42 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Judges 6 In this chapter we have an account of the distressed condition Israel was in through the Midianites, Judges 6:1, of a prophet being sent unto them to reprieve them for their sins, Judges 6:7 of an angel appearing to Gideon, with an order to him to go and save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites, Judges 6:11 and of a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... After the death of Deborah and Barak, during whose life they kept to the pure worship of God, and who, perhaps, lived pretty near the close of the forty years' rest, or of the twenty years from their victory over Jabin; but they dying, the children of Israel fell into idolatry, for...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Nothing that occurred in the quiet and peaceable times of Israel is recorded; the forty years' rest after the conquest of Jabin is passed over in silence; and here begins the story of another distress and another deliverance, by Gideon, the fourth of the judges. Here is, I. The calamitous condition of Israel, by the inroads of the Midianites, ver....
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel,.... They were too strong for them, and overcame them, and brought them into subjection to them, and no wonder, when the Lord delivered them into their hand: and because of the Midianites; because of their usage of them, their manner of coming upon them yearly, and pillaging and plundering their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And so it was, when Israel had sown,.... Their land, and it was grown up, and near being ripe, or quite; for the Midianites gave them no disturbance in the winter, and during seedtime, when they came out of their lurking holes, and manured their land, and sowed it: that the Midianites came up; into the land of Canaan, from the other side Jordan,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they encamped against them,.... Formed a camp, from whence they sent out parties to plunder the people; or "they were fixing their tents among them,'' as the Vulgate Latin version; and so the Targum, "they dwelt by them,'' or fixed their habitations by them; for they seem not to have come as a regular army, but as a sort of banditti to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For they came up with their cattle, and their tents,.... Brought their flocks and their herds with them, to eat up the increase of the earth, and their tents, which they pitched and removed from place to place, for the convenience of feeding their cattle, and while they cut down the fruit of the earth everywhere, which serves to confirm the sense...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Israel was greatly impoverished, because of the Midianites,.... Were reduced very low, brought into famishing circumstances through the Midianites thus destroying the fruits of the earth year after year: and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord; which they should have done at first, instead of going into dens and caves; however, better...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, because of the Midianites. Because of their oppressions and ill usage of them, and not because of their sins, which had brought those evils on them, of which, at present, they seemed not to be sensible; and yet such was the goodness and compassion of God to them, that having a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel,.... "A man, a prophet" (f), as in the Hebrew text, not an angel, but a man; and this not Phinehas, as say some Jewish writers (g); for it is not probable he should live so long as more than two hundred years; and had he been living, it is very much he should not have been heard of in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians,.... Even after they were brought out of Egypt, when the Egyptians pursued after them, and overtook them at the Red sea; where they were in the utmost distress, and the Lord wrought salvation for them, gave them a passage through it, and destroyed the Egyptians in it: and out of the hand of all...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God, c:] The covenant God of them and their fathers, and they ought not to have owned and acknowledged any other besides him: fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell meaning not a fear of being hurt by them, but such a fear and reverence of them as to worship them, which was only to be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And there came an angel of the Lord,.... This was not the prophet before mentioned, as Ben Gersom thinks, but an angel of God, as expressed, and not a created one, but the Angel of Jehovah's presence, the Word and Son of God, and who is expressly called Jehovah himself, Judges 6:14 and sat under an oak; or stayed there a while, as Kimchi...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him,.... He stayed some time under the oak, and Gideon being busy in threshing, took no notice of him wherefore he came and stood before him, in his sight: and said unto him, the Lord is with thee; the gracious presence of God was with Gideon while he was threshing, who very probably was sending up...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Gideon said to him, oh my Lord,.... Taking him not to be an angel, but some illustrious and eminent person: if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? all these troubles and calamities through the oppression of the Midianites; for he understood what was said to him in the salutation, respecting not himself personally and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord looked upon him,.... The same before called the angel of the Lord, and who was no other than Jehovah himself; who looked upon him with great earnestness, and with great delight and pleasure smiled upon him, and thereby showing he had a kindness for him, and meant well to him: and said unto him, go in this thy might; both of body and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he said unto him, oh my Lord,.... Whether he had yet suspected who he was, or took him still for some eminent person, is not certain; it is very probable he began to think he was some extraordinary person sent of God, and speaking in his name, and therefore expostulates with him about the work he put him upon: wherewith shall I save Israel? in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee,.... The Targum is, "my Word shall be thy help,'' which was sufficient to answer all objections taken from his meanness, unworthiness, and weakness: and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man; all together, and as easily as if thou hadst but one man to deal with, and the destruction be so...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he said unto him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, c. Or seeing he had, as appeared by his salutation of him as a man of might, by the work he gave him a commission to do, and by the promise of assistance and success: then show me a sign that thou talkest with me in the name of God, as a messenger sent by him, whether an angel or a man;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ver. 18 Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee,.... Intending to go to his own, or his father's house, to fetch some food to entertain him with, and therefore entreats he would not quit the place where he was until he returned: and bring forth my present, and set it before thee; to treat him with, as a stranger and a messenger of...