural_, which is frequently in Hebrew nouns joined with a _verb_ in the _singular_, then the translation will be, "The thousands in Manasseh are thinned;" i.e., this tribe is greatly reduced, and can do little against their enemies....

Gideon now perceived that the Lord was speaking to him by His angel. He saw, however, no qualifications in himself, or in his family or tribe, for the office of saviour to his people. He therefore desires some assurance that the message he had just received was indeed from God, and not a mere dream or delusion. He asks as a sign Judges 6:18 that his mysterious visitor should tarry under the oak until he should return to Him with his gifts and offerings....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 6:11 AN ANGEL, etc. Rather, the _angel of the Lord_,_ _otherwise called "the angel of his presence" (Isaiah 63:9). In Judges 6:14, Judges 6:16, Judges 6:23, for _the angel of the Lord _we have simply _the Lord _(see Judges 2:1, note). AN OAK. Rather _the oak_, or _terebinth_,_ _as it should be rendered. It was doubtless a well-known tree still standing in th

AND HE SAID UNTO HIM, OH MY LORD,.... Whether he had yet suspected who he was, or took him still for some eminent person, is not certain; it is very probable he began to think he was some extraordinary person sent of God, and speaking in his name, and therefore expostulates with him about the work he put him upon: WHEREWITH SHALL I SAVE ISRAEL? in what way is it possible for me to do it, who had neither men nor money sufficient for such an undertaking? BEHOLD, MY FAMILY IS POOR IN MANASSEH; of which tribe he was, and the "thousand" in it, as the word l here used signifies, was the meanest of all the thousands in that tribe; some render it, "my father" m: AND I AM THE LEAST IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE; perhaps the youngest son; though some take him, and others his father, to be the Chiliarch, or head of the thousand; but by these words of his it does not seem as if either was true; not but th...

4. FOURTH DECLENSION: UNDER MIDIAN AND GIDEON, TOLA AND JAIR CHAPTER 6 _ 1. Israel's suffering from Midian (Judges 6:1)_ 2. Their repentance and the divine answer (Judges 6:7) 3. Gideon, the deliverer, chosen (Judges 6:11) 4. The restored worship (Judges 6:25) 5. The gathering for the conflict (Judges 6:33) 6. The sign of the fleece (Judges 6:36) After Deborah and Barak the land had fifty years' rest, and when again they did

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_ (u

MY LORD*. This is one of the 134 places where the primitive text "Jehovah" has been altered to "Adonai" See App-32. BEHOLD. Figure of speech _Asterismos._ FAMILY. thousand (1 Samuel 10:19). POOR. the meanest....

_The call of Gideon_. Sequel of 2 6a 11. _the angel of the Lord_ i.e. Jehovah Himself in manifestation; see on Judges 2:1. Closely parallel are the appearances in Judges 13:3-23 and Genesis 18 J; the Angel or Messenger appears in human form, and in the end is recognized as Jehovah; cf. also Genesis 16:7-14 J, Genesis 32:24-30 J (cf. Hosea 12:4 f.), Exodus 3:2-6 E. Here