Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 7:1

"Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod: and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley." — Judges 7:1 (ASV)

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.