Judges 6:1-11

1 Yet again the People of Israel went back to doing evil in God's sight. God put them under the domination of Midian for seven years.

2 Midian overpowered Israel. Because of Midian, the People of Israel made for themselves hideouts in the mountains - caves and forts.

3 When Israel planted its crops, Midian and Amalek, the easterners, would invade them,

4 camp in their fields, and destroy their crops all the way down to Gaza. They left nothing for them to live on, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey.

5 Bringing their cattle and tents, they came in and took over, like an invasion of locusts. And their camels - past counting! They marched in and devastated the country.

6 The People of Israel, reduced to grinding poverty by Midian, cried out to God for help.

7 One time when the People of Israel had cried out to God because of Midian,

8 God sent them a prophet with this message: "God, the God of Israel, says, I delivered you from Egypt, I freed you from a life of slavery;

9 I rescued you from Egypt's brutality and then from every oppressor; I pushed them out of your way and gave you their land.

10 "And I said to you, 'I am God, your God. Don't for a minute be afraid of the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living.' But you didn't listen to me."

11 One day the angel of God came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, whose son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, out of sight of the Midianites.

Judges 6:1-11 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.