note)], that he could not do (it) by day, that he did (it) by nigh (31) for him, let him be put to death whilst (it is yet) me [rather "let him be put to death (by Baal; you may le to Baal to put him to death) before it is morning :" lit. the morning," ie., wait until the morning, leaving the legious one to Baal to slay by that time]; if he (be) a s him plead for himself [i.e., avenge his own wrong up perpetrator], because (one) hath cast down his altar. Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal [or impersonally "He was called (by the people) Jerubbaal," i.e., the one with whom Baal should plead. The Jews in ridicule of idolatry changed Baal into Bosheth (shame), or Besheth, and used Jerubbesheth for Jerubbaal (2 Sam. xi. 21). Compare Eshbaal, Ishbosheth (1 Chron. ix. 39; 2 Sam. ii. 8)], saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar. GIDEON AND THE FLEECE. JUDGES VI. 33-40. (33) Then all the Midianites, and the Amalekites [akin to the Edomites, being descended from Amalek, the grandson of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 12; see note ver. 3, above). Balaam under the Spirit said of them (Numb. xxiv. 20, Heb.): "Beginning of the heathen (was) Amalek, and its end shall be even to the perishing." In age, power, and celebrity this Bedouin tribe was certainly not "the first of the nations," but, as the margin says, "the first of the nations that warred against Israel" (Ezek. xvii. 8). It was the first that opened the conflict of heathendom against the kingdom of God. The heinousness of their sin at the outset lay in this, when Israel at Rephidim had no water to drink, and God miraculously supplied it from the smitten rock, the Amalekites tried to deprive God's people of a chief necessary of life, just supplied by miracle, thus fighting not so much with them as with God. Instigated by the same hatred of Israel, as the covenant people of God, they joined with the Canaanites in discomfiting Israel at Hormah (Numb. xiv. 43-45). Next they were in league with Eglon against Israel. And now they, in league with Midian, the oppressor of the people of God], and the children of the east [see note ver. 3], were gathered together, and went over [crossing the Jordan from the east to its western side, after having followed the course of the Jabbok up to the place of its entering the Jordan], and pitched in the valley of Jezreel [known in later times as the great plain of Esdraelon, extending across central Palestine from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, and separating Mount Carmel and the Samaritan hills from those of Galilee. Its wonderful richness and its exposed position have tempted the invader 6 from the earliest times. Jezreel, the city in Issachar, was th royal residence of Ahab, now Zerin. The plain has been th great battle field of Palestine in ancient, as in modern time (34) But the Spirit of the LORD [JEHOVAH as the Engli version always marks by the capitals, whereas it marks, contradistinction, Adonai by small letters, Lord] came up [, clothed,' as margin rightly has it, invested him like coat of mail, encompassing him with invincible might (co pare 1 Chron. xii. 18, margin; 2 Chron. xxiv. 20; Luke xx 49); "endued with power from on high": literally, "arrayed power," &c.: èvovonode; compare Isa. lxi. 10; Eph. vi. Gideon, and he blew a trumpet [to summon the people agai the enemy]; and Abiezer [i.e., the Abiezrite clan, to wh belonged Joash and his son Gideon, living in Ophrah, wh was on a hill facing from the south the plain of Jezr Originally in Gilead, but latterly in the portion of Manas west of the Jordan (Numb. xxvi. 30; Josh. xvii. 2)] gathered [Hebrew, the Abiezrite clan let itself be summon after him. (35) And he sent messengers throughout all Mana. who also was gathered after him [i.e., the Manassites wes Jordan: the tribes on the east of the Jordan took no par the war]; and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebu and unto Naphtali [the tribes in the north], and they cam [by, rather they advanced: the Asherites and Naphta could not come up' from their mountains, but could onl down to the plain of Jezreel] to meet them [i.e., to mee Manassites, who were coming from the south: all conver towards the plain of Jezreel, the battle field in Issachar, t together in concert under Gideon against the enemy] And Gideon said unto God, If Thou wilt save [Heb. If art saving] Israel by mine hand, as Thou hast said, (37) B I will put (Heb. I putting, I am laying] a fleece of wool | the shorn of the wool, the mass of wool just cut, and still a ing together as one mass] in the floor [the open space, ex to the winds, which was used for winnowing chaff from g (and) if the dew be on the fleece only, and (it be) dry upon o earth (beside), then shall I know that Thou wilt save Israel by hand, as Thou hast said. (38) And it was so: for he r early in the morrow, and thrust [pressed] the fleece together, and wringed [squeezed] the dew out of the fleece, a bowl-full of water. (39) And Gideon said unto God, Let not Thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray Thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. (40) And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. SECOND STAGE IN THE TIMES OF THE JUDGES, FROM GIDEON TO JAIR, 95 YEARS. 1. Occasion of the call of Gideon: Israel's apostasy to the heathen world punished by the heathen Midianites.—Just before the occurrence of the facts narrated in this passage, Gideon had received his call from God. The angel of Jehovah, that is, Jehovah the uncreated Word, in visible form, anticipatory of the incarnation, appeared to him under a terebinth in Ophrah, a town belonging to Joash, his father. Former Judges-Othniel, Ehud, and Barak-had been moved by the Spirit of God to their work of delivering Israel from the oppressor; but to Gideon alone a theophany was vouchsafed in order to intimate that the God who had visibly manifested himself to the patriarchs, was the same Jehovah, ready to save their descendants, if only they would penitently return to the covenant. It was the time of Israel's sore trouble. In earlier ages Midian with Moab, after having vainly sought to curse Israel by the mouth of Balaam, had too well succeeded in bringing a plague on the elect people, by tempting them to whoredom with their women and had then, in consequence, been smitten severely by Israel, according to God's command (Numb. xxv. 17, 18, xxxi. 1-16). But now after 200 years, in renewed strength, with the Amalekites and other marauding children of the east, they were employed as God's instrument for chastising His people for their apostasy. For it is a principle of God's retributive justice, everywhere illustrated throughout the sacred history, that when His people forsake their spiritual Husband (Isa. liv. 5) and Lord, to join themselves to the world, the same world which was the instrument of their sin becomes the H instrument of their punishment. The Midianite hordes, li swarming locusts, consumed all their produce, except the lit which they contrived to hide in caves and holes (Judg. vi. 4, 5, 6, 11). 'The hand of Midian was strong (so the Hebre against Israel, and, because of the Midianites, the children Israel made them the dens [else ravines] which are in mountains, and caves, and strongholds." The word 'ma implies that, besides using the natural caves as places of ref just as they were, they adapted them, by enlargement and ot wise, to their purpose. These places the Israelites used no much to shelter themselves in, as to conceal their possess and grain from the enemy. For, like genuine Bedouins, Midianites were more intent on plunder, than on extermina the people themselves; "they destroyed the increase of earth, till thou come unto Gaza (spreading from the plai Jezreel to which they came from beyond Jordan towards east, to the extreme south-west of the land), and left no sus ance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass; ""both they their camels were without number, and they entered into land to destroy it." 2. Affliction the instrument of correction: consequent p and profit by the word.-God permitted His people t brought so low, in order that affliction might drive the prayer, and that thus their extremity might become opportunity. Such was the result in the gracious wa His Providence. But before helping them, the Lord s prophet to reprove them by reminding them of His originally delivered them out of Egypt, and then drive Canaanites out from before them, and given them the with the injunction that they should not serve the gods Amorites, which injunction, notwithstanding all His go they had disobeyed (ver. 7-10). 3. Divine epiphany to Gideon. Idols must be cast down Jehovah.-Next God called Gideon by two revelations. first, by a visible manifestation of the Angel of Jehov summoned him, in the strength of Jehovah, to deliver Isra the oppressor Midian. Next, in a dream of the night, J commanded him to throw down his father's altar to Baal |