And when Gideon perceived he was an angel of the Lord,.... By the miracle wrought, and the manner of his departure:
Gideon said, alas! O Lord God; woe to me, what will become of me, or befall me, I shall surely die:
for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face; and whom he had reason to believe was the Lord himself, a divine Person, by the miracle wrought; and it was a commonly received notion even among good men, in those times, that the Lord was not to be seen by them and live, as appears from Jacob, Manoah, and others; at least the appearance of a divine Person, and even of any messenger from heaven, was startling, surprising, and frightful to them; which arose from a sense they had of the divine Being, and of their own sinfulness and frailty.