Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 7:8

"So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets; and he sent all the men of Israel every man unto his tent, but retained the three hundred men: and the camp of Midian was beneath him in the valley." — Judges 7:8 (ASV)

So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets. —The English Version here differs from most of the ancient versions (e.g., the Septuagint, the Chaldee, the Vulgate, etc.), which render it, “And they (the 300) took the provisions and trumpets of the people (the 9,700) in their hands.” This is also the explanation of Rabbi Kimchi, Levi Ben Gerson, etc. Provisions would be scarce in the vicinity of so vast a host, and it would be the desire of all that the brave 300 should be well supplied. The reason for taking 300 rams’ horns would soon appear; and, indeed, without this verse we might well wonder how each of the 300 came to have a horn of his own. Their “pitchers” were probably those in which the provisions had been carried.