Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of all the army of the children of the east; for there fell one hundred twenty thousand men who drew sword. Gideon went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and struck the army; for the army felt secure. Zebah and Zalmunna fled and he pursued them. He took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and confused all the army. Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle from the ascent of Heres. He caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of him; and he described for him the princes of Succoth, and its elders, seventy-seven men. He came to the men of Succoth, and said, “See Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are weary?’ ” He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth. He broke down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the city.
Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men were they whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “They were like you. They all resembled the children of a king.”
He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As Yahweh lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.”
He said to Jether his firstborn, “Get up and kill them!” But the youth didn’t draw his sword; for he was afraid, because he was yet a youth.
Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “You rise and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength.” Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels’ necks.
Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, both you, your son, and your son’s son also; for you have saved us out of the hand of Midian.”
Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. Yahweh shall rule over you.” Gideon said to them, “I do have a request: that you would each give me the earrings of his plunder.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24 A city Eastward beyond Jordan.
A city Eastward beyond Jordan.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv10–24 Jdg 8:10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna [were] in Karkor,…
Jdg 8:10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna [were] in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand [men], all that were left of all the hosts of the children of the east: for there fell an hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword.
Ver. 10. Were in Karkor.] A city beyond Jordan, where they thought themselves safe, and feared not a pursuer: but vengeance would not suffer them to live. {Act 28:4}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 i.e. Persons expert and exercised in war, besides the…
i.e. Persons expert and exercised in war, besides the retainers to them, Jdg 6:5.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv18, 22 Judgment began at the house of God, in the…
Judgment began at the house of God, in the just correction of the men of Succoth and Penuel, who were Israelites, but it did not end there. The kings of Midian, when they had served to demonstrate Gideon's victories, and grace his triumphs, must now be reckoned with. 1. They are indicted for the murder of Gideon's brethren some time ago at Mount Tabor. When the children of Israel, for fear of the Midianites, made themselves dens in the mountains (Jdg 6:2), those young men, it is likely, took shelter in that mountain, where they were found by these two kings, and most basely and barbarously slain in cold blood. When he asks them what manner of men they were (Jdg 8:18), it is not because he was uncertain of the thing, or wanted proof of it; he was not so little concerned for his brethren's blood as not to enquire it out before now, nor were these proud tyrants solicitous to conceal it. But he puts that question to them that by their acknowledgment of the more than ordinary comeliness of the persons they slew their crime might appear the more heinous, and consequently their punishment the more righteous. They could not but own that, though they were found in a mean and abject condition, yet they had an unusual greatness and majesty in their countenances, not unlike Gideon himself at this time: they resembled the children of a king, born for something great. 2. Being found guilty of this murder by their own confession, Gideon, though he might have put them to death as Israel's judge for the injuries done to that people in general, as Oreb and Zeeb (Jdg 7:25), yet chooses rather to put on the character of an avenger of blood, as next of kin to the persons slain: They were my brethren, Jdg 8:19. Their other crimes might have been forgiven, at least Gideon would not have slain them himself, let them have answered it to the people; but the voice of his brethren's blood cries, cries to him, now it is in the power of his hand to avenge it, and therefore there is no remedy - by him must their blood be shed, though they were kings. Little did they think to hear of this so long after; but murder seldom goes unpunished even in this life. 3. The execution is done by Gideon himself with his own hand, because he was the avenger of blood; he bade his son slay them, for he was a near relation to the persons murdered, and fittest to be his father's substitute and representative, and he would thus train him up to the acts of justice and boldness, Jdg 8:20. But, (1.) The young man himself desired to be excused; he feared, though they were bound and could make no resistance, because he was yet a youth, and not used to such work: courage does not always run in the blood. (2.) The prisoners themselves desired that Gideon would excuse it (Jdg 8:21), begged that, if they must die, they might die by his own hand, which would be somewhat more honourable to them, and more easy; for by his great strength they would sooner be dispatched and rid out of their pain. As is the man, so is his strength. Either they mean it of themselves (they were men of such strength as called for a better hand than that young man's to overpower quickly) or of Gideon, "Thou art at thy full strength; he has not yet come to it; therefore be thou the executioner." From those that are grown up to maturity, it is expected that what they do in any service be done with so much the more strength. Gideon dispatched them quickly, and seized the ornaments that were on their camels' necks, ornaments like the moon, so it is in the margin, either badges of their royalty or perhaps of their idolatry, for Ashteroth was represented by the moon, as Baal by the sun. With there he took all their other ornaments, as appears Jdg 8:26, where we find that he did not put them to so good a use as one would have wished. The destruction of these two kings, and that of the two princes (Jdg 7:25) is long afterwards pleaded as a precedent in prayer for the ruin of others of the church's enemies, Psa 83:11, Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, and all their princes as Zebah and Zalmunna, let them all be but off in like manner.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–24 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor..... Jerom (u)…
Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor..... Jerom (u) under this word says, there was in his time a castle called Carcuria, a day's journey from Petra, which was the metropolis of Idumea; but whether the same with this is not clear:
and their host with them, about fifteen thousand men; to which number Gideon and his three hundred men were very unequal; and yet, faint and weary as they were, closely pursued them, attacked and conquered them. Josephus (w) very wrongly makes this number to be about 18,000:
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all that were left of the hosts of the children of the east; the Arabians, who with the Amalekites joined the Midianites in this expedition; and perhaps the remainder of the army chiefly consisted of Arabians, the others having mostly suffered in the valley of Jezreel, and at the fords of Jordan:
for there fell an hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword; besides infirm men, women, and children, which may reasonably be supposed; so that this host consisted of 135,000 fighting men.
(u) De loc. Heb. fol. 90. B. (w) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 5.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 That drew sword - That is, persons expert and…
That drew sword - That is, persons expert and exercised in war, besides the retainers to them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv10, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 Verse 10. Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor] If…
Verse 10. Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor] If this were a place, it is nowhere else mentioned in Scripture. Some contend that קרקר karkor signifies rest; and thus the Vulgate understood it: Zebah and Zalmunna requiescebant, rested, with all their army. And this seems the most likely, for it is said, Jdg 8:11, that Gideon smote the host, for the host was secure.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 Jdg 8:10. There fell a hundred and twenty thousand…
Jdg 8:10. There fell a hundred and twenty thousand men — Such a terrible execution did they make among themselves, and so easy a prey were they to Israel. That drew the sword — That is, persons expert and exercised in war, besides the retainers to them.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24 Zebah and Zalmunna seem to have fled nearly due…
Zebah and Zalmunna seem to have fled nearly due east to Karkor, which was probably an enclosure of some kind (perhaps a walled sheepfold, compare Num 31:32 note). Its site is unknown; but it was near Nobah, in the half-tribe of Manasseh in Gilead Num 32:40, and Jogbehah was in the tribe of Gad Num 32:34-35. Gideon, perhaps taking a circuit so as to come upon them from the east, fell suddenly upon them, apparently at night, surprised them, and smote them.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24 Resting, as the Hebrew word Korkor, signifies. (Bochart) ---…
Resting, as the Hebrew word Korkor, signifies. (Bochart) --- Protestants have, in Karor," as if it were the name of a place. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v22 Gideon refuses to be king. Prepares an ephod, which…
Gideon refuses to be king. Prepares an ephod, which is followed by evil consequences. Gideon’s death and burial
Jdg_8:22-32.
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22Then [And] the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. 23And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord [Jehovah] shall rule over you. 24And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that you would give me every man the ear-rings [the ring]15 of his prey. (For they had golden ear-rings [rings], because 25[for] they were Ishmaelites.) And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment,16 and did cast therein every man the ear-rings [ring] of his prey. 26And the weight of the golden ear-rings [rings] that he requested, was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside [apart from the] ornaments [moons], and [the] collars [ear-drops], and [the] purple raiment [garments] that was [were] on the kings of Midian, and beside [apart from] the chains [collars] that were about their camels’ necks. 27And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither [omit: thither] a whoring after it [there]: which thing, [and it i. e. the ephod] became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house. 28Thus was Midian subdued [But Midian was humbled] before the children [sons] of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. 29And the country was in quietness17 forty years in the days of Gideon. And Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house. 30And Gideon had three score and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives. 31And his concubine that was in Shechem, she also bare him a son, whose name he [they]18 called Abimelech. 32And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[1 Jdg_8:24.—נֶזֶם, ring; whether ear-ring or nose-ring, the word itself does not declare. Cassel and De Wette both render it by the singular (De Wette, Ohrring). It is used as a collective, and simply indicates the class of ornaments desired, without any reference to the number which each man was supposed to have, or was expected to give. This indefinite singular is best rendered in English by the plural, as in E. V.—Tr.]
[2 Jdg_8:25.—חַשִּׂמְלַה: Dr. Cassel, ein Gewand, “a garment.” The definite article simply indicates the garment used on the occasion. The term שִׂמְלָה, though also used in the general sense of garment and raiment, is specially applied to the outer garment, the mantle or cloak, cf. Bib. Dict., s. v. “Dress.” Being a four-cornered piece of cloth, it was quite suitable for the present purpose.—Tr.]
[3 Jdg_8:28.—וַתִּשְׁקֹט הָאָרֶץ, “and the land rested.” The E. V. departs here from its own previous renderings, see Jdg_3:11; Jdg_3:30; Jdg_5:31, where the Hebrew has the same words.—Tr.]
[4 Jdg_8:31.—וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת־שְׁמוֹ Dr. Cassel: man nannte seinen Namen. Bertheau also takes ויָּשֶׂם as the indeterminate 3d pers. (see ties. Or. 137, 3), and says: “the name sounds like a nickname, given him because his lordship was of such brief duration, and he so very far from being Father of a King.” The difficulty is that the text gives no hint of a change of subject. But cf. the commentary below, and Keil’s view in note on p. 140.—Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
An extraordinary victory had been gained—a triumph without a parallel. A glory surrounds Gideon in the eyes of Israel, such as had distinguished no one else within the memory of men. Who can stand beside him? How has the arrogance and vain-glory of Ephraim been put to shame! Having caught a couple of princes, already fleeing for their lives, they ceased from the conflict, though still far from finished. Gideon, whose courage began, and whose untiring energy prosecuted the war, has also finished it. He has captured and destroyed, not princes (שָׂרֵי) merely, but—as the narrative emphatically intimates—the kings (מַלֵכֵי) themselves. And what kings! The chiefs of all Midian. Kings, therefore, whose defeat and capture was of the greatest consequence, as the narrative sufficiently indicates by the constant repetition of their names. Their names, also, like those of the “princes,” are peculiar; those were borrowed from animals, these from “sacrifice” and “carved work.” The latter therefore indicate perhaps the conjunction of priestly with royal authority. Nor did Gideon smite the hostile armies in his own country merely, but he ventured far into a strange land. To pursue a great army into the rock desert, and as it were drag the enemy out of his hiding-place, was an exploit of the most astounding character. Who but Gideon would have dared to enter the terrible Harra, there to seize his royal prey? Apart from this, how imposing his assurance, his wisdom, his moderation and strength! If men admired the discreetness of his answer to Ephraim, they were startled by the punishment of Succoth and Penuel, and the terrible recompense meted out to the rings. Success carries the day with the people: now surprising, grand, and dazzling was its form on this occasion! The people feel that now they have a man among them, who towers, not physically, but in soul and spirit, far above them all. No wonder that Israel, gathered from all quarters to see the hero and his captures, urgently presses him, and says:—
Jdg_8:22. Rule over us, thou, thy son, and thy son’s son. This is the language of gratitude and admiration. Excited, and, like all multitudes, easily carried away by momentary impulses of joy and approval, they offer him the supreme authority, and even propose to make it hereditary. It is only done, however, in a storm of excitement. Nor do they propose that he shall be their מֶלֶךְ, but their משֵׁל—not their King, but their Imperator. What they desire is to be not only for his honor, but also for their welfare. His family is to continue forever the champion of Israel. But in this vehement urgency of the moment, the people show how little they comprehend, notwithstanding this and many other great events of their history, to whom they are really indebted for victory. They show that they regard the strength by which Gideon has conquered to be physical, rather than moral. Thou shalt rule, for thou hast delivered us from Midian. They fail to perceive the contradiction to which they give utterance when they talk of an hereditary “Judge,” or as they word it, “ruler.” It belongs to the essence of a Judge, that he be raised up by the Spirit, and filled with the strength of God. He is God’s military ambassador to a people that has no king. Not the people, but God, had made Gideon what he was—their military leader and commander. His children will not be able to lead the nation, unless they also are called by God. The kingship is hereditary, because it rests on the broad basis of established order, and not merely on the endowments of extraordinary persons. The divinely inspired imperator can at most transmit only his treasures. It was not without a purpose that the narrative told of the timid boy, Jether, Gideon’s first-born. Will he—if God do not call him—be able to smite the Midianites? and if he be not able, will the men of Israel obey him? None the less great, however, was the temptation for Gideon. He on whom but recently Ephraim looked superciliously down, has now the offer of dominion over Israel laid at his feet. It requires more strength to resist the allurements of proffered power, than to defeat an enemy. But Gideon is a great man, greater than Washington, to whom absolute dominion was not offered, and who accepted the Presidency because he would obey “the voice of the people,” saying as he did so, that “no people could be more bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men, than the people of the United States” (cf. Marshall’s Life of Washington, ii. 146).
Jdg_8:23. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: Jehovah shall rule over you. God—not “Elohim,” but “Jehovah,” the God of Israel—is your only Imperator. With this he repels the idea that he was the sole and real conqueror, as also the supposition that any others than those whom God calls can be of service. He declares, moreover, that God must be obeyed, because He is the Ruler; and that as in this war against Midian victory was gained only because his (Gideon’s) orders were followed, so victory will always be contingent on obedience to God.
With these words Gideon worthily crowns his heroic deeds; and there he should have stopped. But the moment that he connects the cause of God with a measure of his own, albeit with the best intentions, he falls into error, and without designing it leads the people astray.
Jdg_8:24-26. Give me, every man, the ring of his booty. Since the rings were taken from men, they must be understood to be ear-rings, the use of which, especially among the ancients, was to a great extent common to both men and women. In Ceylon and among the Burmese, the perforation of the ears is to this day, for both sexes, a religious ceremony; just as the habit of wearing rings! did not have its origin solely in desire for finery. The observations of modern travellers among the Arabs, are confined to female ornaments, but “sons” also wore such rings as are here mentioned, even among the Israelites (Exo_32:2). Plautus (Pœnulus, v. 2, 32) says jeeringly of the Carthaginians: “Digitos in manibus non habent, quia incedunt cum annulatis auribus” (cf. Serarius). The explanation, “they had golden rings, for they were Ishmaelites,”19 is to be referred, not to the rings, but to the material of which they were made. It calls attention to the love of finery and splendor which then as now characterized the Arab tribes,20 and at the same time accounts for the wealth of gold implied in the possession of so many rings of that metal by the Midianitish army. Gold is still extensively used by the Arabs for the same purposes (cf. Ritter, xiv. 415, etc.; xv. 828, etc.).
The army must have been pervaded by thorough, even though temporary, enthusiasm for their heroic leader, since they willingly gave up the most valuable part of the booty, without knowing but that he wanted it for personal use. Accordingly, an abundance of gold rings were brought together. Now, for the first time, was Israel astounded at the magnitude of the spoil; now was it seen that the man who formerly ranked his harvest second to the gleaning of Ephraim, had obtained glory and wealth beyond comparison. For not only were 1,700 shekels of gold handed over to him at this time, but to him also belonged (for Jdg_8:26 speaks only of his possessions) the moons (Jdg_8:21), the נְטִיפוֹת, and the purple garments of the kings, and the decorations of their camels. The נְטִיפוֹת are ear-pendants, made of pearls and precious stones,21 peculiar to their kings, in distinction from the simple rings worn by all other Midianites. The name signifies a “drop,” which the pearl resembled. The Greek σταλάγμιον, with which Gesenius compares it, I have met with only in Plautus (Menechmei, iii. 3) as stalagmia. The monument of Cyrus was adorned with ear-pendants of precious stones (Arrian, vi. 29). Procopius represents the Persian king Pherozes with a costly pearl hanging from his right ear (Brisson, De Regno Pers., p. 83). Among the Indians, persons of distinction wore precious stones in their ears (Curtius, viii. 9, 21). In the Ramayana it is stated, that in Ayodhya no one was without ear-pendants (akundali) and other ornaments (Bohlen, Altes Indien, ii. 170).—Great wealth stood now at Gideon’s command; but he had no thought of appropriating the gifts of the men of Israel to himself. All that he retained was the booty which had fallen to him from the Midianitish kings. Hannibal also, caused the rings of the Roman knights who fell at Cannæ to be collected by the peck (Liv. xxiii. 12),—but Gideon has no Punic ends in view.
Jdg_8:27-28. And Gideon made an ephod thereof.22 The high-priestly significance of the ephod is clearly explained in Exodus 28. It is the special sacred garment, by which Aaron and his sons are distinguished as priests. With the ephod, the breastplate is connected, fastened to it by strings, and not to be displaced (Exo_28:28). This garment, with the breastplate, the high priest wears in the sanctuary. With it therefore are connected the Urim and Thummim, through which divine instructions are imparted, and to which, after the death of Moses and Joshua, Israel applies for directions. It is this high-priestly character of the ephod, and the gift of prophetic communication through the Urim and Thummim of its breastplate (cf. 1Sa_30:7), that explains the consecration of such a garment by Gideon. Its procurement is closely connected with the words: “Jehovah shall rule over you.” The people has been saved by God’s revelation of Himself to Gideon. To his service, therefore, the choicest of the spoil must be devoted. Not on man, but on Him, is hope to be built. He will say what the people are to do. Through the priestly ephod, the heavenly King will speak, and rule his obedient people. The consecration of the ephod, therefore, as that with which the Urim and Thummim are connected, expresses the truth that God governs; and is Gideon’s declaration that He, and not any human Imperator, is to be honored.
Thus far, Gideon’s action was blameless, and worthy of his faith. But he “deposited23 the ephod in his city, in Ophrah.” Now, Ophrah was not the seat of the common sanctuary, the tabernacle, nor of the national priesthood. And though the priestly family of that day may have been in a decline, though the tribe of Ephraim, among whom it had at that time its principal seat, gave unequivocal evidence of unbelieving pride, on which account alone Gideon might hesitate to commit the oracle to their keeping; yet, all these reasons, however indicative of spiritual wisdom, were not sufficient to authorize the consecration of an ephod, and the establishment of a priesthood, in Ophrah. It was the inauguration of a separate sanctuary, the establishment, so to speak, of an opposition ephod, under the controlling influence of Gideon. The ecclesiastical centre of Israel was thus severed from the tabernacle. The hero, notwithstanding his personal fidelity to God, evinces herein conceptions of Israel’s calling too subjective to be secure against disastrous error. The result soon makes this apparent.
And all Israel went a whoring after it. The expositions of recent interpreters, who ascribe to Gideon the erection of a golden calf, are founded in utter misapprehension. The use of rings by Aaron in casting his idol, was simply the result of his having no other gold, and has surely no tendency to establish a necessary connection between the collection of rings and the casting of golden calves. The establishment by the recreant Micah, in the closing part of our Book, of “an ephod and a graven image,” is itself evidence that he who only consecrated an ephod, did not erect an image. Gideon, with the words “Jehovah shall rule!” on his lips, cannot intend to give up that for which he has risked his life—fidelity towards the God who will have no graven images. The erection of an idol image is the worst of sins. It was from that very sin that Gideon had delivered his people; he was the Contender against Baal, the destroyer of idol altars,—the man who would not even suffer himself to be made Imperator, an idol of the people. Gideon continues faithful to the moment of his death, which he reaches in a good old age. If, nevertheless, Israel goes a whoring after the ephod, this was no part of Gideon’s wish; still, the snare was of his laying, because he placed the ephod “in his own house.” He thought that by that means the people would better remember from what distress they had been delivered; but it is the nature of the multitude to pervert even faith into superstition. They come to Ophrah with worship and prayer for direction, because this particular ephod is there—not because they seek to honor God, but because this is Gideon’s ephod. They regard not the word which issues from the breastplate to him who believes in God, but only the fact that the ephod. is made of the spoils of Midian. Thus they turn Gideon’s faith into superstition; and Israel’s moral strength, instead of being increased, is weakened. The unwholesome desire has been excited to present worship, not in the customary place, but wherever the subjective sense of novelty allures the worshipper. If Gideon had not consecrated the ephod in his house, it had not become a snare for Israel. It helped him indeed to retain the leadership of Israel, under the supremacy of Jehovah; but by it, discarding as it did the lawful priesthood, he led the people astray into an historical subjectivism instead of establishing them in their objective faith, and thus prepared the way for apostasy. For what but apostasy could follow at his death, when the popular faith became thus connected with his person, his government, and the ephod in his house? The hero erred, when he also made himself a priest. His house fell, because he undertook to make it a temple for the people. The ephod with the breastplate became a snare, because the God of Israel is not to be led by Gideon, but Gideon by Him—even though there be no ephod in his house.24
The renewed apostasy, however, for which the way was thus prepared, manifested itself only in the sequel. As long as Gideon lived, his powerful Spirit kept the enemy in fear, and the people at rest. The effects of his achievement lasted forty years, although the hero, refusing dominion, had retired as a private person to his house and stayed there,—unlike Washington, who, though at the end of the war he returned with “inexpressible delight” to his country-seat at Mount Vernon on the Potomac, yet soon left it again, to become President of the new republic.
Jdg_8:29-32. And Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went and dwelt in his own house The surname Jerubbaal has not again called for attention, since the events which gave rise to it. But now, that Gideon’s work is finished, the narrative, with a subtilty of thought that is surprising, speaks of him under this name. It was given him because he had overthrown the altar of Baal, for which the superstitious populace expected to see the vengeance of Baal overtake him (Jdg_6:32). The result shows that Baal is nothing. Gideon has smitten him and his servants, and is covered with success and glory. “There goes”—so speak the people among themselves—“Jerubbaal into his house; the greatest man in Israel, because he smote Baal.” Baal is impotent against the faithful and valiant. Victory constantly attends his enemies, for God is with them. May this truth never be forgotten by our own people and princes! As long as he continued to live, Gideon had every thing that ministered to fame and happiness m Israel—many sons, peace; riches, and a “good old age.” The last expression is used of no one else but Abraham (Gen_25:8); for of David it is employed not by the Book of Kings, but only by the late Chronicles (1Ch_29:28). The “goodness” of his old age consisted in his seeing the blessed results of his great deed of faith, continuing unbroken and unchanged as long as he lived. Nevertheless, the narrative already. hints at the shadow which after his death darkened his house. In Shechem, a concubine bore him a son, whom they called Abimelech. וַיָּשֶׂם, I think, refers not to Gideon, but indefinitely to those about the concubine; for it was in Shechem that the name originated. Gideon, who would not “rule,” much less be king, would not have named his son, “My Father is King.” On the other hand, it was but natural that the vanity of the concubine, when she bore a son to the great Gideon, the man of royal reputation and distinction, would gladly consent to have him named Abimelech.25 This vanity of Shechem is the foundation of the coming tragedy.
Of no previous hero has the account been so extended. It is even mentioned that he was buried in his father’s sepulchre, in the family vault. That also is a sign of his happy and peaceful end. Here also, as always at the close, the name of the hero’s father is associated with his own, as a tribute of honor for the support he once afforded his son (Jdg_6:31); beyond this, however, nothing is recorded of him. Gideon, as conqueror, dwelt no longer in his father’s house, but in his own (Jdg_8:29); but at death he is buried in his father’s tomb. In that tomb, the glory of Manasseh sleeps; he in whom, tradition declares, the blessing of Jacob on this grandson was fulfilled, and of whom the Midrash says, that what Moses was at an earlier time, that Gideon was in his.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Gideon puts kings to flight, pursues them like wild beasts to their dens, slays them with his own hand—an honor not allowed to Barak,—but himself will be no king. Dominion belongs to God, he says; for the victory was of God. It is not majorities that make a king in Israel, but the call of God by the mouth of his prophets. What Gideon had won, was not his. How should he take God’s title, to whom everything in Israel belongs? So long as we render God what belongs to Him, we shall also have what properly falls to us. When Gideon inaugurated his ephod, he desired an honor for his house; and this only honor which he sought for himself, beyond that which he already had, proved the downfall of his house after him. Let us therefore seek first the kingdom of God: all other things will come of themselves. So soon as we seek to honor and immortalize ourselves beside God, our labor proves vain, and our glory falls into the dust.
Lisco: Gideon refuses to accede to the proposal of the people, because he is conscious that everything is to be ascribed only to the Lord, and that it would be nothing else than arbitrariness and self-seeking to accept the royal dignity without special direction from above.—Gerlach: He rejects the offered crown from genuine fidelity to the Lord whom alone he serves; but another temptation he fails to withstand.
[Henry: They honestly thought it very reasonable, that he who had gone through the toils and perils of their deliverance, should enjoy the honor and power of commanding them ever after; and very desirable, that he who in this great and critical juncture had had such manifest tokens of God’s presence with him, should ever after preside in their affairs. Let us apply it to the Lord Jesus; He hath delivered us out of the hand of our enemies, our spiritual enemies, the worst and most dangerous, therefore it is fit He should rule over us; for how can we be better ruled, than by One that appears to have so great an interest in heaven, and so great a kindness for this earth?—Bp. Hall: That which others plot and sue, and swear and bribe for (dignity and superiority), he seriously rejects, whether it were for that he knew God had not yet called them to a monarchy, or rather for that he saw the crown among thorns. Why do we ambitiously affect the command of these mole-hills of earth, when wise men have refused the proffers of kingdoms? Why do we not rather labor for that kingdom which is free from all cares, from all uncertainty?
Wordsworth: Gideon’s history is a warning that it requires more than a good intention to make a good act; and that the examples of the best of men are not a safe guide of conduct; and the better the man is, the more will be the consequences of bad acts done by him. The only right rule of life is the Law of God.—The same: Gideon is numbered among the saints of God in the epistle to the Hebrews (Jdg_11:32); but the saints of God were men, and no man is free from some blemish of human infirmity.—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[15][Jdg_8:24.—נֶזֶם, ring; whether ear-ring or nose-ring, the word itself does not declare. Cassel and De Wette both render it by the singular (De Wette, Ohrring). It is used as a collective, and simply indicates the class of ornaments desired, without any reference to the number which each man was supposed to have, or was expected to give. This indefinite singular is best rendered in English by the plural, as in E. V.—Tr.]
[16][Jdg_8:25.—חַשִּׂמְלַה: Dr. Cassel, ein Gewand, “a garment.” The definite article simply indicates the garment used on the occasion. The term שִׂמְלָה, though also used in the general sense of garment and raiment, is specially applied to the outer garment, the mantle or cloak, cf. Bib. Dict., s. v. “Dress.” Being a four-cornered piece of cloth, it was quite suitable for the present purpose.—Tr.]
[17][Jdg_8:28.—וַתִּשְׁקֹט הָאָרֶץ, “and the land rested.” The E. V. departs here from its own previous renderings, see Jdg_3:11; Jdg_3:30; Jdg_5:31, where the Hebrew has the same words.—Tr.]
[18][Jdg_8:31.—וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת־שְׁמוֹ Dr. Cassel: man nannte seinen Namen. Bertheau also takes ויָּשֶׂם as the indeterminate 3d pers. (see ties. Or. 137, 3), and says: “the name sounds like a nickname, given him because his lordship was of such brief duration, and he so very far from being Father of a King.” The difficulty is that the text gives no hint of a change of subject. But cf. the commentary below, and Keil’s view in note on p. 140.—Tr.]
[19][Bertheau: “Ishmaelites is the general name of a number of tribes, among whom the Midianites, though according to Gen_25:2, not descended from Ishmael, but from Keturah, were also reckoned, cf. Gen_37:25; Gen_37:28; Gen_39:1.”—See also above, on Jdg_6:1.—Tr.]
[20][Wellsted (“Reisen in Arabien,” i. 224, quoted by Keil):—“The women in Omân squander considerable sums in the purchase of silver ornaments, and their children are literally laden with them. I have sometimes counted fifteen earrings on each side, and head, breast, arms, and ankles, were adorned with equal profusion.”—Tr.]
[21]In Silius Italicus also (Punica, xii. 231), we find, “In zure lapis, rubris advectus ab oris.”
[22][Keil: “It is not necessary so to understand this, as if the 1,700 shekels (fifty lbs.) of gold were worked up into the ephod, but only that the expense of making it was defrayed with this money.”—Wordsworth: “The immense quantity of gold was probably bestowed not only on the robe itself, but on the chains and ouches, and settings of the stones on the shoulders, and on the breastplate, and on the setting of the stones therein; and perhaps also in the purchase of the precious stones for the shoulders, and for the workmanship of the whole.”—Tr.]
[23] וַיַּצֵּג. On this word compare Keil on this passage. [Keil remarks: “וַיַּצֵּג אֹרוֹ does not say, he set it up; but may as well mean, he preserved it, in his city Ophrah, הִעִּיג is nowhere used of the erection of an image ox statue; and signifies, not only to place, but also to lay down (e. g. Jdg_6:37), and to let stand, leave behind, Gen_33:15.”—Tr.]
[24]With this explanation of the ephod and its consequences, the old Jewish expositors agree. The Midrash (Jalkut, ii. n. 64) gives a profound hint, when it opposes the tribe-feeling of Gideon, as a member of Manasseh, to that of Ephraim. However, even that was already regarded as a species of “unclean service.”
[25][Keil interprets the name as meaning “Father of a King” (Königsvater), and says: “וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת־שִׁמוֹ is not the same as קָרָא אֶת־שְׁמוֹ, to give one a name, to name him, but signifies to give one a by-name, to surname him, cf. Neh_9:7; Dan_5:12 (Chald.). It follows from this, that Gideon gave Abimelech this name as a surname suitable to his character; consequently, not at his birth, but afterwards, as he grew up and developed characteristics which suggested it.”—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24 ZEBAH AND ZALMUNNA TAKEN. (Jdg. 8:10-27)
ZEBAH AND ZALMUNNA TAKEN. (Jdg. 8:10-27)
Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor--a town on the eastern confines of Gad. The wreck of the Midianite army halted there.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 10. Karkor — A city or district some distance…
10. Karkor — A city or district some distance east of the Jordan, but now unknown.
Fifteen thousand — The remnant of the one hundred and thirty-five thousand that had spread themselves like locusts in the plains of Israel.
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A hundred and twenty thousand had either killed themselves in the suicidal night encounter, (Jdg_8:22,) or had fallen before the victorious Israelites. No wonder this defeat of Midian was remembered long in Israel. Compare Psa_83:11; Isaiah 9:4, 10, 26.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 10. Karkor] Site unknown, probably near the edge of…
10. Karkor] Site unknown, probably near the edge of the Syrian desert.
all that were left … drew sword] These words have the appearance of an attempt to bring the present narrative into harmony with the account of the panic and flight in Jdg_7:22-25. The exaggerated numbers recall those of Numbers 31 (overthrow of Midian); that drew sword is an expression which often goes with large figures, e.g. Jdg_20:2; Jdg_20:15; Jdg_20:17; Jdg_20:46; 2Sa_24:9 etc.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–24 (10) In Karkor.—This was the scene of the third…
(10) In Karkor.—This was the scene of the third battle, or massacre. When they had reached this distant point they probably felt secure. Karkor means, “a safe enclosure,” and the Vulg., regarding it as an ordinary noun, renders it, “where Zebah and Zalmunna were resting.” Eusebius and Jerome identify Karkor with a fortress named Karkaria, a day’s journey north of Petra; but, from the mention of Nobah and Jogbehah in the next verse, this seems to be too far south. If so, it may be Karkagheisch, not far from Amman (Rabbath Ammon), mentioned by Burckhardt. It was, however, “at a very great distance” (Jos., Antt. viii. 6, § 5 from the original scene of battle.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24 Karkor. Or, rather, the Karkor. We are still on…
Karkor. Or, rather, the Karkor. We are still on unknown ground. The situation assigned to it by Eusebius and Jerome, as being the same as a castle called Carcaria, near Petra, is quite out of the question, as being greatly too far south. As an appellative it suggests the idea of a walled-in space (kir= a wall; kir-kir= a space walled all round; cf. the Latin carcer, a prison); possibly an enclosed sheep or cattle fold on a large scale, (see Num_32:36: "built ... folds for sheep affording some protection to the Midianite soldiers.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv18, 22, 24 The children of a king.
Jdg_8:18-21
The children of a king.
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The royal house of Jesus
There are family names that stand for wealth, or patriotism, or intelligence. The name of Washington means patriotism, although some of the blood of that race has become very thin in the last generation. The family of the Medici stood as the representative of letters. The family of the Rothschilds is significant of wealth. The house of Hapsburg in Austria, the house of Stuarts in England, the house of Bourbon in France, were families of imperial authority. But I come to preach of a family more potential, more rich, and more extensive--the royal house of Jesus, of whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named.
1. First, I speak of our family name. To have conquerors, kings, or princes in the ancestral line gives lustre to the family name. In our line was a King and a Conqueror. Our family name takes lustre from the star that heralded Him, and the spear that pierced Him, and the crown that was given Him. What other family name could ever boast of such an illustrous personage?
2. Next, I speak of the family sorrows. If trouble come to one member of the family, all feel it. So, in the great Christian family, the sorrow of one ought to be the sorrow of all.
3. Next, I notice the family property. After a man of large estate dies, the relations assemble to hear the will read. Our Lord Jesus hath died; and we are assembled to-day to hear the will read. He says: My peace I give unto you. Through the apostle He says: All are yours.
4. Next, I speak of the family mansion. Almost every family looks back to a homestead--some country place where you grew up. But all the dwelling-places of dukes and princes and queens are as nothing to the family, mansion that is already awaiting our arrival. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The royal appearance of God s children
The people of God resemble the children of a king--
I. In their spiritual conformity to the image of King Jesus.
II. In their illustrious titles.
III. In their courtly apparel.
IV. In their royal immunities and privileges.
1. They dwell in the royal presence.
2. They have constant access to God.
3. They have royal provision.
4. They have special instruction.
5. They have a kingly guard.
6. They have royal prospects.
Learn:
1. The dignity and rights of the saints of God.
2. How full of consolation to believers in sorrow and affliction! (J. Burns, D. D.)
Jether.
Jether, the timid son of a brave father
The command of Gideon was in harmony with the savage character of that age. We are told by Tacitus concerning a Roman knight, one Civilis--who headed a revolt of the Gauls against Rome--that he acted in a similar but cruel manner, for he gave to his little son some prisoners whom he might use as targets for his little darts and arrows. This was done from revenge and from a desire to initiate the child into the dreadful art of war. Gideon may have desired thus to stimulate his eldest son to hatred of the enemies of his country and boldness in slaying them. Moreover, it was to add dishonour to the death of Zebah and Zalmunna. Jether must have had some boldness and strength, or he could not have followed his father in his last pursuit of the Midianitish kings or have risked the dangers attendant on the campaign; but he shrinks from obeying the command. He was paralysed by fear, not kept back by pity; and hence he stands before us as the type of one who in higher spheres loses advantages which might be gained by the exercise of strength and fearlessness. Nothing more is heard of him in Scripture. He drops out of notice. Life is a battle. Severe are the assaults to be resisted, wearying ofttimes the marches to be undertaken. Fearlessness is, however, essential if we would overcome the Zebahs and Zalmunnas of evil and wrong around.
1. In order to this, then, we must as far as we have opportunity cultivate physical power. There is truth in the phrase muscular Christianity. To keep a healthy body for the home of the mind should be a persistent aim. We have no right to neglect it. We should be as unwise as would a cottager who, knowing that the rainy season was setting in, should neglect to stop up the gaping hole in the rotting thatch roof. We should strive to develop our powers to the full extent, and when we can go no further, we should conserve the force we have gained.
2. That which we say of the body applies also to the cultivation of mental faculties. The opportunity of strengthening the body may be brief, but that of the mind lifelong. We have but little power at first, but reading, thinking, and mingling with our fellows increases the conscious vigour of intellect.
3. Further, we should be strong in convictions of duty. We should have principles. Our arms should be nerved by moral earnestness.
4. It is well to cultivate a confidence in our powers and principles. Jether was fearful as to his powers, and so he drew not his sword. We should have no hesitancy in doing that which our heavenly Father directs, in our consciences or in His Word, to be undertaken. Yea, we should seek to go beyond others in service. We should arouse ourselves to the putting forth of strength, that by effort we may gain greater strength. We are not urged to put forth effort to attain knowledge and spiritual power in our own strength. We must be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Needless to say, there must be humility, penitence, faith. This conscious spiritual strength and fearlessness are necessary in various circumstances.
(1) In the effort to prosper in lawful undertakings, to provide things honest in the sight of all men, and to provide for our own. The strain on bone and brain at this day is very great.
(2) They are necessary in view of some of the contingencies of life. It is useless to be thinking always that something dreadful is about to happen. Fearlessness is a far better spirit in which to meet trial. But it must be a holy fearlessness, because we know that our God cares for us. We need to put aside fear when we stand before that which may cause us a greater anxiety than any circumstances of trial, personal suffering, or even death, the prosperity of Christs Church and triumph of His truth. We may be concerned, like Eli, for the ark of God. We may hear the roar of the bulls of Bashan--the attacks of infidelity. We may shudder as we see the strongly netted leash of worldliness thrown over the Church. Even then we must not be paralysed by fear, as Jether before Zebah and Zalmunna, for the Spirit of the Lord can lift up a standard against all evil. He can defend His cause. (Fredk. Hastings.)
As the man is, so is his strength.--
Strength the property of truth
Yes: as a man is in character, in faith, in harmony with the will of God, so is his strength; as he is in falseness, injustice, egotism, and ignorance, so is his weakness. And there is but one real perennial kind of strength. The demonstration made by selfish and godless persons, though it shake continents and devastate nations, is not force. It has no nerve, no continuance, but is mere fury, which decays and perishes. Strength is the property of truth, and truth only; it belongs to those who are in union with eternal reality, and to no others in the universe. Would you be invincible? you must move with the eternal powers of righteousness and love. To be showy in appearance or terrible in sound on the wrong side with the futilities of the world is but incipient death. (R. A. Watson, M. A.)
As the man is, so is his strength
I. As a man is physically, so is his strength. If we are to estimate him by his muscular strength, we must take into account his bodily form, his age, his health, his build, his stature. Gideon belonged, as we may say, to the order of natures nobility. Now, it is perfectly true that we cannot give to ourselves a handsome mien, nor add one cubit to our stature; nevertheless, it is equally true that we can do much to promote our health, to build up our constitution, and even to give dignity to our physical presence. By a regular life, by scrupulous temperance, by due bodily exercise, by habits of order and cleanliness, every one can do not a little in this direction.
II. As a man is intellectually so is his strength. I use the word strength here as meaning power of work, capacity for accomplishing the ends of life, and making the world the better for his existence. I suppose that, during the past hundred years, no proverb has been more often quoted, as none has been more largely illustrated, than the pithy aphorism of Lord Bacon, Knowledge is power. In order to succeed, it is requisite to have intelligence and brains. The commerce of England is not indeed in the hands of learned scholars; but it is, for the most part, in the hands of shrewd, clear-headed, practical men, who understand their business, and know how to push it. Thus intellect becomes an equivalent for strength, and mind means money. In real power of work, the skilled artisan leaves the mere labourer far behind, and the thoughtful clerk the mere mechanical penman; so that as a man is in intelligence so is his strength.
III. As a man is morally and spiritually, so is his strength. Character and faith, I will venture to say, more than anything else, determine your power of overcoming difficulty and of accomplishing good. This is the sure gauge of your personal force in society and in the world. A man with a resolute conscience will always be a power.
IV. As the man is in faith, so is his strength. Ah! thats the main point of all. What a work that brave soul accomplished all through unshaken confidence in his God! Be that faith yours, young men, and you shall be strong, and shall overcome the wicked one. There is no strength in the world to compare with that which faith imparts, especially the faith which lays hold of a risen and all-sufficient Redeemer. The splendid undertakings of an Alexander, Hannibal, a Caesar, are nothing to the achievements which it has accomplished. It has mastered legions of passions, quelled the turbulence of lust, overcome the world, driven the devil to flight, and thrown open an entrance to the palaces of heaven! (J. T. Davidson, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v22 THE great victory of Gideon had this special significance,…
GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC
Jdg_8:22-28
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THE great victory of Gideon had this special significance, that it ended the incursions of the wandering races of the desert. Canaan offered a continual lure to the nomads of the Arabian wilderness, as indeed the eastern and southern parts of Syria do at the present time. The hazard was that wave after wave of Midianites and Bedawin sweeping over the land should destroy agriculture and make settled national life and civilisation impossible. And when Gideon undertook his work the risk of this was acute. But the defeat inflicted on the wild tribes proved decisive. "Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more." The slaughter that accompanied the overthrow of Zebah and Zalmunna, Oreb and Zeeb became in the literature of Israel a symbol of the destruction which must overtake the foes of God. "Do thou to thine enemies as unto Midian"-so runs the cry of a psalm-"Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb: yea, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, Let us take to ourselves in possession the habitations of God." In Isaiah the remembrance gives a touch of vivid colour to the oracle of the coming Wonderful, Prince of Peace. "The yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor shall be broken as in the day of Midian." Regarding the Assyrian also the same prophet testifies, "The Lord of Hosts shall stir up against him a scourge as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb." We have no song like that of Deborah celebrating the victory, but a sense of its immense importance held the mind of the people, and by reason of it Gideon found a place among the heroes of faith. Doubtless he had, to begin with, a special reason for taking up arms against the Midianitish chiefs that they had slain his two brothels: the duty of an avenger of blood fell to him. But this private vengeance merged in the desire to give his people freedom, religious as well as political, and it was Jehovahs victory that he won, as he himself gladly acknowledged. We may see, therefore, in the whole enterprise, a distinct step of religious development. Once again the name of the Most High was exalted; once again the folly of idol worship was contrasted with the wisdom of serving the God of Abraham and Moses. The tribes moved in the direction of national unity and also of common devotion to their unseen King. If Gideon had been a man of larger intellect and knowledge he might have led Israel far on the way towards fitness for the mission it had never yet endeavoured to fulfil. But his powers and inspiration were limited.
On his return from the campaign the wish of the people was expressed to Gideon that he should assume the title of king. The nation needed a settled government, a centre of authority which would bind the tribes together, and the Abiezrite chief was now clearly marked as a man fit for royalty. He was able to persuade as well as to fight; he was bold, firm, and prudent. But to the request that he should become king and found a dynasty Gideon gave an absolute refusal: "I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you; Jehovah shall rule over you." We always admire a man who refuses one of the great posts of human authority or distinction. The throne of Israel was even at that time a flattering offer. But should it have been made? There are few who will pause in a moment of high personal success to think of the point of morality involved; yet we may credit Gideon with the belief that it was not for him or any man to be called king in Israel. As a judge he had partly proved himself, as a judge he had a Divine call and a marvellous vindication: that name he would accept, not the other.
One of the chief elements of Gideons character was a strong but not very spiritual religiousness. He attributed his success entirely to God, and God alone he desired the nation to acknowledge as its Head. He would not even in appearance stand between the people and their Divine Sovereign, nor with his will should any son of his take a place so unlawful and dangerous.
Along with his devotion to God it is quite likely that the caution of Gideon had much to do with his resolve. He had already found some difficulty in dealing with the Ephraimites, and he could easily foresee that if he became king the pride of that large clan would rise strongly against him. If the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim was better than the whole vintage of Abiezer, as Gideon had declared, did it not follow that any elder of the great central tribe would better deserve the position of king than the youngest son of Joash of Abiezer? The men of Succoth and Penuel too had to be reckoned with before Gideon could establish himself in a royal seat he would have to fight a great coalition in the centre and south and also beyond Jordan. To the pains of oppression would succeed the agony of civil war. Unwilling to kindle a fire which might burn for years and perhaps consume himself, he refused to look at the proposal, flattering and honourable as it was.
But there was another reason for his decision which may have had even more weight. Like many men who have distinguished themselves in one way, his real ambition lay in a different direction. We think of him as a military genius. He for his part looked to the priestly office and the transmission of Divine oracles as his proper calling. The enthusiasm with which he overthrew the altar of Baal, built the new altar of Jehovah and offered his first sacrifice upon it, survived when the wild delights of victory had passed away. The thrill of awe and the strange excitement he had felt when Divine messages came to him and signs were given in. answer to his prayer affected him far more deeply and permanently than the sight of a flying enemy and the pride of knowing himself victor in a great campaign. Neither did kingship appear much in comparison with access to God, converse with Him, and declaration of His will to men. Gideon appears already tired of war, with no appetite certainly for more, however successful, and impatient to return to the mysterious rites and sacred privileges of the altar. He had good reason to acknowledge the power over Israels destiny of the Great Being Whose spirit had come upon him, Whose promises had been fulfilled. He desired to cultivate that intercourse with Heaven which more than anything else gave him the sense of dignity and strength. From the offer of a crown he turned as if eager to don the robe of a priest and listen for the holy oracles that none beside himself seemed able to receive.
It is notable that in the history of the Jewish kings the tendency shown by Gideon frequently reappeared. According to the law of later times the kingly duties should have been entirely separated from those of the priesthood. It came to be a dangerous and sacrilegious thing for the chief magistrate of the tribes, their leader in war, to touch the sacred implements or offer a sacrifice. But just because the ideas of sacrifice and priestly service were so fully in the Jewish mind the kings, either when especially pious or especially strong, felt it hard to refrain from the forbidden privilege. On the eve of a great battle with the Philistines Saul, expecting Samuel to offer the preparatory sacrifice and inquire of Jehovah, waited seven days and then, impatient of delay, undertook the priestly part and offered a burnt sacrifice. His act was, properly speaking, a confession of the sovereignty of God; but when Samuel came he expressed great indignation against the king, denounced his interference with sacred things, and in effect removed him then and there from the kingdom. David for his part appears to have been scrupulous in employing the priests for every religious function; but at the bringing up of the ark from the house of Obed-Edom he is reported to have led a sacred dance before the Lord and to have worn a linen ephod, that is, a garment specially reserved for the priests. He also took to himself the privilege of blessing the people in the name of the Lord. On the division of the kingdom Jeroboam promptly assumed the ordering of religion, set up shrines and appointed priests to minister at them; and in one scene we find him standing by an altar to offer incense. The great sin of Uzziah, on account of which he had to go forth from the temple a hopeless leper, is stated in the second book of Chronicles to have been an attempt to burn incense on the altar. These are cases in point; but the most remarkable is that of Solomon. To be king, to build and equip the temple and set in operation the whole ritual of the house of God, did not content that magnificent prince. His ambition led him to assume a part far loftier and more impressive than fell to the chief priest himself. It was Solomon who offered the prayer when the temple was consecrated, who pronounced the blessing of God on the worshipping multitude; and at his invocation it was that "fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices." This crowning act of his life in which the great monarch rose to the very highest pitch of his ambition, actually claiming and taking precedence over all the house of Aaron, will serve to explain the strange turn of the Abiezrites history at which we have now arrived.
"He made an ephod and put it in his city, even in Ophrah." A strong but not spiritual religiousness, we have said, is the chief note of Gideons character. It may be objected that such a one, if he seeks ecclesiastical office, does so unworthily; but to say so is an uncharitable error. It is not the devout temper alone that finds attraction in the ministry of sacred things; nor should a love of place and power be named as the only other leading motive. One who is not devout may in all sincerity covet the honour of standing for God before the congregation, leading the people in worship, and interpreting the sacred oracles. A vulgar explanation of human desire is often a false one; it is so here. The ecclesiastic may show few tokens of the spiritual temper, the other worldliness, the glowing and simple truth we rightly account to be the proper marks of a Christian ministry; yet he may by his own reckoning have obeyed a clear call. His function in this case is to maintain order and administer outward rites with dignity and care-a limited range of duty indeed, but not without utility, especially when there are inferior and less conscientious men in office not far away. He does not advance faith, but according to his power he maintains it.
But the ecclesiastic must have the ephod. The man who feels the dignity of religion more than its humane simplicity, realising it as a great movement of absorbing interest, will naturally have regard to the means of increasing dignity and making the movement impressive. Gideon calls upon the people for the golden spoils taken from the Midianites, nose rings, earrings and the like, and they willingly respond. It is easy to obtain gifts for the outward glory of religion, and a golden image is soon to be seen within a house of Jehovah on the hill at Ophrah. Whatever form it had, this figure was to Gideon no idol, but a symbol or sign of Jehovahs presence among the people, and by means of it, in one or other of the ways used at the time, as for example by casting lots from within it, appeal was made to God with the utmost respect and confidence. When it is supposed that Gideon fell away from his first faith in making this image, the error lies in overestimating his spirituality at the earlier stage. We must not think that at any time the use of a symbolic image would have seemed wrong to him. It was not against images, but against worship of false and impure gods, that his zeal was at first directed. The sacred pole was an object of detestation because it was a symbol of Astarte.
In some way we cannot explain the whole life of Gideon appears as quite separate from the religious ordinances maintained before the ark, and at the same time quite apart from that Divine rule which forbade the making and worship of graven images. Either he did not know the second commandment, or he understood it only as forbidding the use of an image of any creature and the worship of a creature by means of an image. We know that the cherubim in the Holy of Holies were symbolic of the perfections of creation, and through them the greatness of the Unseen God was realised. So it was with Gideons ephod or image, which was however used in seeking oracles. He acted at Ophrah as priest of the true God. The sacrifices he offered were to Jehovah. People came from all the northern tribes to bow at his altar and receive divine intimations through him. The southern tribes had Gilgal and Shiloh. Here at Ophrah was a service of the God of Israel, not perhaps intended to compete with the other shrines, yet virtually depriving them of their fame. For the expression is used that all Israel went a whoring after the ephod.
But while we try to understand we are not to miss the warning which comes home to us through this chapter of religious history. Pure and, for the time, even elevated in the motive, Gideons attempt at priestcraft led to his fall. For a while we see the hero acting as judge at Ophrah and presiding with dignity at the altar. His best wisdom is at the service of the people, and he is ready to offer for them at new moon or harvest the animals they desire to consecrate and consume in the sacred feast. In a spirit of real faith and no doubt with much sagacity he submits their inquiries to the test of the ephod. But "the thing became a snare to Gideon and his house," perhaps in the way of bringing in riches and creating the desire for more. Those who applied to him as a revealer brought gifts with them. Gradually as wealth increased among the people the value of the donations would increase, and he who began as a disinterested patriot may have degenerated into a somewhat avaricious man who made a trade of religion. On this point we have, however, no information. It is mere surmise, depending upon observation of the way things are apt to go amongst ourselves.
Reviewing the story of Gideons life we find this clear lesson, that within certain limits he who trusts and obeys God has a quite irresistable efficiency. This man had, as we have seen, his limitations, very considerable. As a religious leader, prophet or priest, he was far from competent; there is no indication that he was able to teach Israel a single Divine doctrine, and as to the purity and mercy, the righteousness and love of God, his knowledge was rudimentary. In the remote villages of the Abiezrites the tradition of Jehovahs name and power remained, but in the confusion of the times there was no education of children in the will of God: the Law was practically unknown. From Shechem where Baal-Berith was worshipped the influence of a degrading idolatry had spread, obliterating every religious idea except the barest elements of the old faith. Doing his very best to understand God, Gideon never saw what religion in our sense means. His sacrifices were appeals to a Power dimly felt through nature and in the greater epochs of the national history, chastising now, and now friendly and beneficent.
Yet, seriously limited as he was, Gideon, when he had once laid hold of the fact that he was called by the unseen God to deliver Israel, went on step by step to the great victory which made the tribes free. His responsibility to his fellow Israelites became clear along with his sense of the demand made upon him by God. He felt himself like the wind, like the lightning, like the dew, an agent or instrument of the Most High, bound to do His part in the course of things. His will was enlisted in the Divine purpose. This work, this deliverance of Israel, was to be effected by him and no other. He had the elemental powers with him, in him. The immense armies of Midian could not stand in his way. He was, as it were, a storm that must hurl them back into the wilderness defeated and broken.
Now this is the very conception of life which we in our far wider knowledge are apt to miss, which nevertheless it is our chief business to grasp and carry into practice. You stand there, a man instructed in a thousand things of which Gideon was ignorant, instructed especially in the nature and will of God Whom Christ has revealed. It is your privilege to take a broad survey of human life, of duty, to look beyond the present to the eternal future with its infinite possibilities of gain and loss. But the danger is that year after year all thought and effort shall be on your own account, that with each changing wind of circumstance you change your purpose, that you never understand Gods demand nor find the true use of knowledge, will, and life in fulfilling that. Have you a divine task to effect? You doubt it. Where is anything that can be called a commission of God? You look this way and that for a little, then give up the quest. This year finds you without enthusiasm, without devotion even as you have been in other years. So life ebbs away and is lost in the wide flat sands of the secular and trivial, and the soul never becomes part of the strong ocean current of Divine purpose. We pity or deride some who, with little knowledge and in many errors alike of heart and head, were yet men as many of us may not claim to be, alive to the fact of God and their own share in Him. But they were so limited, those Hebrews, you say, a mere horde of shepherds and husbandmen; their story is too poor, too chaotic to have any lesson for us. And in sheer incapacity to read the meaning of the tale you turn from this Book of Judges, as from a barbarian myth, less interesting than Homer, of no more application to yourself than the legends of the Round Table. Yet, all the while, the one supreme lesson for a man to read and take home to himself is written throughout the book in bold and living characters-that only when life is realised as a vocation is it worth living. God may be faintly known, His will but rudely interpreted; yet the mere understanding that He gives life and rewards effort is an inspiration. And when His life-giving call ceases to stir and guide there can be for the man, the nation, only irresolution and weakness.
A century ago Englishmen were as little devout as they are today; they were even less spiritual, less moved to fine issues. They had their scepticisms too, their rough ignorant prejudices, their giant errors and perversities. "We have gained vastly," as Professor Seeley says, "in breadth of view, intelligence, and refinement. Probably what we threw aside could not be retained; what we adopted was forced upon us by the age. Nevertheless, we had formerly what I may call a national discipline, which formed a firm, strongly-marked national character. We have now only materials, which may be of the first quality, but have not been worked up. We have everything except decided views and steadfast purpose-everything in short except character." Yes: the sense of the nations calling has decayed, and with it the nations strength. In leaders and followers alike purpose fades as faith evaporates, and we are faithless because we attempt nothing noble under the eye and sceptre of the King.
You live, let us say, among those who doubt God, doubt whether there is any redemption, whether the whole Christian gospel and hope are not in the air, dreams, possibilities, rather than facts of the Eternal Will. The storm wind blows and you hear its roaring: that is palpable fact, divine or cosmic. Its errand will be accomplished. Great rivers flow, great currents sweep through the ocean. Their mighty urgency who can doubt? But the spiritual who can believe? You do not feel in the sphere of the moral, of the spiritual the wind that makes no sound, the current that rolls silently charged with sublime energies, effecting a vast and wonderful purpose. Yet here are the great facts; and we must find our part in that spiritual urgency, do our duty there, or lose all. We must launch out on the mighty stream of redemption or never reach eternal light, for all else moves down to death. Christ Himself is to be victorious in us. The glory of our life is that we can be irresistible in the region of our duty, irresistible in conflict with the evil, the selfishness, the falsehood given us to overthrow. To realise that is to live. The rest is all mere experiment, getting ready for the task of existence, making armour, preparing food, otherwise, at the worst, a winters morning before inglorious death.
One other thing observe, that underlying Gideons desire to fill the office of priest there was a dull perception of the highest function of one man in relation to others. It appears to the common mind a great thing to rule, to direct secular affairs, to have the command of armies and the power of filling offices and conferring dignities; and no doubt to one who desires to serve his generation well, royalty, political power, even municipal office offer many excellent opportunities. But set kingship on this side, kingship concerned with the temporal and earthly, or at best humane aspects of life, and on the other side priesthood of the true kind which has to do with the spiritual, by which God is revealed to man and the holy ardour and divine aspirations of the human will are sustained-and there can be no question which is the more important. A clever strong man may be a ruler. It needs a good man, a pious man, a man of heavenly power and insight to be in any right sense a priest. I speak not of the kind of priest Gideon turned out, nor of a Jewish priest, nor of any who in modern times professes to be in that succession, but of one who really stands between God and men, bearing the sorrows of his kind, their trials, doubts, cries, and prayers on his heart and presenting them to God, interpreting to the weary and sad and troubled the messages of heaven. In this sense Christ is the one True Priest, the eternal and only sufficient High Priest. And in this sense it is possible for every Christian to hold towards those less enlightened and less decided in their faith the priestly part.
Now in a dim way the priestly function presented itself to Gideon and allured him. Sufficient for it he was not, and his ephod became a snare. Neither could he grasp the wisdom of heaven nor understand the needs of men. In his hands the sacred art did not prosper, he became content with the appearance and the gain. It is so with many who take the name of priests. In truth, on one side the term and all it stands for must be confessed full of danger to him set apart and those who separate him. Here as pointedly as anywhere must it be affirmed, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." There must be a mastering sense of Gods calling on the side of him who ministers, and on the side of the people recognition of a message, an example coming to them through this brother of theirs who speaks what he has received of the Holy Spirit, who offers a personal living word, a personal testimony. Here, be it called what it may, is priesthood after the pattern of Christs, true and beneficent; and apart from this priesthood may too easily become, as many have affirmed, a horrible imposture and baleful lie. Christianity brings the whole to a point in every life. Gods calling, spiritual, complete, comes to each soul in its place, and the holy oil is for every head. The father, mother, the employer and the workman, the surgeon, writer, lawyer-everywhere and in all posts, just as men and women are living out Gods demand upon them-these are His priests, ministrants of the hearth and the shop, the factory and the office, by the cradle and the sick bed, wherever the multitudinous epic of life goes forward. Here is the common and withal the holiest calling and office. That one dwelling with God in righteousness and love introduce others into the sanctuary, declare as a thing he knows the will of the Eternal, uplift the feebleness of faith and revive the heart of love-this is the highest task on earth, the grandest of heaven.
Of such it may be said, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v18 FINAL DEALING WITH THE ENEMY—GIDEON’S LAST DAYS. Jdg_8:18-35
CHAPTER 8
FINAL DEALING WITH THE ENEMY—GIDEON’S LAST DAYS. Jdg_8:18-35
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CRITICAL NOTES.— Jdg_8:18. Then said he, etc.] This must have taken place when Gideon arrived at home; for it was after his return to Penuel and Succoth, and the boy Jether was present, who could not have been in the battlefield. It may have been on the old battleground in Jezreel where the people would come flocking to see the terrible kings in fetters. [Cassel.] If so, what an impressive lesson it must have read to the captive kings, to contrast the picture they looked upon in that spot, only two days before, with the position they occupied now!
Whom ye slew at Tabor.] The incident is not recorded, but it would appear they had been murdered in cold blood, and not slain in battle; and Gideon, as next of kin, now reckons it his duty to act the part of an avenger of blood (see Numbers 35). Some imagine it was the execution of Gideon’s brothers, by the command of those kings as soon as Gideon’s purpose to attack the invaders was made known. [Lias.] Not likely, for the kings did not know they were Gideon’s brothers till now. Much more probable is it, that in one of the many forays made by these marauders on private properties, the house of Joash had been attacked, and while fighting in its defence, Gideon’s brothers had been taken prisoners and carried into the presence of the robber kings, who immediately ordered their execution. However it was, the tragedy was so marked, that, though many others were wantonly put to death, this one made such an impression as to be remembered above others.
As thou art, so were they,] in stately form and chivalrous bearing. They wished to give a complimentary answer as being the only chance they had, though a small one, to plead for their lives.
Jdg_8:19. Sons of my mother.] A customary phrase where polygamy was so common. The sons of the mother had also the same father, but the sons of the father oftentimes had not the same mother. The sons of the mother were therefore full brothers, and hence the expression “sons of my mother” was reckoned specially endearing (Gen_43:29; Psa_69:8; Deu_13:6).
If ye had let them live, I would not slay you.] This implies that it was by a word from them that they were slain. They were therefore murderers, and justice must now overtake them. Gideon here shows his merciful spirit. He had no pleasure in putting them to death, but he was constrained to do it from considerations of justice, and the law of his God in acting the part of an avenger of blood. It was all but universal in that iron age to put prisoners to death, and often with circumstances of revolting cruelty. Tamerlane put Bajazet, the celebrated sultan, into an iron cage, and treated him as a wild beast, until, maddened with grief and mortification, he dashed out his brains by striking his head against the bars of his cage. Sapor, king of Persia, having taken the Roman Emperor Valerian prisoner, put him to death by flaying him alive.
On a higher ground, these ruthless men deserved to die, because they had wantonly touched the Lord’s anointed, and vilely desecrated the heritage of the God of Israel; so that even if Gideon in his clemency had spared them, Divine vengeance could not have suffered them to live (comp. 1Sa_15:3; 1Sa_15:8; 1Sa_15:32-33).
Jdg_8:20. Said unto Jether his first born.] It was reckoned a deep disgrace by all who had a spark of honour in them to be put to death by a woman, or a slave (Jdg_9:54). So these warriors felt it to be a stigma on their name, to have their death-stroke at the hands of a mere boy. Gideon also wished to teach his son in his youth to be the avenger of his country’s enemies.
Jdg_8:21. Rise thou and fall upon us (1Ki_2:46). Escape was hopeless, and, knowing that the practice of holding life cheap, which they had so long applied to others, was now to be applied to themselves, they felt it would be the less of two evils to be despatched by the general himself than by a mere stripling. It was also less horrible to die by a few effective strokes than to be hacked and hewed by hands incompetent to the task. Gideon complied, and so ended the days of the brigand kings. Barbarous and revolting work! excusable only when meting out merited punishment to flagrant transgressors. “To restrain justice at the proper time is to support sin, and not to correct, is to consent to the crime.” [Trapp:] “Bonis nocet qui malis parcit.”
The Ornaments] (comp. Num_31:48-54). The Hebrew word signifies “little moons.” They were crescent-shaped ornaments, generally of gold or silver, worn on the necks, sometimes the foreheads of men and women (Isa_3:18), and frequently on the necks of camels. Some think they were shining plates of gold in crescent form suspended from the neck of the camel, and hanging down on their breasts in front. And so the heads, necks, bodies, and legs of camels are still highly ornamented in Eastern countries [Bush.] The use of the crescent as a symbol of the Ottoman power is widely known among us. The ancient Ishmaelites were worshippers of the moon.
Jdg_8:22. Rule thou over us. When the heavy incubus was removed, and things were beginning to settle down into a state of rest, the uppermost feeling in the mind of every reflecting man was that of gratitude to the noble man, who, through the aid of his God had done so much for his country. Partly by way of recompense, and partly to have a shield of protection for the future, the general voice of the nation was everywhere heard: “Let us make Gideon king!” Such an extraordinary feat of heroism they were ready to worship, and besides it did them honour as a nation. Their proposal they presented in definite form: first, that he himself should be their ruler for life; and then, that his sons should succeed him in perpetuity. They were not in a state to measure their words. They had among them a man who towered above all his compeers in courage, in capacity, in practical wisdom, and in ability to rise to the height of great occasions; yet one who was as humble and meek as any of them all, who was great in his moderation and disinterestedness, also in his self-command and fairness of dealing. Such a man had not been seen in Israel since the days of Joshua or Moses. “Come,” said they, “let us make him king, and his sons after him, and so bring back the golden age of our history.”
Most unreflecting choice! Had they got their wish, Gideon himself might have done well; but what a broken reed they would have had in Jether! Timid now as a boy, and bidding fair to continue as a boy all his life, he was swept away as a straw by the first brush of Abimelech’s strong hand. “Woe unto thee, O Land, when thy king is a child!” The people’s error was twofold—
(1.) In supposing that Gideon’s success was entirely of himself and not of God’s Spirit resting upon him; and
(2) in forgetting the fact that they already had a King in God Himself, and that any other who might be appointed must be His viceregent, and also must be appointed by God Himself.
Jdg_8:23. I will not rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you. Gideon keeps them right. He saw their error in a moment, and felt that if he complied he would be the usurper of a place which Jehovah had reserved for Himself as King in Jeshurun. As the principles of his character had been deep enough to withstand the blasts of adversity, so now they have substance enough not to become evaporated before the sunshine of prosperity. These are brought out in 1Sa_8:5-7; 1Sa_12:12-17; Num_23:21, and other places.
Jdg_8:24. Give me, every man, the ear-rings, &c. Rather the ring of his prey or booty, for the word is singular. This ring was of gold and valuable. The booty was got from the slain Ishmaelites, who seem to have been the merchant Midianites, the others being freebooters simply. The former were great traders, especially with Egypt, where they sold the spices and balms they got in the East, and were paid in silver and gold. But ear-rings, nose-rings, chains, and pendant-drops made of gold and silver seem to have abounded in Arabia as well as in Egypt. Rings of gold were often used as money in Egypt, as appears by the monuments. [Speak. Comp.]
Some would make נֶזֶס mean nose-rings instead of ear-rings. The word is susceptible of either interpretation, but nose-rings were chiefly worn by women, whereas here the rings were asked of men, and so were more likely to have been ear-rings. These latter were often worn by men. Probably one such ring, or at most two, were worn by each man. Reference is made to this ornament in Gen_35:4; Exo_32:2-3; Job_42:11, in all of which places the same word is used (נֶזֶס).
Jdg_8:25. They spread a garment. Lit. the garment (ha-simlah), as if a special one used for such occasions. It was the upper or outer garment, and only a large square piece of cloth. [keil.]
Jdg_8:26. The weight of the golden ear-rings.] Probably the weight exceeded his request, for they were in the very enthusiasm of gratitude. As the golden shekel was a little more in weight than two English sovereigns, the value of the ear-rings given would amount to upwards of £3,400 (1700 × 2). This would imply that at least 3,400 Ishmaelites were slain who wore golden ear-rings, a small number of the whole army. Those who wore such must have been of superior rank. At the battle of Cannae no fewer than three bushels of gold rings were taken from the dead bodies of the knights and senators that fell on that bloody day.
There are different words used in this account.
1. Saharonim are the “little moons,” or crescent-shaped ornaments of silver or gold which men and women alike wore upon their necks (Jdg_8:21), and also hung round the necks of their camels.
2. Nezem, the ear-rings of gold (Jdg_8:24-26).[7]
[7] “Those golden ear-rings were ill-bestowed on such uncircumcised ears as Ishmaelites had.” Trapp
3. Netiphoth, not “collars” but pearl-shaped ear-drops, like the pendants of modern ear-rings (Jdg_8:26).[8]
[8] Thene ear-pendants made of pearls were peculiar to kings and persons of rank as compared with the simple rings wron by the other Midianites. The word natap means a drop
4. Anakoth. Necklaces or chains around the neck (Pro_1:9; Son_4:9). “They put a band of cloth or leather round the animal’s neck, on which are strung small shells called cowries. The Sheiks add silver ornaments to these, which make a rich booty to the spoiler” [see Wellsted, Travels].
5. Aregaman bigedi, purple clothing, or garments of purple. They may have got the Tyrian dye from the shores of the Mediterranean. “This is the first indication of purple as a royal colour.” [Bush.]
Gideon had now great wealth at his feet, but all that he retained for himself was the spoil which he got from the Midianitish kings. His aims were higher than those of Clive, in India, (pure as he was when compared with others) as he walked amid heaps of gold taken from the Nabobs and others.
Jdg_8:27. Made an ephod and put it in his city. Gideon has for the most part been severely condemned for this act, as if his uprightness had at last given way before the poisonous influence of the idolatrous atmosphere around him. Rightly interpreted, his conduct indicates no intention whatever in the direction of idolatry. Being civil ruler, his privilege was to inquire of God by the High Priest. The working coat of the High Priest was the ephod (see Exo_28:6-12). It was the distinctive priestly garment. It had no sleeves, but went round the breast, and contained the Urim and Thummim, which were essential when inquiring of God. His object was then to inquire of God, or receive instructions from Him in all matters of special difficulty, where the exercise of his own judgment was insufficient. This was an intention wholly consistent with true piety.
But though the intention was good, the act was wrong; for God had already appointed a High Priest in another place to discharge these very functions. His act was, therefore, equivalent to the practical setting aside of what God had already done. In Shiloh was the ark, and there was the High Priest. But Shiloh was in the tribe of Ephraim, and Gideon felt sore under the jealous spirit so strongly cherished by that tribe. He might also think that they had sunk so low in their loyalty to the God of Israel, that they were unworthy to be the custodiers of the Divine oracle for all Israel. Therefore, he wished to have an oracle in his own city, and under his own care, conscious as he was of his own entire loyalty to his God. But it was not for Gideon to establish rules for the worship of his God, nor for any mortal man to assume that his judgment might decide anything in such a matter. Whatever was wrong in the existing state of things it was for God Himself to put right.
“A good aim does not alone make a good action. Gideon must have a good warrant as well as a good motive” [Trapp.] If Gideon supposed that because he had already once offered sacrifice on an altar in Ophrah and been accepted, therefore he might continue to do so as a rule, either by himself or by a priest, he entirely forgot that the circumstances were most special and not to be repeated.
An ephod thereof,] i.e., he made the gold and cloth, &c., which he had received into an ephod, which was the most costly part of the High Priest’s dress. The material was worked throughout with gold threads, and there were precious stones set in gold braid on the shoulder-pieces, and chains made of gold to fasten the parts. But there was no image, far less the form of an idol like the golden calf of Aaron.
All Israel went thither a whoring after it,] i.e., they made an idol of the ephod itself, giving that worship to the mere piece of dress which idol-worshippers do to a block or a stone. The homage of the heart was illicitly bestowed. That was perverting Gideon’s well-intentioned work to a very bad use, from which he would have shrunk back with abhorrence. Jerubbaal, the idol-destroyer, could never have knowingly encouraged the idol-worshippers.
The country was in quietness forty years, &c.] There was no special outbreak of sin in public, and so there were no public displays of Divine judgment made, though the waters of sin might be rising silently over the land. The forty years may be dated from the time of Gideon’s call. How powerful is the influence of a great name, when its greatness arises from its goodness! Would that every wearer of a crown might notice this!
Jdg_8:29. Went and dwelt in his own house.] He makes himself as one of the common people, notwithstanding that no man before or after him had better title to live in a palace and wear a crown. The continuance of the name Jerubbaal was an honour to his memory similar to that which the name Israel was to Jacob.
Jdg_8:32. Died in a good old age.] His days were long in the land which he had been honoured to restore (Gen_15:15; Gen_25:8; 1Ch_29:25; Job_42:17). His God had carried him to hoar hairs (Isa_46:4), “though his last evil act were some spot to his white head.” [Trapp.]
Jdg_8:33. As soon as Gideon was dead, they turned again.] The breakwater being removed, the waters rushed out. Sin, and especially the sin of idolatry was with them a passion. Well might it be said to them, “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away!” After all the sharp lessons they had been taught, they still have learned nothing.
“Though woo’d and aw’d,
They are flagrant rebels still.”
Jdg_8:34. Remembered not the Lord.] “My people are bent to backsliding from me. They have slidden back by a perpetual backsliding. Ephraim is a cake not turned.”
Jdg_8:35. Neither showed they kindness.] Where there is no right principle in the heart, there is no foundation for trusting that the most solemn engagement will be kept, when a man casts off all fear of God, he is not likely to make conscience of doing his duty to his fellow men.
SPECIAL QUESTIONS
Certain questions grow out of this narrative which deserve particular notice, and which apply equally to all the heathen adversaries that fought against Israel and their God. It is distinctly conveyed, that the defeat of these adversaries in turn, was not merely an accident arising out of the fortunes of war, but was a special judgment sent upon them by Jehovah for the manner in which they despised His great name, and trampled in the mire the people whom He had redeemed.
One question which arises out of this, is—
I. Can the Heathen sin against light.
Did Zebah and Zalmunna know that they were committing great sin, in doing what they did to Israel, and their God? Is it not characteristic of the heathen that they do not know the true God; and if so, how could they be held guilty of profaning His name, and contemning His authority? They had no Bible, no sanctuary service for Jehovah established among them, no series of instructors among them like the prophets, no one to impart to them in proper form a knowlege of the truth about the true God. It was not only a rare event, but almost a solecism for a servant of the Lord to be sent with a special message of penitence to the king of Nineveh, as Jonah was. The density of the darkness might be gathered from the answer returned by the men of Ethiopia to Philip’s question, “How can I understand except some one guide me.”
Indeed the heathen universally “sat in darkness.” “Gross darkness covered” the multitudes throughout all heathendom. They were “without God, and without hope in the world.” Their description is often given as those that “know not God.” But if they had no proper knowledge of the true God, how could they understand the nature of His claims upon them, and if they did not understand these claims, how could their condemnation be just? It is manifest that we must look a little more closely into the subject to get quit of this difficulty.
Are we anywhere told, that the heathen are absolutely ignorant of either the existence, or the character of the true God? That they were relatively so, as compared with the seed of Abraham, is everywhere said, just as moonlight or starlight is inferior to that of the sun. But the question is, “Had they any light at all sufficient to constitute a foundation for responsibility?” This question we unhesitatingly answer in the affirmative. For where there is responsibility there must be light in some degree. Guilt lies in acting contrary to that light.
(1.) There is the light of nature. By looking on the works of the natural world, the first candid instinct of the heathen mind is not to worship the works, but Him who made the works, and to see glorious features of character shining through the works. It is not till afterwards, when men, disliking the presence of God, and trying to get quit of Him altogether, begin to give that homage to the objects of nature which ought to be reserved for the Framer of nature. This we take to be the meaning of the important paragraph in Rom_1:20 with its connection. That the heathen, though not instructed by revelation, know, or ought to know, something of God as a basis of their responsibility is clear from Rom_1:19; Rom_1:21; Rom_1:25; Rom_1:28; Rom_1:32; Act_14:17. They are said to be “without excuse.”
Nature gave them light, not only on the existence and character of God, but also on the code of duty which He has laid down for human conduct. For “having not the law (written) they are a law to themselves,” etc. (Rom_2:14-15). This applied not only to a few solitary cases, when a sheik like Job rose up to instruct the people among whom he lived; but the law is written more or less legibly on every man’s heart. The universal conviction, not only that sacrifices, but that costly sacrifices were expressly needed to propitiate the superior powers, proved beyond doubt that they felt they were guilty. This is confirmed, too, by Rom_1:32.
(2.) There was also the light of the history of God’s Israel. The history of God’s Church in the world was, to these heathen nations, a kind of Bible about God’s character and ways. It was a great addition to the light of nature. The first grand display of His character given by means of His Church was when He smote the Egyptians with such terrible plagues, and redeemed His people from bondage with a high hand and stretched out arm. This was pitching the key-note. All the series of events that followed were such as to reveal the God of Israel to be immeasurably superior to all others that were called by the name of gods, and to prove distinctly that He was God alone, and there was none else. If the nations were not convinced of this, they had ample evidence to convince them of the sin and folly of choosing any other god, and of daring to touch the people that were called by His name.
This two-fold light undoubtedly these kings with their armies had, so that though their privilege was small indeed compared with that of Israel, it was yet sufficient to make them conscious they were committing great sin in rising up against the God of Israel, and wantonly destroying the people who were dear to Him as the apple of His eye! The impression made on all the surrounding heathen nations by God’s remarkable dealings with His people is indicated in such passages as these:—Deu_2:25; Jos_2:9-11; Joshua 6; Jos_10:1-2; 1Sa_4:7-9.
II. Does the guilt of the wicked entirely destroy sympathy for them in their punishment?
Are we to have no pity for such men as Zebah and Zalmunna when we think of their terrible fate, or must the fact that they defied the God of Israel, and put to death in cold blood so many of His chosen people, make us shut up all bowels of compassion for them? When we see innocent persons barbarously murdered by some monster of cruelty, we instinctively have far more sympathy with them than we can have for the perpetrator of the horrid deed himself, when he comes to suffer the last sentence of the law. There can be no doubt that guilt lessens sympathy; but does it entirely close it up? Or, if we are afflicted at seeing a criminal suffer, when he has brought it down on himself by his evil conduct, does not that seem as if we objected to the due reward of his deeds being measured out to him? Are we to have more sympathy with the man than with the administration of justice? Men’s sense of the evil of sin, and its awful desert is, in this world, so small, that it seems harsh and cruel when any heavy dispensation is inflicted. But the time is coming when another light shall be shed upon it, and when what now appears to be so small shall be seen to reach the heavens, and to call for the awful frown of Him who is the Guardian of righteousness, and purity and truth.
On this side of the subject there are some solemn statements in the Book of God. The inspired apostle, when closing one of his epistles, says, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha.” This many interpret to mean—accursed at the coming of the Lord, or for the Lord comes. But, however we explain it, the meaning is most solemn. If anathema had stood alone its natural force is—devoted to destruction, and ητω implies let him be, as if the apostle, speaking on behalf of all the good were to have no more sympathy with him, but to say—that is the only destiny suitable for him. Not to love Christ will then, in the clear light of eternity, appear so tremendous a crime that nothing but absolute destruction will, in the judgment of all, be regarded as the only fit treatment of it. Even now, speaking through the Spirit, this inspired man can say—Let it be so. All this corresponds with the words that shall come from the lips of the Judge Himself, “Depart from me ye cursed, etc.” It also corresponds with the phrase “the wrath of the Lamb,” and that other statement, “Again they said, Alleluia! and her smoke rose up for ever and ever.” Sympathy with the claims of eternal righteousness will in the light of eternity be so strong, as to lead the righteous to acquiesce in the destruction of their fellow-men who have rejected the Saviour.
But are we then to drop all sympathy with the wicked because of their wickedness? We do not read the teachings of scripture so, nor yet the teachings of our own hearts. The common feeling of humanity leads us to grieve at the spectacle of a wicked man suffering misery, though we know and admit that he deserves it. We say, it is not his misfortune but his crime. Yet we mourn for the man, while we emphatically condemn his conduct. We mourn that he should be of a wicked spirit, and allow himself to be led by wicked influences, so bringing down upon himself the righteous judgments of God. Our sorrow is not alone for his misery, but that he should be under the power of sin, and so necessarily be miserable. Grief at seeing the wicked punished by the hand of justice must always be accompanied by abhorrence of the guilt which has made the punishment necessary.
Thus it was with Him, who, in this, as in all other matters, is our perfect example. His lamentation over unbelieving Jerusalem was deep and sincere, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, &c.” (Mat_23:37). Yet how severe His condemnation was of their sin may be learned from Jdg_8:33 of the same chapter. Such was the depth of His compassion, that at the very moment when He was bearing His cross on to Calvary, He seemed to forget His own sufferings at the sight of theirs (Luk_23:28). Most wonderful of all, He shed tears over them when He thought of them as lost souls (Luk_19:41-42). Yet he abated not any of the heavy calamities that were impending over their heads, and which He Himself, in the exercise of His power as Ruler over all, would inflict upon them for their sins in due time (Mat_24:4-28).
Our sympathies then should go out to the wicked, not as adhering to their wickedness, but in the way of earnestly desiring that they should turn from their evil ways, and receive Christ as their Saviour, that so they may receive deliverance in harmony with the laws of righteousness and truth. Our feeling towards the heathen world all over, should be that of profound sorrow, that so many of our fellow creatures should be without the proper knowledge of God, and the means of salvation by the blood of Christ, and to do our very utmost to extend that knowledge to the ends of the earth, in deep sympathy with them as our fellow men.
III. Does God set up the wicked as a mark for punishment according to the degree of their guilt, or by what rule?
Were Zebah and Zalmunna greater sinners than all the heathen rulers of their day that they should be singled out for special punishment? If Sisera was made an example of the divine vengeance, why should Jabin, his master, be passed by? Why should Og and Sihon, kings of the Amorites, be slain in battle, while Balak, king of Moab, is spared? Why should the population of so many of the towns of the Canaanites be all put to death, while those that dwelt in several others were left? Is it always the greatest sinners that are thus set up as a mark for God’s judgments; and, if so, would the common wicked escape such judgment, on the ground that their sins were not so great as to warrant such retribution?
A fatal error, we believe, it would be to suppose that any sin is of so slight a character as not to deserve some manifestation of the Divine frown, for sin in its very nature implies that the creature abandons its God, renounces His authority, and disobeys His laws. And as God is jealous for His own character He must frown on such a creature. If God were therefore to inflict on men the full measure of their desert in this world, He would send some visible and strong mark of his displeasure on all men without exception. But that is not now the rule. It is only in rare instances that special inflictions are sent. The rule is to give specimen cases of how God regards sin, and how He will deal with it. Thus Christ warns his hearers against the error of supposing, that those on whom severe calamities are sent were sinners above all other men. His solemn language is, “I tell you nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luk_13:2-5). He informs them that their sins deserved similar calamities, and if they did not fall on them, it was of God’s mercy, and not because they were not equally liable to receive the same treatment.
Though it is often those that sin with a high hand that are dealt with most severely, many who sin in this manner are often passed by. Sodom was a city remarkable for its wickedness (Gen_13:13), and was turned into ashes by the fire of heaven falling upon it, as an example to those that should live ungodly in after ages. Yet our Saviour speaks of some of the towns in His day as if they were worse in character, though they had no such vials of wrath poured upon them. “I say unto you, Capernaum, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.” (Luk_10:10-15).
The rule then by which special visible manifestations of the Divine anger are made against communities, or individuals in this world, is not always the greatness of their guilt above other places, though it sometimes is so, but when the case chosen is suitable to serve as a specimen of what God might righteously do in similar circumstances.
MAIN HOMILETICS.—Jdg_8:18-35
I.—The Troubled End of the Wicked.
1.—Preparations for his Fall.
(1.) He had to answer for his sins to Israel’s God. “God reigneth over the heathen.” He is “Judge of all the earth.” “Say among the heathen, the Lord reigneth.” “Every one shall give an account of himself unto God.” (1Sa_2:3; Ecc_12:14; Heb_4:13; Act_17:31; Ecc_11:9; Rom_2:16.)
This is God’s world; and all its inhabitants are His creatures. To Him and Him alone, are they responsible for their conduct. It was this God—Israel’s God—whom these kings wickedly dared to defy. It was with Him they were really at war. It was with His power they dared to contend, and His holy name which they despised. It was His children, on whom they inflicted so many bleeding wounds, and whose lives they so capriciously destroyed. For every act of impiety, therefore—for every wanton exercise of power, and every barbarous deed, to the God of Israel were they really responsible as their Judge. Thus was preparation made for an evil day.
(2.) The sinner’s blindness to his sin, and its consequences.
These men of the desert, doubtless, had their memories filled with reports of what the God of Israel had done, and how superior He was to all the gods of the nations, and it was their duty to have prosecuted this knowledge to its just conclusion. But when they saw the rich valleys and smiling plains of Israel, and found a people weak as children only defending them, their lust for possessing so valuable a prize rose within them; they shut their eyes to every consideration of moral right, and the fear of God, and grasped at the booty which was so easily within their reach. Men cannot look upon sin with open face so long as their moral vision is not impaired, for it immediately raises a struggle within one’s own breast. The will strongly desires what is forbidden, and conscience thunders against it. To save this struggle the man shuts his eyes, and makes himself blind both to sin and its consequences. By getting into a habit of not looking at sin in its evil nature, and not reflecting on its sad consequences, a man gradually becomes practically blind, so that he is able to commit sin with little remorse. Satan, meanwhile, greatly assists the soul in this self-blinding process, by the fascinating pictures which he sets before it of the gratification of sinful desires, and by turning away the attention from the voice of conscience. Indeed, that tremendous power which God has put into the soul to represent His own authority over it, he attempts to silence by drugging it; just as Mercury, when he proceeded to the task of putting Argus to death, found that he could not succeed on account of that monster having one hundred eyes, and when some of them slept, others were always awake, so that he could not come near him to effect his purpose. He, therefore, thought of drugging him all over, and having at last got all the eyes to shut, he speedily accomplished his object. “O, sir,” said a Christian lady to a young man of noble extraction, who was going on thoughtlessly in a wild career of sin, “O, if you would but think—only think?” “I cannot think,” he replied; “I dare not think—thought kills me!” When conscience is stifled, when Satan is listened to, when a deaf ear is turned to Christ, when reason is kept under and passion is allowed to reign, then there is darkness, and the works of darkness are done. (See 2Co_4:4; Joh_12:37-40.) On the Deceptive Character of Sin, see p. 197, etc.
(3.) The wicked’s persistent continuance in sin. These heathen marauders having been successful for one year in the work of spoiling Jehovah’s vineyard, and apparently no harm coming of it, they returned a second year, then a third and a fourth, until seven years had passed. They would begin to think that this people were deserted of their God, or possibly, all that they heard of Him and His doings were but dreams of the past. At any rate, there was no cloud in the sky to make them afraid. Why should they not continue to fatten on these fat pastures, and gratify themselves to the full? “To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.” “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is set in them to do evil.”
While they were thus imagining that the Lord did not see, neither did the God of Jacob regard, the plans of Heaven were maturing. He who is angry with the wicked every day, was whetting His sword and bending His bow. Time was allowed for the evil-doers to repent of their conduct, but as of this, after seven years’ trial, there were no symptoms, God arose from His place and executed judgment on His adversaries. This persistence in sin shows an advance in blindness of the understanding and hardness of heart.
(4.) The certainty that the wicked’s sin shall in due time find him out. How confounding it must have been for these kings, now to find themselves helpless prisoners in the hands of the very brother of the innocent men, whom in the wantonness of their power they had slaughtered so recently at Mount Tabor, for no other alleged crime than that they had endeavoured to defend their property from the spoliation of freebooters! Then their sin seemed to them a thing to mock at; now it stands out so serious a thing as to cost them their lives. Many other ruthless deeds, doubtless, they had perpetrated. Now this one sin is made the means of bringing down meet punishment for all the rest. Every perfection of Jehovah’s character demands that every sin be at some time visited with its just desert. His sovereignty regards it as an outrage of the creature against the authority of the Creator. His jealousy will not suffer that any spot or stain should exist, under the moral government of One who is so greatly to be feared. His justice will not allow that the standard of righteousness be in any degree lowered, beyond the point of absolute perfection. His holiness will not permit that any instance of sin should occur in any part of His pure universe, without some fit mark being put upon it of His detestation. His omniscience searches out the culprit—His omnipresence holds him fast in every place, and His omnipotence lays him for ever low in the dust; while Divine Providence causes every gate to be shut against him among the creatures, so that he shall have none to associate with, and none to pity him in the universal creation of God. How much do we owe to Him who, to every believer, prevents all this by the endurance of the bitter death of the cross!
2. The greatness of his fall.
This is measured by—
(1.) The height from which he fell. Over that vast host, that filled the valley and covered the slopes of Jezreel, these men bore absolute sway. A whole nation living in tents were as grasshoppers before them. Whom they would they slew, and whom they would they kept alive. To one they said Go, and he went; to another Come, and he came; to a third Do this, and he did it. They formed the double helm that guided the movements of that huge host. Their hearts were filled with proud and exultant feelings, as they looked on the magnificent spectacle of men and camels, crowding on each other over all the plain as far as the eye could reach, all glittering with jewels of silver and jewels of gold, the halfmoon-shaped ornaments conspicuous everywhere, as became the worshippers of the luminary of the night sky. Nature was calm around them, as they cursed the God of Israel, and trampled His people down before them as dust in their path. For days and months the sun shone on peacefully as before, and they were wholly unconscious of danger or surprise.
But the decree had gone forth; they had been weighed in the balances and found wanting; their days of sin and cruelty were numbered. From the watch-tower in the skies a messenger came down to tell, that the God of Jacob had seen the wrongs inflicted on his chosen people, and was about to fell the oppressor to the dust. As in a moment, the avalanche fell on the tents of Midian; the host ran, and cried, and fled. But who could escape the wrath of Him who could set all the resources of nature against them? They were cut down as the grass; they withered as the green herb—
Like the leaves of the forest, when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen;
Like the leaves of the forest, when autumn has blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
And now the two leaders stand all alone, stripped of everything, not a man of their armies left, waiting to receive their death-stroke at the hands of a mere boy!
(2.) The fall came irresistibly; nothing could withstand the destructive agency when it came. Who could stop that panic that arose in a moment at the midnight hour, when the signal was given by the braying of so many trumpets and the breaking of the pitchers? From that moment the work of death-dealing went on till only a speck remained on the distant mountains, of the dense cloud of men that obeyed the commands of these mighty chieftains. “They were chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.” It was a precipitous fall, as if they had been hurled violently over a cliff.
(3.) They were utterly helpless in their fall; they seem not to have been able to use a single stroke in beating back the wave. Not a man of Gideon’s army was killed nor even wounded; the 300 remained intact to the end. “None of the men of might in that hostile camp did find their hands.” What a picture of helplessness when 15,000 men should have allowed themselves to be either cut to pieces or scattered by 300 men, whose strength was completely exhausted—that is, at the rate of every fifty men allowing themselves to be smitten by one man without returning a blow!
(4.) The fall was unexpected and rapid. Nothing seemed more preposterous than to suppose, that a few stragglers gathering together on the mountains of Manasseh should inflict any serious blow on the myriads of Midian; and if by any means some advantage had been gained for Israel, the natural thought was, that it must have been only by slow degrees that these spoilers could have been driven out of the country. But in little more than a single day is the work done. When the day of reckoning comes, it is “as a thief in the night.” “Blessed is he that watcheth.” “The wicked are chased away as a vision of the night.” “When they are saying Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh.” When a wicked man has been reasoned with, has been implored to repent and believe, and has had much patience exercised towards him while yet he does not return, then he is “driven away in his wickedness”—he “dies in his sins.”
5. The Fall was ruin—irremediable and final. “The Midianites lifted up their heads no more” (Jdg_8:28). Forty years passed away, and Gideon was still alive, but all that time we do not hear a single sound from the land of Midian against Israel. They had received so terrible a lesson, that they trembled at the very thought of contending with so great a God again. The Fall here recorded was not merely a reverse, or even a heavy misfortune, which, as the wheel turns round might be again reversed, but it was a casting down to destruction; so that while contemplating what God had done we might well exclaim with the prophet, “O wheel!” (comp. the Fall of Sisera pp. 299–307).
II. The honour attending the last days of the righteous man.
We place the two characters in contrast, the righteous and the wicked. They differ in character and conduct in active life, and they differ in the end of life. The wicked we have seen spend life in fighting against God, and in the end they have many sorrows. But the righteous go through life walking with God, trusting in Him, led by Him, and acknowledging Him in all their ways, and in the end all things smile upon them (see Psa_32:10). There is much instruction to be got in studying the history of both characters, each of them taken by itself. But there is much additional instruction to be had from looking at the two in contrast, and hence we find them often placed together in scripture, one against the other so as to be contrasted. We sometimes see them in pairs as Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Saul and David, and others. Again we see them in communities generally, the people of God on the one hand, and those who have cast off God on the other. At one time, we see promises and many gracious words spoken to the righteous, while threatenings and forebodings of future wrath are held out to the other. But the end of life is generally set forth as the time when the contrast becomes most complete. The righteous are then dealt with as jewels, and the wicked as dross, “then shall we return and discern between the righteous and the wicked” (see Mal_3:17-18; Mat_3:12; Mat_13:30; Mat_25:34; Mat_25:41; Mat_25:46; Luk_13:28-29.)
Here what a contrast between the heads of the Midianitish army, and the head of the army of Israel. We have seen the one go down under a dark cloud never more to appear, but, turning to the other side, we see a name destined to go down to everlasting remembrance. “Light is sown for the righteous.” “His horn shall be exalted with honour.” What was the kind of honour which Gideon had in his last days?
1. It was in the moral greatness of his character.
It was not the honour of wealth, though he had that; not the honour of being a great patriot though he had much of that; not the honour of having a public ovation from the people, though that also he had to the full; nor was it that highest distinction which any people could offer to such a man, when with one consent they asked him to become their king. No; his honour lay in refusing a crown, not in having it offered him. Moral greatness is the true greatness of a man, when he places right principle higher than himself, and prefers to do what is best to be done, rather than what might suit his own interests, or is most agreeable to his own will. Gideon made the glory of God his chief good, and all his thoughts continually circled around that. For the sake of the name of his God, he braved every blast in the rough days of adversity, and now in the warm sunshine of prosperity, when the temptation to have his own name put forward at one point, in place of his God, is set before him, he meets it with a “Get thee behind me, Satan”—“I will not rule over you, neither shall any son that I have—the Lord shall rule over you.”
Gideon quite comprehended the position, which, alas! few or none else seemed to do. Israel was the Lord’s people. They belonged to Him as His redeemed, His chosen, whom he raised up for a special purpose in the world. They were His alone, and could belong to no other. He had also made Himself over to them to become theirs. He was their God, and therefore their King. It was wrong for them to think of any other head. All this was settled once for all at the outset of their history, and it was settled by solemn covenant. It was therefore an impious thought to suggest that a mere man, or any other than the Eternal God Himself, should be their Judge, Lawgiver, and King (1Sa_8:5-7).
Gideon’s act was, therefore, far above that of a Cincinnatus, who, after his great feat in accomplishing the deliverance of his country from a great danger, cared not to accept of any high rewards, but quietly returned to his farm and his plough. Another case of moral sublimity we have in Washington, who, though he permitted himself to be called by the title of President, yet refused all thought of royalty. Julius Cæsar was thrice presented with a kingly crown, and this he as often refused; but policy rather than principle appeared to be his motive. Cromwell reached the highest pinnacle of success, and chose to be called Lord Protector rather than king, but this too seemed to be on the ground of policy. Gideon alone, of all the characters of history, was by the unanimous voice of the nation hailed as king, and yet at once and with decision, on the high ground of a Divine arrangement, he rejected the tempting proposal.
2. He enjoyed the highest respect of his people. So many things, both in his character and conduct, were fitted to excite admiration, that it is not wonderful if he had the highest respect of all the good from Dan to Beersheba. The modesty of his demeanour, his singular meekness in dealing with the Ephraimites (Jdg_8:1-3), his implicit obedience to the instructions given him by the angel, his bold opposition to Baal, as the root of his country’s evils, his rising to the height of the great occasion when the Midianites had so be fought with and conquered, and the amazing success which in less than two short days had crowned his extraordinary exertions—these and other elements raised him so high in the people’s estimation, that the whole nation felt they never could do him enough honour. The whole land was full of his fame for forty years. In fact, even in Israel’s remarkable history, there was nothing brighter to speak of or to sing of, than of his name and his doings. He lived in the hearts of his people. If he asked their silver and their gold, he might have it as much as he chose to name (Jdg_8:24-26). If he wished them to carry on their worship in his city Ophrah, they came there at his desire. If they even abstained from the rites of Baal worship, which so many loved in their hearts, it was out of respect to his name that they did so, for so long as he remained with them no altars of Baal were frequented in Israel.
3. The whole land enjoyed peace for his sake. “The country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.” This was a high honour conferred on any man to say of him, that for his sake the whole land enjoyed the inestimable blessings of peace for so long a period. Such was the honour put on him by Divine Providence. For doubtless there were many secret causes of provocation among all the tribes, during the most of that period. Idolatry was the besetting sin everywhere, and, but for the strong influence of Gideon’s name, it must have broken out publicly in not a few places. Gideon, too; was ever thought of as the Jerubbaal—the conqueror and adversary of Baal, and this must have done much to keep back the rising tide of idol worship, and so to ward off the Divine judgments. He lived in his own house in peace, for so long a time, and the land had no special troubles for his sake.
4. He was blessed with long life—“died in a good old age.”
This phrase, which is used also of Abraham (Gen_25:8) and of David (1Ch_29:28), and the similar phrase “full of days” which is spoken of Job (Job_42:17), implies that the man who saw such a length of days was visibly blessed of God. In that age, when God taught his people so much by emblems, there was a deeper significance in the enjoyment of temporal prosperity as the sign of the Divine favour, than there is now under the Dispensation of the Spirit. In nearly all the descriptions given of the manner in which God will bless the man whom He loves, it is the language of temporal blessing that is used. In Job_5:26, the man who submits to God’s correction, after experiencing many deliverances from God’s gracious hand, is promised that at last he “will come to his grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season.” And among the numerous proofs of the Divine favour, which are promised to the man who makes choice of God as his own God, and looks to Him as his refuge, the list closes with the blessing of long life (Psa_91:16). The mere prolongation of life itself is a natural blessing, but it is chiefly of value when it is given as a mark of the Divine favour.
It cannot indeed now be predicted with the same definiteness, as in the days when the teaching of the Church was by symbols, that external prosperity, or the prolongation of life, is an indication of the Divine favour to the possessor above other men; indeed, it is one of the mysteries of Divine Providence, that the way of the wicked prospers more frequently than that of the righteous, though not so much in the matter of long life, as in that of external prosperity. But that the righteous have immensely the advantage, both from the nature of the case, and from the assurances of Scripture, is clear. The righteous have always God’s blessing with their portion, which, even if that be small, it will yield more real enjoyment, than would a princely fortune to the man on whom God frowned (Psa_37:16; Psa_37:11; Psa_37:25, &c.). In Isa_65:20, we have a remarkable statement respecting long life as a sure indication of the Divine favour, implying that when God rises up to bless His Church, there will no longer be persons who have only an infant’s age, nor any man called “old,” who has not filled up the days of an old man (such will be the care which God in His Providence will exercise over him); for he who will be reckoned only a child in those days will really have lived 100 years, and the sinful man who dies at the early age of 100 years will be reckoned accursed of God, for not having nearly reached what shall then be the common limit of life. An eminent thinker defines the word “sinner,” to mean, one who misses the mark, and translates the last line of the verse thus: “He who misses the mark of 100 years, will be reckoned accursed of God,” because his life will appear cut short, so that he does not live half his days.
5. The good man’s grievous errors. However bright the name of Gideon, though it shines as a star of the first magnitude in the Old Testament sky, it is not without its spots (Ecc_7:20). The Bible good man is, in this world, one who was originally a bad man, now in process of being made good. God Himself is the worker; the means employed are of His choosing, and the work will in due time be made perfect, but as yet it is only in process. Hence the struggles of the “old man” with the “new man,” and the strivings of the “Spirit against the flesh” (see Gal_5:17; Eph_4:22-24). The extinguishing of human depravity in any human heart is not effected instantaneously, but is a gradual operation. Hence the proper light in which to look at any good man is not to regard him as of a different mould from other men, or taken from a different stock, but to regard any spiritual excellence of character which he has above other men, as wholly due to the grace of God working in him.
Gideon was guilty of the sin so common in his time of polygamy. “He had many wives.” This was a distinct violation of the law of marriage even by the light of nature (Gen_2:22; Gen_2:24; Mal_2:14; Mal_2:13), and more emphatically by the light of the written law of Moses (Exo_20:14). But there was so much fog in the atmosphere of those days, before the glorious sun had risen in the sky, that men could but dimly read the meaning of heaven’s laws. Thus, surrounded by the corrupt practices of every other community on earth, even some of the best of God’s people gave way before the evil example (1Co_15:33). But the light of those times being small relatively, certain evil practices were not condemned so strongly as they are in the clearer light of gospel times (Mat_5:31-32). It is said with regard to many points of conduct, “The times of this ignorance God winked at”—passed over. The sins were seen, were hated, were condemned, but God did not in many cases execute the sentence they deserved. Yet sin in every case, and in every age, is condemned by God quite as much among His own people, and even more, than among others (see on this whole subject pp. 322–4).
Gideon allied himself with a Canaanitish family. The maidservant whom he married, of the house of Shechem, appears to have belonged to the idolatrous portion of that clan (see Jdg_5:31; Jdg_9:18, &c.) This was the sin which had been forbidden more expressly than any other, and which led to many a dark day in the homes of Israel (Exo_34:16; Deu_7:3-4; Jdg_3:6-7). Bitter consequences also came down on Gideon’s house, as the sequel will show.
Gideon made an ephod and put it in his city, as a point of worship for the people. We have already spoken of this, and pronounced it an error of judgment, rather than of intention. He had not, so far as appears, the most remote intention of encouraging idolatry. That was at the very antipodes of his thoughts and wishes. But as Shiloh, the only centre for the worship of Israel’s God in the land, was in the tribe of Ephraim, and as the Ephraimites had already shown themselves so sensitive in their dealings, both with himself and with the men of Manasseh, he was apprehensive lest, on the occasion of one or other of the frequent visits that might be made, from persons of his own and other tribes in the north, to Shiloh, some spark might kindle a flame of resentment, which would both put an end to the worship, and envelope the country in civil war. There was the greater reason to fear this, that Ephraim contained such large numbers of the idolatrous classes. The intention, here, we believe, was only for good, for Gideon was eminently a man of peace, and had already shown that he could make large sacrifices to avoid a quarrel with brethren.
But he was in serious error. He tried to do a right thing in a wrong way. God had already appointed the place of His worship, and also the men who should minister to Him in the service. And not even a Gideon durst interfere to make any alteration on it before Him. If such dangers as Gideon feared actually existed, Jehovah was well able to take care of his own service. But this God-fearing man thought that, as he had already been taken into the service of Jehovah, he was not acting presumptuously now in wearing the priest’s ephod, or working dress, and so personating that official in his office. But he had received no call to enter into that office, though on one occasion he was specially called to erect an altar and offer sacrifice (ch. Jdg_6:25, &c.). It was therefore a false step. What keeps everything right in the matters of God, is to act implicitly at His command. In place of this, Gideon now acted according to his own judgment. Evil results followed. The first step taken being wrong, another and another went further from the line of duty, until at last the people fell into the old pit of idolatry—the very last thing which the good man who took the first false step ever dreamt of.
When Epicurus, the founder of the celebrated school, made his summum bonum consist of that which ministered best for pleasure, he little imagined to what lengths of impurity and bestiality, many of his disciples would carry his system. Neither did Socinus seem to realise at first, how far the doctrine or principle would carry him, of making reason, the judge of everything the Bible declared about God. And all through Church History especially, we have many warnings not to trust to human reason, when it would determine for itself in the face of any commandment of the Lord.
Yet, with all these serious drawbacks, there are so many elements of excellence in Gideon’s character, that it shines resplendent on the page of Scripture history, and is remembered down to New Testament times, where again it is taken up (Heb_11:32, &c.), and held up as a bright picture to be looked at to the end of time. From the days of Joshua to those of Samuel, no such full account is given of any other of Israel’s heroes. Through the long decline of a green old age, he is continually pointed to, as he goes out and in among the people, as Jerubbaal, the man who dared to fight and was able to conquer Baal. And when he dies at last, it is when the field has long been clear of enemies, and when he is surrounded only by friends. Amid the regrets of all, with the blessings of love poured on his head, and the gifts of honour laid on his bier, he is put into his father’s sepulchre, and laid in the family vault, leaving his praises to be sung, and his example to be followed, by many in every home of the land he loved so well.
N.B.—We have now reached that stage in our remarks on the matter of this Book, that we have practically discussed all the more important principles it contains, so that in what follows it is not necessary that our comments should be otherwise than brief, and that frequent references be made to the thoughts already given.
THE PREFACE TO CHAPTER 9
Jdg_8:33-35
1. The immediate result of Gideon’s death. This might be expressed in one short line. The people relapsed into idolatry. Notwithstanding all the long-continued lesson read to them by that splendid career, and notwithstanding all the warnings of the past, and the terrible seasons of chastisement they had come through, they still spring anew to that sin, the moment that the hand that kept them back from it is removed. The good judge is dead, and Israel fly to their idols, is the purport of the story. (See the character of the unteachable heart, and God’s dealings with it, on pp. 311–318; also 186, 189–192.) This is instructive.
(1.) It showed that their previous penitence wanted root. Impressions, however strong, made on the human heart will not last, unless they take root in the understanding, the affections, and the will.
(2.) The sin of worshipping other objects in place of God is a passion with the depraved human heart.
(3.) Inveterate sin is without shame. Therefore it loses self-respect.
(4.) It is blind, and regardless of consequences.
(5.) If not arrested, it leads to sudden destruction. (Pro_29:1.)
In this case, happily, the covenant stood between them and that.
2. The people’s ingratitude to both God and man.
(1.) It springs from want of consideration. How often does God complain, “My people do not consider?” “They are sottish children—a people of no understanding.” There is no weighing of claims, or taking serious facts into account.
(2.) It implies deadness of heart. The motives on God’s side towards all His creatures are so strong, that if there be any sensibility left in the heart at all, there must be some emotion awakened. That there should be none, implies the loss of the capacity for feeling.
(3.) It implies aggravated guilt. How offensive such a spectacle before a holy God. That such a worthless object should be embraced, a piece of dead matter, a thing made by its own worshipper, and an object surrounded with every possible vile association, that such an object should be preferred as a thing to be embraced and worshipped instead of the true and holy Jehovah, is indeed fitted to bring down some awful manifestation of the Divine anger.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv10, 22 The End of Zebah and Zalmunna
The End of Zebah and Zalmunna
v. 10. Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, near the headwaters of the Jabbok, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of all the hosts of the children of the East; for there fell an hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword, namely, in the battle in the Plain of Jezreel and in the pursuit.
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v. 11. And Gideon went up by the way of them that dwelt in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, the easternmost cities of Gad, and smote the host, attacking, apparently, from the northeast, from which direction the enemy did not expect an assault; for the host was secure.
v. 12. And when Zebah and Zalmunna fled, he pursued after them, and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and discomfited all the host; terror seized upon them, so that they offered no resistance, and the army surrendered.
v. 13. And Gideon, the son of Joash, returned from battle before the sun was up, or, from the ascent or pass of Hecheres, in the hills east of Succoth,
v. 14. and caught a young man of the men, the inhabitants, of Succoth, and enquired of him, in order to find out certain facts about the city; and he described unto him the princes of Succoth and the elders thereof, wrote down their names for Gideon, even threescore and seventeen men.
v. 15. And he, Gideon,came unto the men of Succoth and said, Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, whom he led along with him captive, with whom ye did upbraid me, concerning whom they had spoken to him in a jeering manner, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary?
v. 16. And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth, by giving them a well-deserved flogging he taught all the inhabitants of the city a lesson, especially concerning the penalties of treasonable selfishness.
v. 17. And he beat down the tower of Penuel, and slew the men of the city, in a just punishment of their faithlessness and treason.
v. 18. Then said he unto Zebah and Zalmunna, after his return to his own tribe, What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? He wanted a description of their face and form, their general appearance. And they answered, As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king. This was in reference to a raid which had been made by the Midianites before Gideon had been called to enter upon this campaign of vengeance.
v. 19. And he said, They were my brethren, even the sons of my mother, the very nearest blood-relatives. As the Lord liveth, if ye had saved them alive, I would not slay you, he would have been inclined to spare their lives, but this one cruel action made it impossible for him to do so.
v. 20. And he said unto Jether, his first-born, apparently still a lad, Up, and slay them. But the youth drew not his sword; for he feared, because he was yet a youth, not yet accustomed to slaying men.
v. 21. Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise thou and fall upon us; for as the man is, so is his strength; their execution was a task, not for a weak lad, but for a full-grown man. And Gideon arose and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments, little moon-shaped pendants, that were on their camels’ necks. In this way was the just punishment of God upon the oppressors put into execution.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10, 11, 13, 15, 18, 20, 22, 24 This word is used here to mark a break…
Now
This word is used here to mark a break in the story line. Here the narrator starts to tell a new part of the story.
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Zebah and Zalmunna
See how you translated these names in Judges 8:5.
Karkor
This is the name of a city. (See: How to Translate Names)
fifteen thousand men
"15,000 men" (See: Numbers)
had fallen
This is a polite way of referring to people who died in battle. AT: "had been killed" or "had died in battle" (See: Euphemism)
120,000 men
"one hundred thousand men" (See: Numbers)
men who drew the sword
Here drawing the sword represents using the sword in battle. Possible meanings are 1) this phrase refers to soldiers who use swords in battle. AT: "swordsmen" or "men who fought with swords" or 2) this phrase refers to any soldiers. AT: "soldiers" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
sword
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.