Judges 8:5

_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._ He said unto the men of Succoth - i:e., a place of tents or booths. The name seems to have been applied to the whole part of the Jordan valley on the west, as well as the east side of the river, all belonging to the tribe of Gad (cf. Genesis 33:17; 1 Kings 7:46, with Joshua 13:27). Being engaged in the common cause of all Israel, he had a right to expect support and encouragement from his countrymen everywhere....

4-12 Gideon's men were faint, yet pursuing; fatigued with what they had done, yet eager to do more against their enemies. It is many a time the true Christian's case, fainting, and yet pursuing. The world knows but little of the persevering and successful struggle the real believer maintains with his sinful heart. But he betakes himself to that Divine strength, in the faith of which he began his conflict, and by the supply of which alone he can finish it in triumph....

Verse Judges 8:5. _GIVE, I PRAY YOU, LOAVES OF BREAD_] As Gideon was engaged in the common cause of Israel, he had a right to expect succour from the people at large. His request to the men of Succoth and Penuel was both just and reasonable....

Succoth was in the tribe of Gad which was entirely trans-Jordanic Joshua 13:27; and the ruins are at Sukkot, on the east of Jordan, a little south of Bethshan. GIVE, I PRAY YOU ETC. - Gideon might fairly expect so much aid from the trans-Jordanic tribes, and from so considerable a town as Succoth Judges 8:14....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 8:4 CAME TO JORDAN. The narrative goes back to Judges 7:24, to follow up the personal history of Gideon, from which the writer had been diverted to relate the result of Gideon's message to the Ephraimites, which is told in Judges 7:24 and Judges 7:25, and Judges 8:1 (see Judges 7:25, note; Judges 2:1, note)....

AND HE SAID TO THE MEN OF SUCCOTH,.... The inhabitants of that place, the principal men of it, which lay in his way as he was pursuing the Midianites in their flight to their own country; for this was a city on the other side Jordan, and in the tribe of Gad and was inhabited by Israelites, Joshua 13:27 it had its name from the booths or tents which Jacob erected here, Genesis 33:17 GIVE, I PRAY YOU, LOAVES OF BREAD UNTO THE PEOPLE THAT FOLLOW ME; he did not desire them to leave their habitations and families, and join him in pursuing his and their enemies, or to furnish him and his men with arms; only to give them some provisions and that not dainties, but loaves of bread; or "morsels of bread" t, and broken pieces; and these he did not demand in an authoritative manner, as he might have

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

MEN. folk. Hebrew. _'enosh._ App-14....

_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 ...