Judges 7:1-18--Gideon's Three Hundred Men

Judges 7:1-18
English Standard Version

Gideon's Three Hundred Men
7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.

2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained.

4 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

9 That same night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.”

​15 As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” 16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.’”

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Now the people of Israel that have been summoned and responded to the sound of the trumpet or listened to the voice of the messengers have gathered together and made camp with Gideon (called Jerubbaal here) near the the spring of Harod.  The camp of the Midianites is to their north in a valley  near the hill of Moreh.

Even with the small number of Israelites that have responded, God's first priority is to tell Gideon that he has too many soldiers and that he needs to start sending some of them home, because the LORD wants to make sure that everyone knows that this battle was not won by human hands.  If there were too many men in the army they may have claimed superior strength or tactics as their reason for victory, but the LORD wanted to make clear that this was a miracle so that He alone would get the glory.

For context, there were originally 32, 000 men that had responded to the call to fight.  The LORD commanded Gideon to tell the people that whoever was fearful and trembling was to return home and to hurry away from Mount Gilead (where the battle was about to occur).  22,000 of the 32,000 men left at this point so that only 10,000 men remained.

The LORD then looks at the remaining 10,000 men and says they are still too many, so there is a test that the LORD gives to the men where Gideon is to take them to the spring that they are camped near and those who careless and unaware of their surroundings so that they put their face in the water to lap water like a dog, they were to be sent home, yet all those that were aware of their surroundings and kept their head up so that they could continue to see and hear what was going on and dipped their hand into the water and brought the water up to their mouth, these were the few that the LORD said were to stay.  So then these that remained were not shaking in fear and were not foolish in being oblivious to their surroundings--they did not act in a way that made it easy for the enemy to take them and the other Israelites by surprise.

Only 300 men remained after this test, and the LORD was satisfied with this number as it was now 300 Israelites against an uncountable number of Midianites as verse 12 says, "And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance."  (Remember the Midianites are the descendants of Ishmael that God promised to also bless and make a great nation out of).  Now before Gideon will lead the men into battle, the LORD knows that Gideon will once again need some encouragement, so He commands Gideon and his servant Purah to sneak down into the camp so that they can hear what the Midianites were saying as the Midianites had been given dreams by the LORD that told them how they were surely to be defeated by Gideon and all the Midianites could speak of was how afraid they were and that they knew that Gideon was going to attack and be victorious, for the LORD had given them into Gideon's hand.  Even the enemies of the LORD knew Gideon's name and knew that the LORD was with him.

So the hearts of Gideon and Purah were encourages (and the LORD had sent Purah there as a witness so that they could encourage all the hearts of the 300 men that remained).  Now it was time for the unusual battle tactics.  The LORD would play on the fear that He had put in the hearts of the Midianites.  Each of the 300 men was issued a trumpet, an empty jar, and a torch, and the 300 men were divided into three groups of 100 with one group staying with Gideon and everyone was to watch Gideon and follow his lead.  When Gideon would blow his trumpet, everyone else was to blow their trumpets and shout, "For the LORD and for Gideon." (They were going to break the clay pots to reveal the torches at the same time).  Notice that no weapons of traditional warfare (swords, bows, spears, daggers, etc.) are mentioned.  We'll look at this miraculous victory that the LORD will win for His people next time.