Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Judges · About this commentary
The Sword of Yahweh and of Gideon
Judges 7:9-25
9 That same night, Yahweh said to him, “Arise, go down into the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. · WEB
God sends the frightened commander to eavesdrop on the enemy's own dream, and the battle is won with trumpets, jars and torches.
"Arise, go down into the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant" Judges 7:9–10.
The concession is offered before the fear is voiced. God does not ask whether Gideon is afraid; he assumes it, and provides a companion — the same accommodation Moses received in Aaron Exodus 4:14–16 and Barak in Deborah Judges 4:9. The purpose is stated plainly: afterward your hands will be strengthened Judges 7:11.
"Behold, I dreamed a dream; and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian... and turned it upside down" Judges 7:13.
What Gideon overhears is a Midianite telling a dream, and the image is an insult that has become a terror. Barley was the poor man's grain, and a single loaf rolling downhill is a ridiculous weapon — which is exactly the scale of the force on the hill above. The enemy has correctly assessed the situation and drawn the opposite conclusion from the one the arithmetic suggests.
"This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has delivered Midian into his hand" Judges 7:14.
The interpretation comes from a Midianite soldier, and he names Gideon, names his father, and credits God. So the reassurance Gideon needed was already circulating in the enemy camp: they were beaten before the trumpets sounded, and they knew it. God's answer to a nervous commander is to let him hear his opponents' morale.
When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped Judges 7:15.
His response is not relief but worship, and it is the turning point in the man. From here he gives orders without asking for further signs.
He put into the hands of all of them trumpets and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers Judges 7:16.
The tactics are sound and the weapons are not weapons. Three hundred men ringing a valley at the change of the middle watch, each with a horn and a covered light: at the signal, three hundred trumpets sound at once, three hundred jars smash, and three hundred flames appear on all sides simultaneously. To a sleeping camp the noise and the lights mean three hundred companies, since a trumpet and a torch marked a unit, not a man. Every hand is occupied — torch in the left, trumpet in the right Judges 7:20 — so not one of them could have fought.
They shouted, "The sword of Yahweh and of Gideon!" Judges 7:20.
The cry names both, and in that order.
They each stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran... Yahweh set every man's sword against his fellow Judges 7:21–22.
The three hundred stood in his place. They do not charge, and the enemy destroys itself in the dark — a panic God is repeatedly said to send 1 Samuel 14:20 2 Chronicles 20:23. Only then are the tribes called out for the pursuit Judges 7:23–24, and Ephraim, which had not been at the battle, takes the fords and the two Midianite princes Judges 7:25. That detail matters, because Ephraim's part in a victory it arrived late for becomes the first quarrel of the next chapter Judges 8:1.
settled What this mark means