Judges 6:12

12 The Lord's angel appeared to him there and said, "The Lord is with you, brave and mighty man!"

Judges 6:12 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 6:12

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him
He stayed some time under the oak, and Gideon being busy in threshing, took no notice of him wherefore he came and stood before him, in his sight:

and said unto him, the Lord is with thee;
the gracious presence of God was with Gideon while he was threshing, who very probably was sending up ejaculations to heaven, on account of the distressed case of Israel, and was deep in meditation about the affairs of the people of God, and contriving how to deliver them; or the angel might mean himself, who was no other than Jehovah, the eternal Word of God, who was present with him, and spake unto him; and so the Targum,

``my Word is thy help:''

thou mighty man of valour;
who very probably was a stout man in body, and of a courageous mind naturally, and might at this instant have an increase both of bodily strength and greatness of soul; or, however, this was said to animate and encourage him to do what he was about to be sent to do.

Judges 6:12 In-Context

10 I told you that I am the Lord your God and that you should not worship the gods of the Amorites, whose land you are now living in. But you have not listened to me."

11 Then the Lord's angel came to the village of Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was threshing some wheat secretly in a wine press, so that the Midianites would not see him.

12 The Lord's angel appeared to him there and said, "The Lord is with you, brave and mighty man!"

13 Gideon said to him, "If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the Lord is with us? What happened to all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the Lord used to do - how he brought them out of Egypt? The Lord has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites."

14 Then the Lord ordered him, "Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you."