Judges 8:13

_AND GIDEON THE SON OF JOASH RETURNED FROM BATTLE BEFORE THE SUN WAS UP,_ Gideon ... returned from battle before the sun was up. He seems to have returned by a nearer route to Succoth; because what is rendered in our version "before the sun was up," means 'the heights of Heres, the sunhills.'...

13-17 The active servants of the Lord meet with more dangerous opposition from false professors than from open enemies; but they must not care for the behaviour of those who are Israelites in name, but Midianites in heart. They must pursue the enemies of their souls, and of the cause of God, though they are ready to faint through inward conflicts and outward hardships. And they shall be enabled to persevere. The less men help, and the more they seek to hinder, the more will the Lord assist. Gideon's warning being slighted, the punishment was just. Many are taught with the briers and thorns of affliction, who would not learn otherwise....

Verse Judges 8:13. _RETURNED FROM BATTLE BEFORE THE SUN_ WAS UP] This does not appear to be a proper translation of מלמעלה החרס _milmaaleh_ _hechares_. It should be rendered _from the ascent of Chares_: this is the reading of the _Septuagint_, the _Syriac_, and the _Arabic_....

BEFORE THE SUN WAS UP - The translation of the words is doubtful, because of the rarity of the word rendered “sun” (חרס _cheres_). Many suppose it to be the name of a mountain pass, and render it from the ascent of Heres....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 8:13 BEFORE THE SUN WAS UP. There is a wonderful diversity in the renderings of this verse. Some of the old versions and Jewish Rabbis interpret it _before sunset. _Many of the best Jewish commentators, however, understand the phrase as the A.V. does—"Before the going up of the sun," _i.e._ before sunrise; supposing Gideon's attack on the Midianitish camp to have been a night attack, and Succoth to have been so near to Karkor that he was able to reach it by sunrise. But others say that the word here rendered _sun_ (_heres_)_ _is only used in poetry, and that the word rendered _up_ is never used of sunrise, but, as, in the phrase "the going up of Akrabbim" (Judges 1:36), of an ascent up a hill. They th

AND GIDEON THE SON OF JOASH RETURNED FROM BATTLE,.... To Penuel and Succoth, to chastise them for their ill treatment of him and his men: BEFORE THE SUN WAS UP; by which it appears that it was in the night that he fell upon the host at Karkor, which must be the night following; it could not be the same night in which he had defeated them in the valley of Jezreel; though Vatablus thinks this battle was begun and finished in one night; but there were, according to this history, so many things done after the first defeat, as sending messengers to Mount Ephraim and the Ephraimites, upon the taking the fords of Jordan, and bringing the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, expostulating with him, and his answer to them, and his stay at Succoth and Penuel; which make it more probable that the day following was spent in the pursuit, and that it was the night after that that the whole affair was fi...

CHAPTER 8 INTERNAL STRIFE, GIDEON'S FAILURE AND END _ 1. The strife (Judges 8:1)_ 2. The complete deliverance (Judges 8:10) 3. Gideon's failure and end (Judges 8:22) 4. Israel's failure after Gideon (Judges 8:33) Internal strife follows. The two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, were slain (Judges 7:25). Oreb means “raven” and Zeeb means “wolf.” Oreb, the raven, is slain on the rock and Zeeb, the wolf, at the winepress. The raven, the bird which represents darkness and evil, is the type of corruption; the wolf is the destroyer o

THE PURSUIT ON THE EAST OF JORDAN. This section is not continuous with the preceding one. The men of Israel, who were gathered together after the battle (Judges 7:23), and the Ephraimites, who were so eager to prove what they could do, are heard of no more. Gideon is again alone with his 300 (Judges 8:4); the men of Succoth and Penuel, ignorant of any battle or rout, think his campaign against the Midianites a hopeless affair; and when he at length reaches the enemy he finds them secure, apparently having neither been, nor expecting to be, disturbed (11). Plainly we have here a different tradition. Judges 8:4. For faint and (not - yet-') pursuing the LXX has faint and hungry, which suits the next verse, where there is a request

_The pursuit on the east of Jordan_ This section is clearly not the continuation of the verses which immediately precede (see p. 68); if its antecedents are to be found in the foregoing narrative at all, we may suppose that after the panic and flight described in Judges 7:16-22, the main body of the Midianites escaped across the Jordan, and with their camels (Judges 8:21_; Judges 8:26_) easily outstripped their pursuers, insomuch that the men of Succoth and Penuel (Judges 8:6_; Judges 8:8_), and they themselves ...

BEFORE THE SUN WAS UP— Very different and contrary interpretations are given of this passage. Houbigant supposes, that החרס _hechares_ does not signify _the sun_ here, but is the proper name of a place; and accordingly he renders it _by that place which is above_ Hares; and in this interpretation he is countenanced by the LXX, Syriac, and Arabic versions....