Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 7:13
And when Gideon was come, behold, [there was] a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.
13. Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo ] The phraseology recalls Gen 37:6 f., Gen 40:9 E. No doubt the two Midianites were lying in their tent: Gideon could listen without being seen.
a cake of barley bread ] The word rendered cake occurs only here, and is of doubtful meaning; the context suggests a flat circular cake. Barley bread, the coarse food of the poor, was a symbol of the peasantry; the tent a symbol of the nomad.
tumbled ] This same form of the verb is used of the flaming sword which turned in every direction, Gen 3:24. So the cake turned over and over, this way and that, until it smote the tent which the man saw in his dream, not the tent, i.e. of the king, as Josephus takes it, misunderstanding the idiomatic use of the article; Ant. Jdg 7:6; Jdg 7:4.
and it fell ] The words are out of place; the text as it stands makes the tent fall, then be turned upside down, and then fall. At the end of the verse, that the tent lay along ought probably to be rendered and the tent remained fallen. Perhaps some reader wrote the normal form and it fell in the margin, whence it crept into the text after and smote it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A cake of barley bread – i. e. such a cake as could hardly be eaten by men, it was so vile: a term expressive of the contempt of the Midianites for the people of Israel.
A tent – The tent, meaning, probably, the tent of the king of Midian, or of the captain of the host.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 13. Told a dream] Both the dream and the interpretation were inspired by God for the purpose of increasing the confidence of Gideon, and appalling his enemies.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A cake of barley bread; a weak and contemptible thing, and in itself as unable to overthrow a tent as to remove a mountain; but being thrown by a Divine hand, bore down all before it; which fitly resembled Gideons case, which was mean and despicable, as himself saith, Jdg 6:15; yet he was mighty, through God, to destroy the Midianites.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. I dreamed a dream, and, lo, acake of barley bread tumbled into the host of MidianThis was acharacteristic and very expressive dream for an Arab in thecircumstances. The rolling down the hill, striking against the tents,and overturning them, naturally enough connected it in his mind withthe position and meditated attack of the Israelitish leader. Thecircumstance of the cake, too, was very significant. Barley wasusually the food of the poor, and of beasts; but most probably, fromthe widespread destruction of the crops by the invaders, multitudesmust have been reduced to poor and scanty fare.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when Gideon was come,…. With his servant, near and within hearing the talk and conversation of the outer guards or sentinels: there was
a man that told a dream unto his fellow; his comrade that stood next him, and was upon guard with him; perhaps it was a dream he had dreamed the night before or this selfsame night, being just called up to take his turn in the watch, and so it was fresh upon his mind:
and said, behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo; thus it was as I am going to relate; twice he uses the word “behold”, or “lo”, the dream having rely much struck and impressed his mind, and was what he thought worthy of the attention of his comrade:
a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian: barley bread, Pliny z says, was the most ancient food; the word for “cake” a signifies a “shadow”, and may design the appearance of a barley loaf; or something like one to him appeared in the dream: or a “noise”; the noise of it rolling and tumbling, so that it seemed to the soldier that he heard a noise, as well as saw something he took for a barley loaf. Jarchi observes, that it signifies a cake baked upon coals, and it seemed to this man as if it came smoking hot from the coals, tumbling down an hill, such an one where Gideon and his army were and rolling into the host of Midian, which lay in a valley:
and came unto a tent; or, “the tent b” the largest and most magnificent in the host; and Josephus c calls it expressly the king’s tent, and the Arabic version the tent of the generals:
and smote it that it fell; which might justly seem strange, that a barley loaf should come with such a force against a tent, perhaps the largest and strongest in the whole camp, which was fastened with cords to stakes and nails driven into the ground, so as to cause it to fall: yea, it is added,
and overturned it, that the tent lay along: turned it topsy-turvy, or turned it “upwards” d, as the phrase in the Hebrew text is; it fell with the bottom upwards; it was entirely demolished, that there was no raising and setting of it up again.
z Nat. Hist. l. 18. c. 7. a “umbra”, vid. Gussetium, p. 715. “strepitus”, Tigurine version; so Kimchi Ben Gersom “subcineritius”, V. L. “tostus”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator. b c Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 4. d “desuper”, Pagninus, Montanus “superne”, Tigurine version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(13) Behold, I dreamed a dream.Since dreams, no less than the Bath Kol, were recognised channels for Divine intimations (Gen. 41:12; Num. 12:6; 1Sa. 28:6; Joe. 2:28, &c.), Gideon would feel doubly assured.
A cake.The Hebrew word tsalol (or tselil in the Keri, or margin) is a word which occurs nowhere else. Rabbis Kimchi and Tanchun derive it from tsalal, he tinkled (as in tselselim and other names for musical instruments), or he overshadowed. Neither derivation yields any sense. The Chaldee, Syriac, and Rashi render it a cake baked on coals, and so, too, the LXX. (since such is the meaning of magie), the Vulgate (panis subcinericius), and Josephus (maza krithin); this seems to be the true sense. Ewald makes it mean a dry rattling crust. Niebuhr tells us that the desert Arabs thrust a round lump of dough into hot ashes, then take it out and eat it. (Arab., p. 52.)
Of barley bread.Josephus helps us to see the significance of the symbol by adding, which men can (hardly) eat for its coarseness. It must be remembered that the Israelites had been reduced to such poverty by these raids that the mass of them would have nothing to subsist on but common barley bread such as that used to this day, with bitter complaints, by the Fellahn of Palestine. Among the Greeks also barley bread was proverbial as a kind of food hardly fit to be eaten, although such was the poverty which the Saviour bore for our sakes that it seems to have been the ordinary food of Him and His apostles (Joh. 6:9). A cake of barley bread would, therefore, naturally recall the thought of the Israelites, who were no doubt taunted by their enemies with being reduced to this food; just as Dr. Johnson defined oats as food for horses in England, and for men in Scotland. Thus, in 1Ki. 4:28, the barley is only for the horses and dromedaries. If the Midianites were accustomed to call Gideon and his band eaters of barley bread, as their successors, the haughty Bedouins, often do to ridicule their enemies, the application would be the more natural (Thomson, Land and Book, p. 447). Josephus makes the soldier say that, as barley is the vilest of all seed, so the Israelites were the vilest of all the people of Asia.
Tumbled.Rather, was rolling itself.
Unto a tent.Rather, into the tent, which doubtless means (as Josephus says) the tent-royalthe tent of Zebah and Salmanah.
Smote it.Perhaps the dream involved that it also (as Josephus says) threw down the tents of all the soldiers.
Overturned it, that the tent lay along.The latter words are involved in the first verb, and are only added for emphasis in accordance with the full picturesque Hebrew style. (Comp. A bullock that hath horns and hoofs; I am a widow woman, and my husband is dead, &c.) This leisurely stateliness of description is found again and again in the Bible. (See my Origin of Language, p. 168, and Brief Greek Syntax, p. 200.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. I dreamed a dream Dreaming has ever been the subject of curious speculations, and the Scriptures afford us various and some wonderful specimens of dreams. Compare Gen 20:3; Gen 28:12; Gen 31:11; Gen 31:24; Gen 37:6-11; 1Ki 3:5. They were one medium of divine revelation.
Num 12:6. The dream of this Midianite was a noticeable interposition of Divine Providence, and was designed to encourage Gideon. There may have been, and probably was, a natural psychological basis for the dream in the fears and suspicions of this Midianite, for the assembling of over thirty thousand Israelites at the call of Gideon could hardly be kept a secret from the entire host of Midianites.
A cake of barley bread Apt symbol, in the conceptions of a nomad, for a cultivator of the soil, whose life would seem to be all occupied in raising grain and baking bread.
Tumbled Rolled down the mountain like a wheel.
Unto a tent The tent of some Midianitish chieftain, which, in the mind of the dreamer, would be associated with nomadic habits of life, and therefore a symbol of his people’s freedom, greatness, and power.
The tent lay along The different expressions which describe the overthrow of the tent are noticeable. The barley cake smites it so as to knock it down; it falls, then is turned over upwards ( ) from having the tent pins torn out of the ground, and, rolling over and over, finally falls out flat upon the earth. This was a significant image of the complete overthrow of the Midianitish power.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ And when Gideon was come, behold there was a man who told a dream to his fellow, and said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the Tent, and smote it that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the Tent lay along.” ’
As they came nearer they heard two sentinels talking, and one telling the other of a vivid dream he had had, the dream of a cake of barley bread tumbling into the camp of Midian and crashing into the Tent (probably the tent of the Midianite commander-in-chief, but possibly as symbolising the whole camp) and dismantling it spectacularly so that it lay horizontally on the ground. His double use of ‘behold’ and ‘lo’ demonstrated how impressed he had been by it.
Dreams were considered of great importance in ancient times, especially if the dreamer was an important man, for it was thought that the gods revealed the future by these means. Every dream was seen as having some significance, the only problem being to discern what that was.
In this case barley bread was the food of the poor. It was half the value of fine flour (2Ki 7:1) and was clearly seen as symbolising downtrodden Israel. It would have been their staple diet at this time of oppression. The fact of only one barley cake may indeed suggest the bareness of their provisions. Thus the dream could only mean the destruction of the Midianite confederacy by Israel. That is certainly how the sentinels saw it. The writer probably saw some significance in the fact that they were camped ‘by the hill of Moreh’ (verse 1). Moreh means ‘diviner, oracle giver’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 7:13. And when Gideon was come, behold, &c. However extraordinary this dream, and the interpretation of it, may appear; we must remember, that it was immediately inspired by God himself, to encourage Gideon, who was sent to the Midianitish host by the Lord, on purpose to hear it; and, in this view, we can find no difficulty in the interpretation given of it by the Midianitish soldier.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jdg 7:13 And when Gideon was come, behold, [there was] a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.
Ver. 13. Behold, there was a man that told a dream. ] So now-a-days, saith a divine, men dream their Midianitish dreams of errors, and tell it for gospel to their neighbours. This man told his dream to his fellow: but for no good to himself, yet to Gideon’s comfort: as Balaam, and afterwards Caiaphas, prophesied for the good of the Church.
Behold, I dreamed a dream.
And, lo, a cake of barley bread.
And came unto a tent.
a Act. and Mon., 1843.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Judges
A BATTLE WITHOUT A SWORD
Jdg 7:13 – Jdg 7:23
To reduce thirty-two thousand to three hundred was a strange way of preparing for a fight; and, no doubt, the handful left felt some sinking of their courage when they looked on their own small number and then on the widespread Midianite host. Gideon, too, would need heartening. So the first thing to be noted is the encouragement given him. God strengthens faith when it needs strengthening, and He has many ways of doing so. Note that Gideon’s visit to the Midianite camp was on ‘the same night’ on which his little band was left alone after the ordeal by water. How punctually to meet our need, when it begins to be felt, does God’s help come! It was by God’s command that he undertook the daring adventure of stealing down to the camp. We can fancy how silently he and Phurah crept down the hillside, and, with hushed breath and wary steps, lest they should stumble on and wake some sleeper, or even rouse some tethered camel, picked their way among the tents. But they had God’s command and promise, and these make men brave, and turn what would else be foolhardy into prudence. Ho put his ear to the black camel’s-hair wall of one tent, and heard what his faith could not but recognise as God’s message to him.
The soldier’s dream was just such as such a man would dream in such circumstances. A round loaf of barley the commonest kind of bread was dreamed of as rolling down from a height and upsetting ‘ the tent.’ The use of the definite article seems to point to some particular tent, perhaps simply the one in which the dreamer lay, or perhaps the general’s; but the noun may be used as a collective, and what is meant may be that the loaf went through the camp, overturning all the tents in its way. The interpretation needed no Daniel, but the immediate explanation given, shows not only the transparency of the symbol, but the dread in the Midianite ranks of Gideon’s prowess. A nameless awe, which goes far to produce the defeat it dreads, was beginning to creep over them. It finds utterance both in the dream and in its translation. The tiny loaf worked effects disproportioned to its size. A rock thundering down the hillside might have mass and momentum enough to level a line of tents, but one poor loaf to do it! Some mightier than human hand must have set it going on its career. So the soldier interprets that God had delivered the army into Gideon’s hand.
This dream suggests two or three considerations. In several instances we find God speaking to those outside Israel by dreams; for example, to Pharaoh and his two officers, Nebuchadnezzar, Pilate’s wife. It is the lowest form of divine communication, and, like other lower forms, is not to be looked for when the higher teaching of the Spirit of Christ is open to us all.
Again, while both dream and interpretation might be accounted for on simply natural grounds, a deeper insight into the so-called ‘natural’ brings us to see it as all penetrated by the operations of the ever-present God. And the coincidences which brought Gideon to just that tent among the thousands along the valley at just the moment when the two startled sleepers were talking, might well strike Gideon, as they did, as being God’s own fulfilment of the promise that ‘what they say’ would strengthen his hands for the attack Jdg 7:11.
Further, Gideon had already had the sign of the fleece and the dew; but God does not disdain to let him have an additional encouragement, and to let him draw confirmation of his own token from the talk of two Midianites. Faith may be buttressed by men’s words, albeit its only foundation is God’s.
Gideon has a place in the muster-roll of heroes of faith in Heb 11:32 , and his whole conduct in this incident proves his right to stand there. ‘He worshipped,’ for his soul went out in trust to God, whose voice he heard through the two Midianites, and bowed in thankfulness and submissive obedience. There could be no outward worship there, with an army of sleepers close by, but the silent uplifting of confidence and desire reaches God and strengthens the man. So he went back with new assurance of victory, and roused his sleeping band.
Mark his words as another token of his faith. The Midianite interpreter had said, ‘ God has delivered’; Gideon says, ‘The Lord has delivered.’ The former name is the more general, and is natural on the lips of a heathen; the latter is the covenant name, and to use it implies reliance on the Jehovah revealed by His acts to Israel. The Midianite had said that the host was delivered into Gideon’s hand; he says that it is delivered into the hands of the three hundred, suppressing himself and honouring them. God’s soldiers must be willing to ‘esteem others better than themselves,’ and to fight for God’s glory, not their own. The Midianite had said, ‘This is . . . the sword of Gideon’; he bid his men cry ‘the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.’ It was God’s cause for which they were contending, not his; and yet it was his, inasmuch as he was God’s instrument. ‘Excellent mixture,’ says Thomas Fuller, ‘both joined together; admirable method, God put in the first place. Where divine blessing leads up the van, and man’s valour brings up the battle, must not victory needs follow in the rear?’
Gideon does not seem to have been divinely directed to the stratagem by which the Midianites were thrown into panic. He had been promised victory, but that does not lead him to idle waiting for fulfilment of the promise. ‘To wait for God’s performance in doing nothing is to abuse that divine providence, which will so work that it will not allow us to idle’ Bishop Hall. True faith will wisely adopt means to reach promised ends, and, having used brain and hand as if all depended on ourselves, will look to Him, as if nothing depended on us, but all on Him.
There was strong faith as well as daring and skilful generalship in leading down the three hundred, with no weapons but trumpets and pitchers, to close quarters with an armed enemy so superior in numbers. And did it not need some faith, too, not only in Gideon but in God, on the part of his band, to plunge down the hill on such an errand, each man with both his hands full, and so unable to strike a blow? The other three hundred at Thermopylae have been wept over and sung; were not these three hundred as true heroes? Let us not count heads when we are called on to take God’s side. His soldiers are always in the minority, but, if He is reckoned in, the minority becomes the majority. ‘They that be with us are more than they that be with them.’
One can fancy the sleepers starting up dazed by the sudden bray of the trumpets and the wild shout of that war-cry yelled from every side. As they stumbled out of their tents, without leaders, without knowledge of the numbers of their foe, and saw all around the flaring torches, and heard the trumpet-blasts, which seemed to speak of an immense attacking force, no wonder that panic shook them, and they fled. Huge mobs of undisciplined men, as Eastern armies are, and these eminently were, are especially liable to such infectious alarms; and the larger the force, the faster does panic spread, the more unmanageable does the army become, and the more fatal are the results. Each man reflects, and so increases, his neighbour’s fear. ‘Great armies, once struck with amazement, are like wounded whales. Give them but line enough, and the fishes will be the fishermen to catch themselves.’
So the host broke up in wild disorder, and hurried in fragments towards the Jordan fords, trampling each other down as they raced through the darkness, and each man, as he ran, dreading to feel the enemy’s sword in his back next moment. `The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous is bold as a lion.’ Thus without stroke of weapon was the victory won. The battle was the Lord’s.
And the story is not antiquated in substance, however the form of the contests which God’s soldiers have to-day to fight has changed. Still it is true that we shall only wage war aright when we feel that it is His cause for which we contend, and His sword which wins the victory. If Gideon had put himself first in his warcry, or had put his own name only in it, the issue would have been different.
May we not also venture to apply the peculiar accoutrements of the victorious three hundred to ourselves? Christ’s men have no weapons to wield but the sounding out from them, as from a trumpet, of the word of the Lord, and the light of a Christian life shining through earthen vessels. If we boldly lift up our voices in the ancient war-cry, and let that word peal forth from us, and flash the light of holy lives on a dark world, we may break the sleeper’s slumbers to a glad waking, and win the noblest of victories by leading them to enlist in the army of our Captain, and to become partakers of His conquests by letting Him conquer, and thereby save them.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
behold . . . Behold . . . lo. Figure of speech Asterismos (three times). App-6.
a dream. See note on Gen 20:3.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
a cake: Jdg 3:15, Jdg 3:31, Jdg 4:9, Jdg 4:21, Jdg 6:15, Isa 41:14, Isa 41:15, 1Co 1:27
Reciprocal: Gen 24:14 – thereby Gen 37:5 – dreamed Gen 40:5 – General Gen 40:9 – a vine Gen 41:1 – that Pharaoh Exo 3:12 – token Jdg 7:11 – thou shalt Job 7:14 – thou scarest Dan 4:9 – tell Jon 1:7 – every 2Co 4:7 – in 2Co 10:4 – mighty
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
BARLEY CAKE AND TENT
A cake of barley = bread came unto a tent, and smote it.
Jdg 7:13
I daresay Gideon was far from flattered when he heard Israel likened to a barley cake. But when he heard the interpretation of the dream, and learned how the deep belief had spread through Midian that the hour of victory for Israel had come, Gideon fell on his knees and worshipped God, and then with a new heart climbed the hill again to muster his three hundred for the fight. Then follows the tale of that amazing battlethe strangest combat this world has ever seen. We want no commentary on it. The story lives and speaks. There is no preacher but may rivet his hearers with the pitchers and the torches and the trumpets and the midnight cry For Jehovah and for Gideon!
Note three of the lessons of this chapter:
I. Apparent weakening may be real strengthening.Had you asked Gideon his thought about his army, he would have told you it could bear a little strengthening. Had you asked him how he would propose to strengthen it, he would have said by recruiting a few more thousands. It is what every general and every government has said when faced in the field by unexpected numbers. But God said, we do not want more men. It is not by numbers that I work My will. He called for reduction, not for recruiting, that morning, and when the army was very weak then was it strong. And the Gospel triumphs have all been won that way. They have begun with a sifting and separating out. Jesus might have had a thousand soldiers to carry the banner of His kingdom through the world. But He knew mens hearts. He read their motives. He saw the perils of an unstable crowd. So He chose twelve out of the ranks of His followers. Like Gideons three hundred, they were to win the day. And all the history of a triumphing Gospel is our pledge of the wisdom and strength of that apparent weakening.
II. Again, our trifling acts reveal our characters.When Gideon brought his army down to the water, God tested them by the way in which they drank. Thousands went down upon their knees to drink, and God rejected these. Three hundred licked as a dog licks, and it was these three hundred who were chosen. Now, I do not know that we can say with certainty why it was these lappers who were picked, though I am sure of this, that they were not picked (as some have held) for drinking in a cowardly fashion. God never sets a premium upon cowardice. Rather their lapping was a mark of the disciplined soldier, who kept his feet (and his head too) when drinking, and would not kneel for fear of sudden surprise. Or if the Bible means that they flung themselves down, and put their lips to the river for a draught, perhaps that was the sign of deep faith in the Lord their Shepherd, Who maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters. But the point is, whatever the explanation, God read their character in that trifling act, and in our little deeds and trivial speech we are detected still. We should all like to be judged by our few splendid hours, and now we are loth to accept the estimate of common days. But it is not in our dreams we are ourselves. It is in the playground, in the schoolroom, around the fire, at the dinner-table. What are you there? that is the question. What kind of character is welling over to-day! A thread of gossamer may show how the wind blows. A petty act may unlock all the deeps. Watch, in the common things. Our trifling acts reveal our characters.
III. Then, lastly, let us not fail to note that God wins His battles by unlikely weapons.Who ever heard of a trumpet and a torch doing the proper work of spear and bow? Ah, well, we have heard of it before, in the blowing of the trumpets around Jericho, and we have heard of it in the long history of Christendom, and in the victories which Jesus Christ has won. For there we have the trumpet of the Gospel, uttering its note in the worlds night of sin; and there we have the flaming of the Lightthat Light of the world of which the Gospel tellsand is not that Light carried in earthen vessels when frail and sinful men, encompassed by infirmity, are chosen to be the messengers among the people of the unsearchable riches of the Lord?
Illustrations
(1) Dean Stanley pictures the Arab hordes. Like the Arab chiefs of modern days, the princes are dressed in gorgeous scarlet robes; on their necks, and the necks of their camels, are crescent-like ornaments, such as were afterwards worn by Jewish ladies of high rank. All of them wore rings, either nose-rings or ear-rings of gold. When these wild tribes, taking advantage perhaps of the weakening of the intervening kingdoms of Ammon and Moab, burst upon the country, their fierce aspect struck consternation wherever they went. They overran the whole country. They were to be seen everywhere, with their innumerable tents and camels, like the sand in the Bay of Acrelike one of those terrible armies of locusts described by the prophet Joel.
(2) Mere numbers of combatants have often hindered victory, rather than helped it. Xerxes, e.g., had too big an army to conquer Europe with; he would have sped better with a small, mobile, well-disciplined force, than with unwieldy millions. Gideon had no faith in mere bulk.
(3) Slight occasions suffice to show just what sort of people we are. Not in the acting of a part, but in the abandon of unconsciousness, we reveal our inmost selves. God gauges us by little things, and we never know when the moment of testing may come. All unawares we are weighed in the balances, and may be found wanting. Are we living for self or for God? As straws serve to show which way the wind blows, so a word, a gesture, a nameless unremembered act, may tell accurately all that we are worth. If we imagine that Gideon made too much of a trifle, we may remember a great mans words, Trifles! perfection is made up of trifles, and perfection is not a trifle.
(4) What do you call that place you are making out there? asked Azimoolah, the Nanas confidant, of an English lieutenant. I am sure, I dont know. Call it the Fort of Despair, said the mocking Hindoo. No, no, answered the undaunted Englishman; we will call it the Fort of Victory. And the Fort of Victory their courage made it.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Jdg 7:13-14. And lo, a cake tumbled into the host of Midian A weak and contemptible thing, and in itself as unable to overthrow a tent as to remove a mountain; but, being thrown by a divine hand, it bore down all before it. His fellow answered, &c. As there are many examples of significant dreams, given by God to heathen, so some of them had the gift of interpreting dreams; which they sometimes did by divine direction, as in this case. For it is evident that God influenced the mind of this man, to give this interpretation to the dream of his companion, for the encouragement of Gideon; otherwise, considering the numerous host of the Midianites, and the small force which Gideon had, it does not seem probable that a Midianitish soldier should have entertained such a conjecture; and one may observe the soldier speaks as if under some prophetic influence. Into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host It is certain, at least, that the hand of God was in this affair, that Gideon should be directed to this particular tent, and that the soldier should be telling his dream just at that very moment.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7:13 And when Gideon was come, behold, [there was] a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a {f} cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.
(f) Some read, a trembling noise of barley bread: meaning, that one of no reputation would make their great army tremble.