Judges 6:24-27

24 So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

25 That same night the LORD said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old.^[a] Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole^[b] beside it.

26 Then build a proper kind of^[c] altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second^[d] bull as a burnt offering.”

27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

Judges 6:24-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 6

In this chapter we have an account of the distressed condition Israel was in through the Midianites, Jud 6:1-6, of a prophet being sent unto them to reprieve them for their sins, Jud 6:7-10 of an angel appearing to Gideon, with an order to him to go and save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites, Jud 6:11-16 and of a sign given him by the angel, whereby he knew this order was of God, Jud 6:17-24, and of the reformation from idolatry in his father's family he made upon this, throwing down the altar of Baal, and building one for the Lord, Jud 6:25-32, and of the preparation he made to fight the Midianites and others, Jud 6:33-35, but first desired a sign of the Lord, that Israel would be saved by his hand, which was granted and repeated, Jud 6:36-40.

Cross References

• 1. S Genesis 22:14
• 2. S Joshua 18:23; Judges 8:32
• 3. ver 26,28,30; Exodus 34:13; S Judges 2:13; Deuteronomy 7:5
• 4. S Genesis 8:20

Footnotes

• [a] Or "Take a full-grown, mature bull from your father’s herd"
• [b] That is, a wooden symbol of the goddess Asherah; also in verses 26, 28 and 30
• [c] Or "build with layers of stone an"
• [d] Or "full-grown" ; also in verse 28