And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.
I dreamed ... and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled. This was a characteristic and very expressive dream for an Arab in the circumstances. The rolling down the hill, striking against the tents, and overturning them, naturally enough connected it in his mind with the position and meditated attack of the Israelite leader. The circumstance of the cake, too, was very significant (Bahr's 'Symbolik,' 2:, 8, sec. 445). Barley was usually the food of the poor, and of beasts; but most probably, from the widespread destruction of that crops by the invaders, multitudes must have been reduced to poor and scanty fare.