Judges 6:24

built an altar there where the Deity had appeared; the patriarchs observed this custom, see Genesis 12:7; Genesis 26:25; Genesis 35:1. The altar with its name Jehovah is peace, i.e. well-disposed, commemorated the revelation; cf. the naming of an altar in Genesis 33:20; Genesis 35:7; Exodus 17:15 (all E). For Kittel's interpretation of the episode see on Judges 13:19. Perhaps Gideon's experience conveyed to his mind a new religious idea. According to primitive belief, the Deity dwelt in a sacred tree or stone; but not in the terebinth or rock at Ophrah; the Messenger of Jehovah has no such dwelling; He comes as a traveller from some region that no one knows. Whether the burning of the sacrifice marked a change in religious practice is more doubtful.

The foregoing narrative presents several difficulties. The inconsistent use of Jehovahin Judges 6:14; Judges 6:16may be accounted for by a lapse from strict dramatic fitness on the part of the writer; but the expressions in Judges 6:14; Judges 6:16which imply that Gideon recognized the Angel before Judges 6:22, cannot perhaps be explained in this way. It has been suggested (1) that these expressions have been inserted by a later editor to emphasize from the first the divine nature of Gideon's Visitor and the sacrificial character of the meal; or (2) that the confusion is due to a double version, Judges 6:14 b do not I send thee, Judges 6:16-17 b being assigned to E, the rest belonging to J. But the distinction between the sources cannot be made out with much success. It is possible to explain the difficulty in Judges 6:17 b in the way attempted in the note; but we must allow that the present form of the narrative cannot be original.