Judges 6:11-24 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Judges 6:11. On the angel of Yahweh see Judges 2:1; Genesis 16:7 *. For oak read terebinth. While the primitive Semites were animists, the Israelites came to associate Yahweh's own presence with sacred trees (p. 100, Genesis 18:1).

Judges 6:12. With the assurance Yahweh is with thee cf. the faith grandly expressed in the name Immanuel, God is with us (Isaiah 7:14). On hearing the words Yahweh is with thee, Gideon replies, Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us (used five times in Judges 6:13). He cannot detach himself from the community. He becomes heroic because he has a public soul.

Judges 6:14. Looked upon him is better than turned towards him. Thus far Yahweh's angel is to Gideon a Traveller Unknown, though His glance is so searching. His tones so commanding. He has more faith in Gideon than Gideon in himself. Go in this thy might is an injunction to a hero to realise himself. He is to go in the strength of his manhood with all his physical and moral force, native and acquired.

Judges 6:15. Gideon has that humility which is praiseworthy if it remembers, blameworthy if it forgets, the Great Companion. He keenly feels his insufficiency, till Yahweh, at once rebuking and reassuring him, promises, Surely I will be with thee (cf. Exodus 3:13; 2 Corinthians 3:5).

Judges 6:17-24. Gideon prepares a meal, which to his astonishment becomes a sacrifice. When the stranger touches the food with the tip of his staff, a supernatural fire leaps from the rock, and consumes the food. Realising at length that he has seen Yahweh's angel face to face, Gideon fears death (cf. Judges 13:22). [The rock may have had one or more cup-holes on the surface, into which the broth would be poured. Many examples have been discovered in Palestine of rocks in which cup-like holes had been carved, some of them of considerable size. They date back in many instances to the pre-Semitic cave-dwellers of the Neolithic period. An easily accessible account is given in Handcock's The Archaeology of the Holy Land. A. S. P.]

Judges 6:21. The departure of Yahweh's angel is mentioned too soon, for he still speaks in Judges 6:23. The words have probably been misplaced from the end of Judges 6:23.

Related Commentaries of Judges 6:11

Judges 6:11-24

11 And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideonc threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

12 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.

13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

14 And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

15 And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my familyd is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

16 And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.

17 And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.

18 Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present,e and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.

19 And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid,f and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.

20 And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.

21 Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.

22 And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.

23 And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom:g unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.