Judges 6:40 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

It was dry upon the fleece only. — Such a result as this — not being in accordance with natural circumstances — could only have arisen from direct interposition. Besides the simple narrative, which tells us of these results as a sign granted to Gideon in accordance with his prayer, it is of course possible to allegorise the dew as the sign of God’s grace, and to say that the first sign represented Israel as replenished with God’s love when all was dry around (Hosea 14:5, “I will be as the dew unto Israel;” Micah 5:7, “Jacob shall be as the dew”); and the second, the fact that “God manifested himself in the weakness and forsaken condition of His people, while the nations were flourishing all around.” Similarly St. Ambrose (De Sp. Sanct, Prol. in 1) sees in the fleece full of dew the Hebrew nation hiding the mystery of Christ within itself, and in the dry fleece that mystery extended to all the world, but leaving the Hebrew nation dry. It would be equally possible to give a mystic significance to the threshing-floor, as a type of the universal Church (Matthew 3:12, &c.). But these allegoric applications of simple narratives are, to say the least, precarious; nor is there much value in Ewald’s comparison of the fleece to Gideon’s character, cool amid the general passion, dry amid the general damp of fear.