Judges 8:20

_AND HE SAID UNTO JETHER HIS FIRSTBORN, UP, AND SLAY THEM. BUT THE YOUTH DREW NOT HIS SWORD: FOR HE FEARED, BECAUSE HE WAS YET A YOUTH._ He said unto Jether his first-born, Up, and slay them. The nearest of kin was the go'el - i:e., blood avenger; and Jether, though but little more than a boy, was the go'el of his kin, and as such the protector even of his aged father. He was his father's first-born; and that Gideon could not be a go'el is clear from Judges 4:15, where he says, "I am the least" - literally, the small one, or youngest, in my father's house. But a magistrate might order any one to do the work of the executioner; and the person selected was always of a rank equal or proportioned to that of the party doomed to suffer (1 Kings 2:29). Gideon intended, then, by the order to Jether as

18-21 The kings of Midian must be reckoned with. As they confessed themselves guilty of murder, Gideon acted as the avenger of blood, being the next of kin to the persons slain. Little did they think to have heard of this so long after; but murder seldom goes unpunished in this life. Sins long forgotten by man, must be accounted for to God. What poor consolation in death from the hope of suffering less pain, and of dying with less disgrace than some others! yet many are more anxious on these accounts, than concerning the future judgment, and what will follow....

Verse Judges 8:20. _HE SAID UNTO JETHER HIS FIRST-BORN_] By the ancient laws of war, prisoners taken in war might be either slain, sold, or kept for slaves. To put a captive enemy to death no _executioner_ was required. _Gideon_ slays Zebah and Zalmunna with his own hand. So _Samuel_ is said to have hewn Agag in pieces, 1 Samuel 15:33. _Benaiah_ slew Joab, 1 Kings 2:25. _Saul_ orders his guards to slay the priests who had contributed to the escape of David, 1 Samuel 22:17; and _David_ caused one of his attendants to slay the Amalekite who pretended to have slain Saul,...

It was Gideon’s place to act the part of the “avenger of blood” Numbers 35:12; Deuteronomy 19:6. The fierce manners of the age break out in the slaying of the captives (compare 1 Samuel 15:32), and in Gideon’s attempt to initiate his youthful son Jether in the stern work of slaying his country’s enemies....

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 HE SAID UNTO JETHER, HIS FIRSTBORN, UP, AND SLAY THEM,.... Being the near kinsman of his father's brethren, whom these kings had slain, was a proper person to avenge their blood on them; and the rather Gideon might order him to do it, for the greater mortification of the kings, to die by the hand of a youth; and for the honour of his son, to be the slayer of two kings, and to inure him to draw his sword against the enemies of Israel, and embolden him to do such exploits: BUT THE YOUTH DREW NOT HIS SWORD, FOR HE FEARED, BECAUSE HE WAS YET A YOUTH; his not drawing is sword was not out of disobedience to his father, but through fear of the kings; not of their doing him any harm, being bound; but there was perhaps a ferocity, as well as majesty in their countenances, which made the young man timorous and fearful....

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 ...

_Gideon Captures and Slays Midian's Kings Judges 8:1-28_ And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites? And they did chide with him sharply. 2 And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? 3 God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that. 4 And Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them. 5 And he said unto the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me; for they be faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian. 6 An