Judges 8:4-21

The Pursuit on the East of Jordan. This section is not continuous with the preceding one. The men of Israel, who were gathered together after the battle (Judges 7:23), and the Ephraimites, who were so eager to prove what they could do, are heard of no more. Gideon is again alone with his 300 (Judges 8:4); the men of Succoth and Penuel, ignorant of any battle or rout, think his campaign against the Midianites a hopeless affair; and when he at length reaches the enemy he finds them secure, apparently having neither been, nor expecting to be, disturbed (11). Plainly we have here a different tradition.

Judges 8:4. For faint and (not - yet-') pursuing the LXX has faint and hungry, which suits the next verse, where there is a request for bread. Succoth (Genesis 33:17) and Penuel (Genesis 32:30 f.) have not been identified; they must have been near the Jabbok.

Judges 8:7. For tear read thresh. Provoked by the inhospitality of the princes of Succoth, Gideon threatens to throw them naked into a bed of thorns and trample them down.

Judges 8:10. The site of Karkor is also unknown. The enormous figures, as in Judges 8:19, were probably due to R. [Judges 8:14. This lad could write (mg.) an interesting and rather suggestive fact, but it would be extravagant to infer that writing was a universal accomplishment. A. S. P.]

Judges 8:16. For taught read with LXX, threshed. The savage threat is carried out. It is difficult to believe that the Gideon of this tradition is the man whom we know and love in the other stories. But compare what even David is said to have done (2 Samuel 12:31), and contrast Luke 9:56.

Judges 8:18. The two nomad chieftains faced death with the stoical fortitude of American Indians.