Gideon

GIDEON, the son of Joash, of the Tribe of Manasseh. He dwelt in the city of Ophrah, was chosen by God, and had a very extraordinary call to deliver the Israelites from the Judg. vi. 1, 2. From the year of the World 2752, to 2759.oppression of the Midianites, to which they became subject after the death of Barak and Deborah. The Midianites kept the Hebrews in a state of so great humiliation, that they were forced to fly into caves, and fortify themselves in places the most proper for resisting of the Midianites. These, after that the Israelites had sown their corn, came upon their lands, pitched their tents there, destroyed all the encrease of the earth, and killed all the cattle, that fell into their hands. The people of Israel, overwhelmed with so many misfortunes, cried unto the Lord, and the Lord deputed a Prophet to them, who reproached them sharply with their ingratitude: but at the same time God sent his Angel to Gideon, the son of Joash, who dwelt at Ophrah, and was there employed in threshing out his corn privately near a wine-press under an oak, that so the Midianites might have no knowledge of what he was doing, and he might be able to fly away immediately with his corn, as soon as they appeared.

The Angel of the Lord therefore saluted him, and said, The Lord is with thee, O thou mighty man of valour. Gideon answered, How comes it then that all these evils are fallen upon us, if the Lord be with us? Where are the wonders which he wrought formerly in favour of our Fathers? but now he hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Hereupon the Angel, who spoke to him in the name of God, said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the power of the Midianites: know that it is I who have sent thee. Gideon excused himself, but the Lord said to him, I will be with thee, and thou shalt beat the Midianites, as if they were but one man. Gideon asked a sign of him, that he might be secured it was no delusion, and desired him to stay a moment under the Oak, till he had offered a sacrifice to him. Gideon therefore made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes, brought the whole under the Oak, and presented it to him. But the Angel said, take the flesh, and unleavened cakes, and put them upon this rock, and pour out the broth: which when Gideon had done, the Angel put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and having touched the flesh and unleavened cakes, fire issued out of the rock, and consumed them. At the same time the Angel of the Lord disappeared out of his sight.

Gideon perceiving that it was an Angel, said, Alas! O Lord God, for I have seen an Angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not die. At that same place he erected an Altar to the Lord, and called it, The peace of the Lord. The night following, God commanded him to cut down the grove, and the Altar that was consecrated to Baal, to build an Altar to the Lord upon the top of the rock, where he had already offered the kid and unleavened cakes, and to make a burnt-sacrifice of one of his father’s two bullocks. Gideon obeyed, and night coming on, he with ten of his servants, set about cutting down the grove, and overthrowing the Altar of Baal. The next day the inhabitants of Ophrah told Joash, Gideon’s father, that nothing less than the death of his son could make satisfaction for the affront offered unto Baal. But Joash answered them, Are ye to defend Baal? if Baal be God, let him himself take vengeance on the person who has destroyed his Altar. From that time Gideon was called Jerobaal¹, that is to say, let Baal see, or, let Baal contest with him, who has thrown down his Altar. He is mentioned by the name of Jerobaal or Jerombal, in the spurious Apud. Euseb. Præpar. l. 1.history of Sanchoniathon.

About the same time the Midianites having passed over the Jordan, came and incamped in the valley of Jezree; and Gideon, filled with the spirit of God, sounded the trumpet, assembled the Israelites of the house of Abiezer, who dwelt at Ophrah, and in the neighbouring places, and were of his own family. He likewise sent couriers into the Tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, which lay northward of the land of Canaan. He exhorted them to shake off the yoke of the Midianites, and to join him. These Tribes came with diligence, and in great numbers; so that Gideon, in order to assure them, that God had raised him up for their deliverance, prayed to God to give him some sign of his extraordinary call to this service, and that he would be pleased to let the dew fall upon a fleece of wool, which he would spread upon the ground, while all the earth beside was dry, and received no part of it. God heard his prayer, and it happened as he wished. After this, he desired another sign of God quite contrary to this, that the fleece of wool might remain dry, while all the earth about it was moist, and abounded with dew; and the effect of this second petition was likewise granted.

Gideon confirmed by all these signs, that it was the will of God he should enter upon this undertaking, marched directly to the Camp of the Midianites, who were in the plain of Jezreel. He halted with his troops at the well of Harod: at which time the Lord commanded him to dismiss part of those who were with him, lest, if the Midianites were delivered into the hands of such a body of troops, the Israelites should say, that they were saved by their own strength. Gideon therefore permitted those who were any way afraid, to return; two and twenty thousand of them took the advantage of this permission, and returned to their own houses, so that ten thousand only remained with him. This number was still too large, and the Lord said to Gideon, Bring the people down unto the water, dismiss all such as shall kneel upon the ground, that they may be more at ease while they are drinking, and retain such only as shall have thrown water with their hands into their mouths, or have lapped it with their tongue like dogs; and the number of the latter amounted but to three hundred. These therefore Gideon retained, and dismissed the rest.

He ordered these three hundred men to hold themselves in readiness, and to take provisions with them for some days; to have every one a trumpet, a lamp or light, and an empty pitcher to conceal the fire of the light. In the mean time, God commanded him to advance towards the enemies camp; without any company. Accordingly he went, and heard a Midianite relating his dream to his companion, and telling him, that he had seen a cake of barley-bread in his dream rolling into the camp of the Midia-nites, and oversetting a tent which lay in its way. The person to whom he was speaking, replied, This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, into whose hands God hath delivered the camp, and whole Army of the Midianites.

Gideon animated by this dream, and the Midianite’s interpretation of it, returned to his people, encouraged them to attack the enemy, bid them take their lamps, their pitchers, and their trumpets, and do as they should see him do. The watch-word which he gave them, was, The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon. He divided them into three companies of an hundred men Judg. viii. 1, 2, 3, &c.each; and they advanced three different ways towards the camp of the Midianites. At midnight they came to the entrance of it, and Gideon took suddenly his lamp from under his pitcher, threw it on the ground with great noise, and sounded his trumpet; the three hundred men who were with him did the same, and every man stood at his post in three different places of the Midianitish Camp. Hereupon a strange terror spread among the enemies, their whole army was in disorder, they began to fly, to draw their swords against one another, and mutually to kill each other. The Israelites of the neighbouring Tribes of Manasseh, Naphtali and Asher, came in and pursued them. At the same time Gideon sent couriers to the Tribes of Ephraim, to give them notice that they might guard the fords, and prevent the Midianites from repassing Jordan. For his part, he, with his three hundred warriors, passed this river, and followed the Midianites as far as Succoth and Penuel. He overtook them while they were refreshing themselves, and believed they had nothing more to fear, fell upon them, defeated them, took their two Kings Zeba and Zalmunna, and returned towards Succoth and Penuel before Sun-set.

These two cities had refused to supply him with provisions and refreshments, as he passed by them in pursuit of the enemies. But at his return he took vengeance of them in a terrible manner, crushing the Princes of Succoth to death under the thorns and briars of the wilderness, killing the inhabitants of Penuel, and destroying their tower. This done, he put Zeba and Zalmunna to death, the Princes of the Midianites, and took away the ornaments, and golden bosses, which were generally hung about the necks of the King’s Camels. The men of Ephraim murmured, and complained that Gideon had not invited them to take their part in this war; but he appeased them by magnifying the services which they had done in this expedition, in taking Oreb and Zeb, Princes of the Midianites.

Ib. viii. 22, 23, &c.After this victory, the children of Israel said to Gideon, Be thou our Prince, and command us, thou, thy son, and thy son’s son; for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. Gideon answered them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, but the Lord shall be your Prince, and command you. One thing only I request of you, Give me the earrings, which have been part of your booty; for the Midianites had a custom of wearing Gold Pendants in their Ears. They offered them to him with all their hearts, and threw them on a cloak, which they spread upon the ground. They weighed in all seventeen hundred gold shekels, without reckoning the collars, ornaments, and purple habits, which the Kings of Midian wore, and without the gold Chains, that were about their Camels Necks. Of all these precious materials Gideon made an Ephod, and placed it in the City of Ophrah. This Ephod was an occasion of the Israelites offending God, the cause of Gideon’s ruin, and the destruction of his whole house. Gideon was Judge of Israel from this year, which was that of the World 2759, to the year 2768, which was that of his death, in all nine years. He had seventy sons born of many wives, whom he had married; and besides these, had another, Abimelech, the son of a concubine, who reigned three years at Schechem.

It is very probable that Gideon, otherwise called Jerobaal, or Jerubaal, is the same with Jerombal, Priest to the God Jao, whom Sanchoniathon declares with some ostentation to have consulted concerning the Phœnician Antiquities. Sanchoniathon lived in the reign of Ithobal King of Tyre, much about the same time as Semiramis Queen of Assyria; Apud Eufeb. l. 1. & 10. Præpar.and consequently a little after Jerobaal or Gideon. But the generality of learned men are now convinced, that Sanchoniathon is a fabulous Author, and that he who wrote the Book whereof we have some fragments under his name, was an Impostor, who maliciously intermixed some passages of the Sacred History with the Fables of the Phœnicians, with a design to bring discredit upon the holy Scriptures of the Hebrews. See hereafter SANCHONIATHON. David calls Gideon, Jerubbesheth, instead of Jerobaal, because the Hebrews did not care to pronounce the name of Baal; for which reason they say Mephibosheth, instead of Mephibaal.

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