‘ And Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing.'
Gideon came to the Jordan. The last part of Judges 7:25 and Judges 8:1-3 had been looking ahead, now in Judges 8:4 we return to Gideon's pursuit of the enemy. He was not satisfied just with victory, he wanted the heads of the two kings of the Midianites. We learn later that his intense pursuit arose from the fact that these two kings had earlier mercilessly killed his brothers, probably on a previous raid (Judges 8:18). The Midianites were separated into several sub-tribes headed by a number of princes (compare the five princes in Joshua 13:21), over whom were these two great chieftains, here called ‘kings'.
“The three hundred.” This does not necessarily mean none had been killed. It is now a global term that covers that noble band of men. ‘Faint, yet pursuing.' They were exhausted but ready to follow Gideon anywhere, and there was a job to be done. God's test had produced the right kind of men.