Judges 6:34

_BUT THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CAME UPON GIDEON, AND HE BLEW A TRUMPET; AND ABI-EZER WAS GATHERED AFTER HIM._ The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. Called in this sudden emergency into the public service of his country, he was supernaturally endowed with wisdom and energy commensurate with the magnitude of the danger and the difficulties of his position. His war summons was enthusiastically obeyed by all the neighbouring tribes. On the eve of a perilous enterprise he sought to fortify his mind with a fresh assurance of a divine call to the responsible office. The miracle of the fleece was a very remarkable one, especially considering the copious dews that fall in his country. The divine patience and condescension were wonderfully manifested in reversing the form of the miracle. Gideon himself seems to have been conscious of incurring the displeasure of God by his hesitancy and doubts; b...

33-40 These signs are truly miraculous, and very significant. Gideon and his men were going to fight the Midianites; could God distinguish between a small fleece of Israel, and the vast floor of Midian? Gideon is made to know that God could do so. Is Gideon desirous that the dew of Divine grace might come down upon himself in particular? He sees the fleece wet with dew to assure him of it. Does he desire that God will be as the dew to all Israel? Behold, all the ground is wet. What cause we sinners of the Gentiles have, to bless the Lord that the dew of heavenly blessings, once confined to Israel, is now sent to all the inhabitants of the earth! Yet still the means of grace are in different measures, according to the purposes of God. In the same congregation, one man's soul is like Gideon's moistened fleece, another like the dry ground....

Verse Judges 6:34. _THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CAME UPON GIDEON_] He was endued with preternatural courage and wisdom....

THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CAME UPON GIDEON - See the margin. The word contains a striking thought. It is different from that used in the case of Othniel Judges 3:10, Jephthah Judges 11:29, and Samson Judges 13:25; Judges 14:6, Judges 14:19....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 6:33 THE MIDIANITES, etc. See Judges 6:3, note. THE VALLEY OF JEZREEL. Rather, _the_ _plain_,_ _"the great plain of Esdraelon," as the Book of Judith styles it (Judith 1:8; see Judges 4:13, note). The great plain of Jezreel, or Esdraelon (which is the Greek form of the name), through which the Kishon flows, is eight hours in length from east to west, and five hours (twelve miles) in breadth from north to south. It is described as "a very extensive and fertile plain shut in between the mountain ranges of Samaria and Mount Carmel on the south, and of Galilee on the north," and extending from the Mediterranean at the Gulf of C

BUT THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CAME UPON GIDEON,.... Not the spirit of prophecy, as Maimonides x, who calls this spirit the first degree of prophecy, but a spirit of fortitude and courage, as the Targum; the Spirit of God filled him, or, as in the Hebrew text, "clothed" y him with zeal, strength, and might, moved and animated him to engage with this great body of people come into the land, to ravage and waste it, and to attempt the deliverance of Israel from their bondage: AND HE BLEW A TRUMPET; as an alarm of war, and as a token to as many as heard to resort to him, and join with him in the common cause against the enemy: AND ABIEZER WAS GATHERED AFTER HIM; the Abiezrites, one of the families of the tribe of Manasseh, of which Gideon and his father's house were; and even it is probable the inhabitants of Ophrah, who were Abiezrites, being now convinced of their idolatry, and having entert...

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

THE MIDIANITE RAID, AND THE SIGN OF THE FLEECE. The broad and deep Vale of Jezreel, lying between Gilboa and Moreh, leads up from Jordan to the Great Plain. Judges 6:34. Gideon now felt the Divine impulse the spirit of Yahweh came upon him, lit clothed itself with him, put him on like a garment, possessed him, inspired him. He then blew his trumpet to awaken others. It was his own Abiezer clansmen who answered his call, and they apparently became his famous three hundred. Judges 6:36. The sign of the fleece is probably the record of a dream. Gideon had often seen the heavy dew fall on a summer night upon the hills of Manasseh, and his perceptions wove themselves into mysterious visions, in which he seemed to have power to bend the Divine will to his own. He thus became more than ever co

SPIRIT. Hebrew. _ruach._ See App-9. CAME UPON. clothed (1 Chronicles 12:18; 2 Chronicles 24:20). Hebrew. _labash,_ to put on so as to fill. GATHERED: gathered by proclamation....

_The Midianite invasion; the sign of the fleece_ 33 _.Then all the Midianites … assembled themselves_ Better, _Now all the M.… had assembled themselves_. This verse may be connected with Judges 6:7_; Judges 6:25_; it prepares the way for the account of the battle in ch. 7 For _the Amalekites_etc. see on Judges 6:3. _the valley of Jezreel_ Joshua 17:16; Hosea 1:5; not the Great Plain west of Jezreel, but the broad, deep valley which descends eastwards from Jezreel down to the Jordan. It was not till after OT. times that the Great Plain was