Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 7

Jerubbaal, who is Gideon. Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, Esther, Daniel, Saint Paul, and others are instances of Scriptural characters who had two names.

Beside. This should rather be understood as above. It would have been foolish and dangerous to encamp on the plain.

The well of Harod. The name “Harod” means “trembling,” with an obvious allusion to the timidity of the people (chareed, Judges 7:3). There may be another allusion to this in 1 Samuel 28:5. The name is used here by anticipation.

It occurs in this passage only, though two Harodites are mentioned in 2 Samuel 23:25, and the same fountain is obviously alluded to in 1 Samuel 29:1. Since Gideon’s camp was on Mount Gilboa, there can be little doubt that Harod must be identified with the abundant and beautiful fountain at the foot of the hill now known as Ain Jalûd, or “the spring of Goliath.” This latter name may stem from a mistaken legend that this was the scene of the giant’s death, or possibly from a mistaken corruption of the name Harod itself.

There is another reading, “Endor” .

By the hill of Moreh. Bertheau renders this as, “stretching from the hill of Moreh into the valley.” The only hill of this name known from other sources is the one at Shechem (Genesis 12:6; Deuteronomy 11:30), but that location is twenty-five miles south of Mount Gilboa.

Therefore, there can be no doubt that Moreh is here used for Little Hermon, now Jebel ed-Duhy. The Vulgate renders it “of a lofty hill,” perhaps to avoid a supposed difficulty.

The word Moreh means “archer,” and Little Hermon may have been called “the Archer’s Hill” because of the Amalekite bowmen.

The people that are with you are too many for me. —This must have put the faith of Gideon to a severe trial, since the Midianites were 135,000 in number (Judges 8:10), and Gideon’s forces only 32,000 (Judges 7:4).

Lest Israel vaunt themselves. —See Deuteronomy 8:17.

Whosoever is fearful and afraid. —This proclamation is in exact accordance with Deuteronomy 20:8 (and the other general directions in that chapter). It is there founded on the psychological observation that cowardice is exceedingly contagious, so that the presence of timid men in an army is a source of direct danger. The same rule was rigidly observed by the faithful Judas Maccabæus . Epaminondas, for the same reason, made the same proclamation before the battle of Leuctra. In this instance there was the further reason given in the previous verse. “The ancients had observed that even when there are many legions it is always the few that win the battle” (Tacitus, Annals xiv. 36).

Depart early. —The Hebrew word tsaphar occurs here only. The Chaldee explains it by tsiphra, “in the morning;” and Abarbanel says that this injunction was given so that they might not incur shame when they retired. The rendering “hastily” is explained to mean “like a bird” (tsippor). Keil, connecting it with an Arabic root, makes it mean “slink away by by-paths.” It seems to involve a shade of contempt—“Let him take himself off.” (Trolle sich: Cassel.)

From mount Gilead. —This expression has caused great difficulty, but the Hebrew cannot mean “to mount Gilead,” nor “ beyond mount Gilead.” The only tenable solution of the difficulty is:

1. to alter the text into “mount Gilboa” (Clericus), or from meehar, “from mount,” to maheer, “speedily” (Michaelis);
2. or to suppose that “mount Gilead” was a rallying-cry of the Manassites in general, for Gilead was a son of Abiezer (Numbers 26:30, where Jeezer is merely an error), and hence was derived the name “Gilead” of the trans-Jordanic district which fell to the half-tribe of Manasseh (Joshua 17:5–6).

There returned of the people twenty and two thousand. —No detail could more decisively show the terror struck into them by the sight of the Midianite host. They looked on them with the same alarm with which the Greeks, before Marathon, used to gaze on the Persian dress. It must not, however, be supposed that all the defaulters went straight to their homes. Doubtless many of them took part in the pursuit which made the victory decisive.

The people are yet too many. —A fresh trial of faith; but small numbers were essential for the method of victory by which God intended that the deliverance should be achieved.

Unto the water. —i.e., to the spring of Harod.

I will try them. —The Septuagint renders it (Codex Vaticanus), “I will purge them,” as gold from dross, and this is the literal sense of the word (Isaiah 1:25; Isaiah 48:10).

Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue. —Josephus (Antt. v. 6, § 4) says that Gideon led them down to the spring in the fiercest heat of the noonday, and that he judged those to be the bravest who flung themselves down and drank, and those to be the cowards who lapped the water hastily and tumultuously. Theodoret also thinks that the Divine aid was shown by the fact that the greatest cowards were chosen.

This may have been a Jewish legend (Hagadah); but it seems more reasonable to suppose that greater self-control would be shown by stooping and drinking the water out of the hand than by flinging themselves at full length to drink, which would be the natural instinct of a thirsty man. Rashi says that those who went down on their knees to drink were secret idolators, who had bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18).

As a dog lappeth. —Some commentators imagine that this is an allusion to Egyptian dogs, who, out of fear for the Nile crocodiles, only venture to lap the water while they are running along the banks.