Gideon

Life and work

Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress — hiding it from raiding Midianites — when an angel greeted him as "thou mighty man of valour" and commissioned him to deliver Israel, which had been oppressed by Midianite raids for seven years (Judges 6:1-16). Gideon protested his low status ("my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house") and asked for a sign, which was given by fire consuming his offering (Judges 6:17-24).

God's first instruction was domestic: Gideon tore down his father's altar to Baal and an Asherah pole by night, for which the townspeople wanted him killed until his father argued that Baal should defend himself — earning Gideon the nickname Jerubbaal, "let Baal contend" (Judges 6:25-32).

Before committing to battle, Gideon twice tested God with a wool fleece left overnight — first asking for dew on the fleece but dry ground around it, then the reverse — and received both signs (Judges 6:36-40), the origin of the popular idiom "putting out a fleece."

God deliberately shrank Gideon's army from 32,000 to just 300 men, first dismissing the fearful and then selecting only those who lapped water from a stream with cupped hands rather than kneeling to drink, "lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me" (Judges 7:1-8). With trumpets, empty jars, and torches, Gideon's 300 threw the vast Midianite camp into panicked confusion at night, and Israel routed the invaders (Judges 7:9-25).

After the victory, Israel offered to make Gideon and his descendants hereditary rulers; he refused, declaring "the LORD shall rule over you" (Judges 8:22-23). He nonetheless requested gold earrings from the plunder to fashion an ephod, which the text says became a religious snare for Israel and his household (Judges 8:24-27).

Dating

No birth or death year is recorded; the 40 years of peace after his victory over Midian (Judges 8:28) anchor this approximate window. As with the other judges, overlapping regional judgeships make exact dating inherently approximate.

Questions and debates

Gideon's story contains a pointed irony well noted by commentators: the man who tore down his father's idol and refused kingship on theological grounds then built the golden ephod that Judges says Israel "went whoring after," becoming a snare to his own family. He also had many wives and at least one concubine, whose son Abimelech later attempted to seize kingship by massacring 70 of Gideon's other sons (Judges 8:30-31, 9:1-6).

Extra-biblical evidence

No archaeological find or extrabiblical inscription names Gideon individually; he is known solely from the book of Judges and later biblical references to him.

Scripture references

• Judges 6 — Called by an angel; destroys his father's altar to Baal; tests God with a fleece
• Judges 7 — Defeats the Midianites with 300 men
• Judges 8:22-27 — Refuses kingship but makes a golden ephod that becomes a snare
• Hebrews 11:32 — Named among the judges and leaders commended for their faith

Further reading

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Gideon

Reflect

God's messenger called Gideon a 'mighty man of valor' while he was hiding in a winepress — what does God see in you that you don't?