Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 8:13

And Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle before the sun [was up],

13. from the ascent of Heres ] So LXX. A and Luc., with a slight correction of the text; or upwards to Heres, with further corrections. The word eres = ‘the sun’ lends itself to various experiments, which are to be seen in the Versions. The general sense of the verse seems to be that Gideon returned from the battle by some different way.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Before the sun was up – The translation of the words is doubtful, because of the rarity of the word rendered sun ( cheres). Many suppose it to be the name of a mountain pass, and render it from the ascent of Heres.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 13. Returned from battle before the sun was up] This does not appear to be a proper translation of milmaaleh hechares. It should be rendered from the ascent of Chares: this is the reading of the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

By which it may be gathered that he came upon them in the night, which was most convenient for him, who had so small a number with him; and most likely both to surprise and terrify them by the remembrance of the last nights sad work, and the expectation of another like it.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13. Gideon returned from battlebefore the sun was upHe seems to have returned by a nearerroute to Succoth, for what is rendered in our version “beforethe sun was up,” means “the heights of Heres, thesun-hills.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle,…. To Penuel and Succoth, to chastise them for their ill treatment of him and his men:

before the sun was up; by which it appears that it was in the night that he fell upon the host at Karkor, which must be the night following; it could not be the same night in which he had defeated them in the valley of Jezreel; though Vatablus thinks this battle was begun and finished in one night; but there were, according to this history, so many things done after the first defeat, as sending messengers to Mount Ephraim and the Ephraimites, upon the taking the fords of Jordan, and bringing the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, expostulating with him, and his answer to them, and his stay at Succoth and Penuel; which make it more probable that the day following was spent in the pursuit, and that it was the night after that that the whole affair was finished; and before sunrise Gideon returned to Penuel and Succoth again; so Ben Gersom and Abarbinel; but according to the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, this phrase is to be rendered, “before the sunset”, while it yet appeared, and was above the horizon; and so it must be in the daytime that he pursued the two kings and took them, and returned before sunset. Abendana observes the word for “sun” may be the name of a place, and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions call it the ascent of Ares or Heres; as if it was the name of the place from whence Gideon returned, so called in like manner as the ascent of Akrabbim, and the like.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Punishment of the Towns of Succoth and Pnuel, and Execution of the Captures Kings of Midian.

Jdg 8:13-14

Gideon returned victorious from the war, , “ from by the ascent ( or mountain road) of Hecheres,” a place in front of the town of Succoth, with which we are not acquainted. This is the rendering adopted by the lxx, the Peshito, and the Arabic; but the rest of the early translators have merely guessed at the meaning. The Chaldee, which has been followed by the Rabbins and Luther, has rendered it “before sunset,” in utter opposition to the rules of the language; for although cheres is a word used poetically to denote the sun, cannot mean the setting of the sun. Aquila and Symmachus, on the other hand, confound with . – Gideon laid hold of a young man of the people of Succoth, and got him to write down for him the princes and elders (magistrates and rulers) of the city, – in all seventy-seven men. is a short expression for “he asked him the names of the princes and elders of the city, and the boy wrote them down.” , lit. to him, i.e., for him.

Jdg 8:15-16

Gideon then reproached the elders with the insult they had offered him (Jdg 8:6), and had them punished with desert thorns and thistles. “ Men of Succoth ” ( Jdg 8:15 and Jdg 8:16) is a general expression for “elders of Succoth” ( Jdg 8:16); and elders a general term applied to all the representatives of the city, including the princes. , with regard to whom ye have despised me. is the accusative of the more distant or second object, not the subject, as Stud. supposes. “ And he taught the men of Succoth (i.e., caused them to know, made them feel, punished them) with them (the thorns).” There is no good ground for doubting the correctness of the reading . The free renderings of the lxx, Vulg., etc., are destitute of critical worth; and Bertheau’s assertion, that if it were the Hiphil it would be written , is proved to be unfounded by the defective writing in Num 16:5; Job 32:7.

Jdg 8:17

Gideon also inflicted upon Pnuel the punishment threatened in Jdg 8:9. The punishment inflicted by Gideon upon both the cities was well deserved in all respects, and was righteously executed. The inhabitants of these cities had not only acted treacherously to Israel as far as they could, from the most selfish interests, in a holy conflict for the glory of the Lord and the freedom of His people, but in their contemptuous treatment of Gideon and his host they had poured contempt upon the Lord, who had shown them to be His own soldiers before the eyes of the whole nation by the victory which He had given them over the innumerable army of the foe. Having been called by the Lord to be the deliverer and judge of Israel, it was Gideon’s duty to punish the faithless cities.

Jdg 8:18-21

After punishing these cities, Gideon repaid the two kings of Midian, who had been taken prisoners, according to their doings. From the judicial proceedings instituted with regard to them (Jdg 8:18, Jdg 8:19), we learn that these kings had put the brothers of Gideon to death, and apparently not in open fight; but they had murdered them in an unrighteous and cruel manner. And Gideon made them atone for this with their own lives, according to the strict jus talionis. , in Jdg 8:18, does not mean where? but “ in what condition, of what form, were the men whom he slew at Tabor? ” i.e., either in the city of Tabor or at Mount Tabor (see Jdg 4:6, and Jos 19:22). The kings replied: “ As thou so they ” (those men), i.e., they were all as stately as thou art, “ every one like the form of kings’ sons. ” , one, for every one, like in 2Ki 15:20, or more frequently alone. As the men who had been slain were Gideon’s own brothers, he swore to those who had done the deed, i.e., to the two kings, “ As truly as Jehovah liveth, if ye had let them live I should not have put you to death; ” and then commanded his first-born son Jether to slay them, for the purpose of adding the disgrace of falling by the hand of a boy. “ But the boy drew not his sword from fear, because he was yet a boy.” And the kings then said to Gideon, “ Rise thou and stab us, for as the man so is his strength, ” i.e., such strength does not belong to a boy, but to a man. Thereupon Gideon slew them, and took the little moons upon the necks of their camels as booty. “ The little moons ” were crescent-shaped ornaments of silver or gold, such as men and women wore upon their necks (see Jdg 8:26, and Isa 3:18), and which they also hung upon the necks of camels-a custom still prevalent in Arabia ( see Schrder, de vestitu mul. hebr. pp. 39, 40, and Wellsted, Reisen in Arab. i. p. 209).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

(13) Before the sun was up.If the rendering were certain, it would prove that he had made a night attack on Karkor; but it seems more probable that the words should be rendered from the ascent of Heres, or of Hechares, as in the LXX., Peshito, and Arabic. If so, it implies that he came round by some other road to attack Succoth. The word for going up is maaleh, as in Maaleh Ahrabbim, the ascent of scorpions (see Note on Jdg. 1:36), which is also applied to sunrise. (Gen. 19:15.) It cannot possibly mean before sunset (ehe die Sonne heraufgekommen war), as Luther renders it, following the Chaldee and various Rabbis. The ordinary word for sun is shemesh, not cheres; but the latter word occurs in various names (see on Jdg. 1:35; Jdg. 2:9), which makes it perhaps more probable that this also is the name of some place. It might, indeed, be prudent for Gideon to desist from further pursuit when the dawn revealed the paucity and exhaustion of his followers; and in poetic style (Job. 9:7) cheres may mean sun, so that here the phrase might be an archaism, as cheresah is in Jdg. 14:18; but the preposition used (min) cannot mean before. Aquila renders it from the ascent of the groves and Symmachus of the mountains; but this is only due to a defective reading.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

PUNISHMENT OF SUCCOTH AND PENUEL, Jdg 8:13-17.

13. Before the sun was up Thus the Vulgate, Luther, and others. But most modern scholars take , here rendered sun, as a proper name, Cheres, and translate: Gideon returned from the battle by the ascent of Cheres. The ascent of Cheres was probably some mountain road, or pass, now unknown.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘ And Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle, from the ascent of Heres.’

Gideon ‘returned from battle.’ That was the last thing that the leaders of Succoth or Penuel had expected. They had not realised that Yahweh was with him.

“From the ascent of Heres”. This means the ascent of ‘the sun’. Many mountains would be called this, compare a similarly named mountain in Aijalon (Jdg 1:35), but the writer may have seen in it an indication of the power of Yahweh, remembering the incident when the sun stood still to ensure Joshua’s victory (Jos 10:12-14). There may also be reference to Jdg 5:31, ‘let those who love Him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might’.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

EXPOSITION

Jdg 8:13

Before the sun was up. There is a wonderful diversity in the renderings of this verse. Some of the old versions and Jewish Rabbis interpret it before sunset. Many of the best Jewish commentators, however, understand the phrase as the A.V. does”Before the going up of the sun,” i.e. before sunrise; supposing Gideon’s attack on the Midianitish camp to have been a night attack, and Succoth to have been so near to Karkor that he was able to reach it by sunrise. But others say that the word here rendered sun (heres) is only used in poetry, and that the word rendered up is never used of sunrise, but, as, in the phrase “the going up of Akrabbim” (Jdg 1:36), of an ascent up a hill. They therefore take heres as a proper name, and translate “from the going up of Heres.” Others again, by an almost imperceptible change in the last letter, read “the mountains” instead of Heres. But the A.V. may be well defended, and gives an excellent sense. In Jdg 14:18 the same word for the sun is used in the very similar phrase, “before the sun went down.” In Gen 19:15 the phrase, “the morning arose,” has the verb from which the word here rendered up is derived; and a note of time here exactly suits the context. It marks the celerity of Gideon’s move. ments that he was actually on his way back to Succoth at sunrise, after having routed the Midianites and taken their two kings prisoners.

Jdg 8:14

He described. Rather, he wrote down, i.e. gave him a list of the princes and elders.

Jdg 8:15

The men of Succoth. Meaning the princes and elders.

Jdg 8:16

He taught, i.e. corrected, punished. It is, however, very probable that the true leading is Ire threshed or tore (yadash for yadah, the final letters and being very similar). We have then the fulfilment of Gideon’s threat in Jdg 8:7 recorded in the same words with regard to Succoth, just as the breaking down of the tower of Penuel in Jdg 8:17 is in verbal agreement with Jdg 8:9. The Septuagint and Vulgate both seem to have found he threshed in their copies.

Jdg 8:17

He slew the men of the city. This makes it probable that the threshing of the men of Succoth was a capital punishment, as there is no reason why the men of Penuel should be more severely punished than the men of Succoth.

Jdg 8:18

What manner of men, etc. An incident not before related is here brought to light, viz; that on some unknown occasion, possibly as soon as the rising of the Israelites under Gideon became known, or when, as related in Jdg 6:2, they had sought to hide themselves in Mount Tabor, but had been caught, Zebah and Zalmunna had put to death Gideon’s brothers. We may observe in passing how characteristic this is of a true narrative in which every. thing that happened cannot possibly be related (see Jdg 10:11, Jdg 10:12, note). The word here rendered what manner of, i.e. of what sort, means, in every other place in which it occurs, where? and the sense of what sort is only inferred from the answer, As thou art, so were they. But it is not safe thus to change the universal meaning of a common word. It is better to take the words of Gideon, Where are the men whom ye slew at Tabor? as an upbraiding of them for the murder of his brethren, and a threat that where they were their murderers would soon be. The answer of Zebah and Zalmunna, which is not given in its entirety, was no doubt intended to be soothing and deprecatory of Gideon’s wrath. They pleaded the necessity they were under in self-defence to slay them; they were men of such royal stature and prowess that their own lives would have been in danger had they spared them. But Gideon turned a deaf ear to their plea. He must avenge the death of his own brothers, his own mother’s sons. He would have spared them as prisoners of war (2Ki 6:22), but he must do his part as goel or avenger (Num 35:12). Observe the stress laid on their being not merely his father’s sons by another wife, but his own mother’s sons, a much more tender relation (cf. Psa 50:1-10).

Jdg 8:20

He said unto Jether, etc. These marks of savage life are painful to contemplate in such a man as Gideon. But it is well for us to be made aware how the best and greatest men cannot rise above the manners and received maxims of their age; and it teaches us to make due allowance for the faults of uncivilised men with whom we have to do, whether Afghans, or Zulus, or others.

Jdg 8:21

The ornaments. Literally, little moons, crescent-shaped ornaments of gold and silver, which as well as “chains” (Jdg 8:26) were hung as ornaments on their camels’ necks (cf. Jdg 5:30). It would seem from Jdg 8:26 that the kings themselves also wore these ornaments; and in Isa 3:18 they are enumerated among the articles of female attireround tires like the moon, A.V.

HOMILETICS

Jdg 8:13-21

The complete revenge.

If any man ever stood on the very apex of success and triumph, it was Gideon on his return from the pursuit of the Midianites. He had saved his country; he had set a whole people free from a foreign yoke; he had restored the worship of the true and living God in his native land, and uprooted a vile and debasing idolatry; he was the conqueror of a vast host with most inadequate means; he had subdued and taken prisoners two powerful kings; he had avenged the death of his own brothers upon those who, in pride and wantonness, had slain them; and he had chastised the insolent, cowardly, and unpatriotic conduct of his own countrymen who, at his time of greatest need, had insulted instead of helping him; and he stood in the proud position of having undertaken an almost impossible task, and having succeeded beyond his utmost expectation. But in the very height of this success we seem to see an overbalancing towards a fall. It is very slight; there was still a wonderful moderation of mind (as seen in Jdg 8:22, Jdg 8:23); but the weak human heart had a stronger draught of success than it could bear. As long, indeed, as his eye was quite single, and it was only the glory of God that he sought, and the welfare of his country, all went well (see Jdg 8:2). But Gideon was not perfect. Had he been without the pride of fallen humanity, he would not have slain the captive kings, he would not have put to death the insolent men of Succoth and Penuel, richly as they deserved punishment. But it is here that we seem to see the first clouding of the singular brightness of Gideon’s disinterested zeal. When we have made every allowance for the customs and opinions of the age, we cannot help feeling that something different from zeal and love for God was at work within him when he took away those lives. Zebah and Zahnunna had slain his brothers, and so had done an injury to him, and put a slight upon him; the men of Succoth and Penuel had taunted and affronted him, they had undervalued his power, they had taken advantage of his momentary weakness to put him to shame. He must have his revenge. In his hour of more than human greatness the littleness of humanity started into birth. It was no doubt true that the law of the avenger of blood justified the slaughter of the kings, and the base conduct of the Succothites and Penuelites would secure a universal acquiescence in the justice of their punishment. But still we cannot help seeing that the pride of self, albeit unperceived by Gideon, had a hand in these actions, which cast a distinct shade upon Gideon’s shining path, and which we cannot read of even at this distance of time without a pang of regret. How glad we should be if that noble spirit, in the very flush of victory, had risen sufficiently above the spirit of his age and above his own anger to spare his prostrate foes; and if in the height of his glory he had despised the meanness of the men of Succoth, and left them to the punishment of their own shame, and the contempt of their fellow-men! (see 2Sa 19:23). But it could not be. And perhaps the lesson of human weakness is more valuable to us as it is; for it leaves us a warning not to seek a complete revenge for ourselves under any circumstances, but to be content to commit our cause to God: and that it is better for man to be thwarted and humiliated than to have everything his own way. He cannot bear it.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Jdg 8:13. Before the sun was up Very different and contrary interpretations are given of this passage. Houbigant supposes, that hechares does not signify the sun here, but is the proper name of a place; and accordingly he renders it by that place which is above Hares; and in this interpretation he is countenanced by the LXX, Syriac, and Arabic versions.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Jdg 8:13 And Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle before the sun [was up],

Ver. 13. Before the sun was up. ] Still he set upon them in the night, because of the weakness of his army, which by night appeared not. Julius Caesar, indeed, held the night unfit for battle, Lucem enim pudorem oculis militum afferre. But I cannot think with Vatablus and others, that this war here was begun and ended in one night. a

a Hoc bellum una nocte fuit incaeptum et confectum: quod refertur ad laudem Dei. – Vat.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)