Bible Commentaries

Judges 7:19-21. So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.

This was at the dead of night, when the hosts of Midian were fast asleep. They were startled from their slumbers by the blast of three hundred trumpets, and the flaming of three hundred torches. They gathered that these were only the bugles and the lamps at the head of vast regiments of Israelites, and they hardly dared to calculate how great the whole host must be. Filled with fear, astonished at the sound of the trumpets, and the shouting of Gideon’s band all round their camp, they took to their heels: “all the host ran, and cried, and fled.”

Judges 7:22. And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host:

They were a motley company, every man afraid of his fellow. They had gathered together to share the spoil, and now, when fear demoralized them, the hordes of wild warriors began to destroy one another.

Judges 7:22-23. And the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath. And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites.

If some have the courage to strike the enemy, there are others who will come out of their hiding places to hunt the beaten foe. When you really want help, often you cannot get it; but when you can afford to do without assistance, you will sometimes be embarrassed by it.

Judges 7:24. And Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters —

“Secure the fords in the streams which flow into the Jordan from the mountainous region of Ephraim, so that the refugees cannot get away.”

Judges 7:24-25. Unto Bethbarah and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan. And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan.

So that, though they had been very backward at the first, yet, when they were once aroused, these men of Ephraim did their part in ridding the land of the common foe, and among the trophies of war, the heads of two of the princes of the Midianites fell into their hands.

This exposition consisted of readings from Judges 7:19-25; Judges 8:1-27.