Judges 7:14

_AND HIS FELLOW ANSWERED AND SAID, THIS IS NOTHING ELSE SAVE THE SWORD OF GIDEON THE SON OF JOASH, A MAN OF ISRAEL: FOR INTO HIS HAND HATH GOD DELIVERED MIDIAN, AND ALL THE HOST._ Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel, х_ 'IYSH_ (H376)] - a mighty or distinguished man of Israel....

9-15 The dream seemed to have little meaning in it; but the interpretation evidently proved the whole to be from the Lord, and discovered that the name of Gideon had filled the Midianites with terror. Gideon took this as a sure pledge of success; without delay he worshipped and praised God, and returned with confidence to his three hundred men. Wherever we are, we may speak to God, and worship him. God must have the praise of that which encourages our faith. And his providence must be acknowledged in events, though small and seemingly accidental....

Verse Judges 7:14. _INTO HIS HAND HATH GOD DELIVERED MIDIAN_] This is a full proof that God had inspired both the dream and its interpretation....

THIS IS NOTHING ELSE SAVE THE SWORD OF GIDEON - The word rendered tumbled in Judges 7:13, is rather descriptive of a sword brandished (compare Genesis 3:24). Hence, the interpretation “the sword of Gideon.” Hearing this dream and the interpretation would convince Gideon that he was indeed under the guidance of God, and so assure him of God’s aid; and secondly, it would show him that a panic had already fallen npon the mind of the enemy....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 7:9 GET THEE DOWN, etc; _i.e_. attack the camp at once with thy 300 men. But if thou art afraid to do so, go down first alone with Phurah thy servant, and hear what they are saying in the camp. JUDGES 7:11 THE ARMED MEN. The exact meaning of the word here rendered _armed men _(_chamushim_),_ _and which occurs Exodus 13:18; Joshua 1:14; Joshua 4:12, is a little uncertain, but it is generally thought to be synonymous with another

AND HIS FELLOW ANSWERED AND SAID,.... As the dream was no doubt from God, so the interpretation of it was; it was he that put into the mind of the soldier's comrade to whom he told it to interpret it as follows; or otherwise in all likelihood he would never have thought of it: THIS IS NOTHING ELSE SAVE THE SWORD OF GIDEON, THE SON OF JOASH, A MAN OF ISRAEL; that is, this signifies nothing else, and a fit emblem it was of him and his little army. A cake is but a small thing, and, let it come tumbling as it will, can have no force or strength in it equal to overturn a tent; and a cake of barley is mean and contemptible; and a cake baked under ashes, or on coals, is what is soon and hastily done, and fitly represented the smallness and weakness of Gideon's army, their meanness and contemptibleness; the Israelites being, as Josephus e represents the soldier saying, the vilest of all the peo...

CHAPTER 7 THE VICTORY OF GIDEON _ 1. The sifting of Gideon's army (Judges 7:1)_ 2. The dream of the Midianite (Judges 7:9) 3. Victory through weakness (Judges 7:16) Gideon “the cutter down,” now also called Jerubbaal “the contender with Baal,” after his faith had been strengthened, pitched his camp at the well of Harod (trembling). The Lord did not need the large army he had gathered, lest Israel would say: “Mine own hand hath saved me.” First 22,000 were let go. They were afraid. What an evidence of the sad conditions among the people. Jehovah had commanded through Moses this test. “And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and faint he

GIDEON'S VISIT TO THE MIDFANITE CAMP. The heroic leader was next encouraged, not by a dream of his own, but by one which he heard told at night in the camp of the enemy. The significant features of the dream are the tent, the symbol of the Midianite nomads, and the cake of barley bread, the symbol of the Israelite peasants. As the little barley cake overturns the huge tent, so Israel is to defeat the host of Midian. Judges 7:14. Read This is nothing but the men of Israel, the words Gideon the son of Joash being probably a later insertion. It is not Gideon, but Gideon's little band of gallant yeomen (Judges 7:15_ b_), that corresponds to the dreamer's cake....

GOD. _ha-'Elohim_ here (= the God), because in connection with Midianites, His creatures. Not Jehovah, App-4....

_Gideon visits the Midianite camp_ 9 _.the same night_ Probably the night of the day which began in Judges 7:1. _get thee down_ Here and in Judges 7:11 a AGAINST _the camp_, to attack it; in Judges 7:10 _unto the camp_, to visit it....