JUDGE OF ISRAEL · THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL

Gideon. Three hundred men against Midian; forty years of quiet; he refused the crown.

LED ISRAELi

Not given Not given as years of judging; "the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon"

TRIBE

Manasseh (the Abiezrite family)

IN THE LINE

6th of 15

SCRIPTURE SAYS

“The angel of the LORD greeted him: "The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.”

PROPHETS

An unnamed prophet

THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL: 15 RULERS MOSES → SAMUEL

THE CYCLE

Forgetting, oppression, a cry, a deliverer, rest

  • 1 · FORGOT GOD "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD." Judges 6:1
  • 2 · OPPRESSED: MIDIAN, WITH THE AMALEKITES AND "THE CHILDREN OF THE EAST", 7 YEARS For seven years they came up at harvest "as grasshoppers for multitude", and Israel hid in dens and caves. Judges 6:1–5
  • 3 · CRIED OUT "Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD." Judges 6:6–7
  • 4 · DELIVERED With three hundred men, trumpets and lamps in pitchers, Gideon routed Midian; he then captured its kings beyond the Jordan. Judges 7:16–22 Judges 8:10–12
  • 5 · REST The land had rest 40 years. Judges 8:28

ACCESSION

How Gideon came to power

  • The angel of the LORD found him threshing wheat in a winepress at Ophrah to hide it from Midian, and sent him: "have not I sent thee?" Judges 6:11–16
  • Fire from the rock consumed his offering; he built the altar "Jehovah-shalom". Judges 6:19–24
  • By night he threw down his father's altar of Baal and cut down the grove. Judges 6:25–32
  • He asked for the sign of the fleece, wet and then dry. Judges 6:36–40

SUCCESSION

Before and after

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

What Scripture says of him

  • The angel of the LORD greeted him: "The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." Judges 6:12
  • Gideon answered: "my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." Judges 6:15
  • "The Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet." Judges 6:34
  • Offered a dynasty, he said: "I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you." Judges 8:22–23
  • Later Scripture remembers "the day of Midian" and "the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb". Isaiah 9:4 Isaiah 10:26 Psalms 83:9–11
  • Samuel names Jerubbaal among Israel's deliverers, and Hebrews among those who acted by faith. 1 Samuel 12:11 Hebrews 11:32
  • From the Midianite gold he made an ephod at Ophrah: "all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house." Judges 8:24–27
  • After his death Israel made Baal-berith their god and showed no kindness to his house. Judges 8:33–35

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

THE LAND

The places Scripture names

The tribes of Israel · tribe of Manasseh (the Abiezrite family). Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

THE NATION

What the nation did

  • A prophet reminded Israel of the Exodus: "ye have not obeyed my voice". Judges 6:8–10
  • The altar of Baal at Ophrah was destroyed, and an altar to the LORD built in its place. Judges 6:25–28
  • Gideon's ephod became an object Israel "went a whoring after"; after his death they made Baal-berith their god. Judges 8:27 Judges 8:33

PROPHETS

Prophets of the reign

  • An An unnamed prophet “I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice.”

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

MIDIAN, WITH AMALEK AND "THE CHILDREN OF THE EAST"

Zebah, king of Midian · Zalmunna, king of Midian · Oreb, prince of Midian · Zeeb, prince of Midian

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

SCRIPTURE'S OWN NUMBERS

No years given

Seven years under Midian, then forty years of quiet (Judges 6:1, 8:28). No year BC is given.

A priestly garment used to ask the LORD's will

Keil (1865)

Keil holds that "ephod" means the high priest's shoulder-dress with its breastplate, and that Gideon probably wore it to seek revelations; the sin lay in setting up worship outside the sanctuary.[3]

An image or idol

Gesenius and others, as reported by Keil; Moore (1895); Bertheau held it was a golden bull image of the LORD, as reported by Keil

Moore takes "ephod" here as "the specific name of a kind of idol", pointing to the weight of gold and to the editor's phrase "went a whoring after it".[25][3]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 10

Judges 6 Judges 7 Judges 8 Judges 9 1 Samuel 12 2 Samuel 11 Psalms 83 Isaiah 9 Isaiah 10 Hebrews 11

PASSAGES · 8

Judges 6:1–8:35 Judges 9:1–6 1 Samuel 12:11 2 Samuel 11:21 Psalms 83:9–12 Isaiah 9:4 Isaiah 10:26 Hebrews 11:32

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Judges never says that Gideon "judged Israel"; it says the country was quiet forty years "in the days of Gideon" (Judges 8:28).
  • Scripture does not say what the ephod looked like or how it was used (see the open question).
  • Abimelech, Gideon's son, "reigned three years over Israel" from Shechem (Judges 9:22) but is not called a judge; he has no page here.

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • After he threw down Baal's altar his father called him Jerubbaal; "Jerubbaal, who is Gideon". Judges 6:32 Judges 7:1
  • From the textThe site's person record also attaches 2 Samuel 11:21, which names "Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth": the same man, with the name formed differently. 2 Samuel 11:21 Judges 9:1

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 276–286 (chronology of the judges).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 322–323 (Judges 5:25–27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 357–358 (Judges 8:27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 373 (Judges 10:3–5).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 387–394 (Judges 11:34–40).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 398 (Judges 12:8–10).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 156–157 (Joshua 15:13–19).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 208 (Joshua 19:50).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), pp. 17–18 (1 Samuel 1:1).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), p. 39 (1 Samuel 2:27–36).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), p. 56 (1 Samuel 4:18).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), pp. 117–118 (1 Samuel 12:11).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. Andrew Harper, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Chronicles (1872), pp. 123–124 (1 Chronicles 6:28, Hebrew 6:13).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. Andrew Harper, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Chronicles (1872), p. 165 (1 Chronicles 9:22).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 2 (1872 printing) (1872), p. 87 (Exodus 18:24–27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), pp. 71–72 and note (Numbers 11:24–30).
  • George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (International Critical Commentary) (1903), pp. 113–115 (Numbers 11:25–29).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), p. 499 (Deuteronomy 33:4–5).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. xxxvii–xlii (Introduction §7, Chronology).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. xxviii–xxix (Introduction, the Minor Judges).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 27 and notes (Judges 1:13).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 66–67 (Judges 2:9).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 107–108 (Judges 4, the two accounts).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 113–114 (Judges 4:5).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 231–232 (Judges 8:27).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 274–275 (Judges 10:4).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 302–305 and note (Judges 11:39).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 310 (Judges 12:8).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 311 (Judges 12:13–15, on 1 Samuel 12:11).
  • Edward Mack, in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, "Chronology of the Old Testament" (1915), section VII (From the Disruption to the Exodus).
  • S. R. Driver, The Book of Exodus (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1911), p. xxx (Introduction §4).
  • James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. III (1906), §617, p. 264 (Merneptah's Hymn of Victory).
  • Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, vol. 1 (Genesis to Deuteronomy) (1706), on Deuteronomy 33:5.
  • Julius Wellhausen, tr. J. S. Black and A. Menzies, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1885), ch. VI (Chronicles), §III.2.

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