Judges 7


Judges 7 is the seventh chapter of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans in the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter records the activities of judge Gideon, belonging to a section comprising Judges 6 to 9 and a bigger section of Judges 6:1 to 16:31.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 25 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis.
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus.

Analysis

A linguistic study by Chisholm reveals that the central part in the Book of Judges can be divided into two panels based on the six refrains that state that the Israelites did evil in Yahweh's eyes:
Panel One
Panel Two
Furthermore from the linguistic evidence, the verbs used to describe the Lord's response to Israel's sin have chiastic patterns and can be grouped to fit the division above:
Panel One
Panel Two
Chapters 6 to 9 record the Gideon/Abimelech Cycle, which has two major parts:
  1. the account of Gideon
  2. the account of Abimelech.
The Abimelech account is really a sequel of the Gideon account, resolving a number of complications originated in the Gideon narrative.
In this narrative, for the first time Israel's appeal to Yahweh was met with a stern rebuke rather than immediate deliverence, and the whole cycle addresses the issue of infidelity and religious deterioration.
The Gideon Narrative consists of five sections along concentric lines — thematic parallels exist between the first and fifth sections as well as between the second and fourth sections, whereas the third section stands
alone — forming a symmetrical pattern as follows:

Gideon's army of three hundred (7:1–18)

Following Deuteronomy 20:5–7, God ordered the Israelites to allow the fearful to return home. This battle against the Midianites was not proof of Israelite prowess but of God's glory, so the fighting men did not have to be numerous. God used a test of the mode of drinking to reduce the force to a mere 300 men, who were the 'lappers'.
During Gideon's reconnaissance mission before the battle, God offered the 'always humble and hesitant hero'
Gideon a positive sign before the battle: through the dream of the enemy which had divinatory significance. A section in Judges 6:36–40 about 'a pair of fleecings' complements the section in 7:12–14 which recounts two Midianites to encourage Gideon into action.

Verse 1

  • "The well of Harod" : located at the foot of Mount Gilboa at the 'eastern end of the Jezreel Valley', providing a 'view northward across the valley from the southern side'.
  • "The hill of Moreh": located to the north of Mount Gilboa in the Jezreel Valley, to the south of Mount Tabor, about northwest of the well of Harod.
The repetition of the Midianites' location in verses 1 and 8 marks off the boundaries of one section of this passage.

Gideon defeats Midian (7:19–25)

The detailed instructions before the battle and the mentioned instruments of war recall the battle of Jericho, including the shouting, the trumpets, the torches, and the breaking jars, which led to the enemy's rout. Then as judge, Gideon called up tribe members of the Israelite confederation to pursue the Midianites. For the final operation, Gideon called up the tribe of Ephraim, whose army captured and beheaded the Midianite commanders Oreb and Zeeb.

Verse 25

  • "Princes" from Hebrew śārîm, which also means "leaders", or "generals".
  • "Oreb" means "raven", whereas "Zeeb" means "wolf", alluding to the Midianites as 'scavengers and predators to Israel'. The settings of their execution: Oreb on a 'rock' and Zeeb at a 'winepress' may recall the winepress and rock in Ophrah where Gideon was called by God to deliver the Israelites from the Midianites.
  • "The other side of the Jordan": Gideon and his army had apparently crossed the Jordan to pursue the Midianites, then the Ephraimites followed suit, bringing the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon.