Judges 7:24

_AND GIDEON SENT MESSENGERS THROUGHOUT ALL MOUNT EPHRAIM, SAYING, COME DOWN AGAINST THE MIDIANITES, AND TAKE BEFORE THEM THE WATERS UNTO BETH-BARAH AND JORDAN. THEN ALL THE MEN OF EPHRAIM GATHERED THEMSELVES TOGETHER, AND TOOK THE WATERS UNTO BETH-BARAH AND JORDAN._ Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim. The Ephraimites lay on the south, and could render seasonable aid. A message, therefore, was sent to inform the people of that large district of the occurrences, and to rouse them to engage in helping forward the common cause of their country's deliverance. COME ... TAKE BEFORE THEM THE WATERS UNTO BETH-BARAH - (see the note at Judges 3:28.) These were the northern fords of the Jordan, to the eastnortheast of Wady Maleh. 'One of the main entrances into western Palestine from the Jordan has always been up the valley of Jezreel (now Zerin), at the foo

23-25 Two chief commanders of the host of Midian were taken and slain by the men of Ephraim. It were to be wished that we all did as these did, and that where help is needed, that it were willingly and readily performed by another. And that if there were any excellent and profitable matter begun, we were willing to have fellow-labourers to the finishing and perfecting the same, and not, as often, hinder one another....

Verse Judges 7:24. _TAKE BEFORE THEM THE WATERS UNTO BETH-BARAH_] This is probably the same place as that mentioned John 1:28, where the Hebrews forded Jordan under the direction of Joshua. To this place the Midianites directed their flight that they might escape into their own country; and here, being met by the Ephraimites, they appear to have been totally overthrown, and their two generals taken....

THE WATERS - The streams which run from the mountain district of Ephraim into the Jordan in the district of Beth-shan, forming great pools and marshes, which the Midianites fleeing south would have to cross before they could reach the Jordan fords. ALL THE MEN OF EPHRAIM - They had taken no previous part in the rising against Midian: nor had Gideon, of the smaller tribe of Manasseh, presumed before to summon his more powerful and arrogant brethren of the great tribe of Ephraim (see Joshua 17:14)....

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 GIDEON SENT MESSENGERS THROUGHOUT ALL MOUNT EPHRAIM,.... To raise the inhabitants of it, who lay nearer Jordan, to which the Midianites would make, in order to intercept them in their flight; or however get possession of the fords of Jordan before them, and hinder their passage over it: SAYING, COME DOWN AGAINST THE MIDIANITES; for though he had routed them, and they were fled before him, yet he had not men enough with him to destroy them; and besides, as they had their camels to ride on, and he and his men only on foot, they could not come up with them: AND TAKE BEFORE THEM THE WATERS UNTO BETHBARAH AND JORDAN; namely, all the fords and passages over Jordan, reaching from the lake of Gennesaret to Bethbarah, the same with Bethabara, John 1:28 which was a passage over Jordan; or these waters were, as Kimchi thinks, distinct from those of Jordan; and were

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

THE NIGHT ALARM AND ROUT. Gideon's stratagem consisted in the division of his small force into three companies, who charged the enemy from three sides at once, making an uproar and producing a panic. Judges 7:18. The battle-cry agreed upon was For Yahweh and for Gideon! When the actual conflict began, many or all prefixed to this A sword, suggested by the gleaming weapons they had unsheathed. The words express with splendid terseness a double loyalty, to God and a trusted leader; an ideal, Yahweh's victory and glory; and a means of attaining it, the sword. Judges 7:20. If each soldier carried a trumpet, a torch, an empty pitcher, and a sword, his hands were too full. There are awkward repetitions in the narrative (see...

MOUNT. hill country....

_The pursuit_ 23 _.out of Naphtali etc_.] The same tribes, with the addition of Zebulun, were summoned before the battle, Judges 6:35; they must have formed the bulk of the host dismissed in Judges 7:3. They returned to their homes; but now hearing of Midian's disaster, they assemble again, this time independently of Gideon, and pursue the enemy. Such must be the general sense intended by this verse, which, however, can hardly have belonged to the narrative originally....