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Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Judges 7:19

The middle watch - The old Jewish division of the night was three watches of four hours each. They are alluded to in Exo 14:24; 1 Samuel 11:11; Psalms 63:6; Psalms 90:4; Psalms 119:148; Psalms 130:6; Lamentations 2:19. After the Jews fell under the power of the Romans, they used the Roman division of four watches of three hours each Matthew 14:25; Mark 13:35.“The beginning” of the watch would be about eleven o’clock at night. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Judges 7:15-16

Judges 7:15-16. When Gideon heard, he worshipped He praised God for this special encouragement. He divided the men into three companies To make a show of a vast army. Lamps within the pitchers The lights were put into the pitchers, partly to preserve them from the wind and weather, and partly that their approach to the Midianites not being discovered, they might surprise them with sudden flashes of light. But when every man had taken his post just on the outside of the camp, then they... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Judges 7:17-18

Judges 7:17-18. He said to them, Look on me For though two hundred of his men were placed on other sides of the camp, yet they were so disposed, that some persons, set as watchmen, might see what was done, and give notice to the rest to follow the example. The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon He mentions his own name, together with God’s, not out of arrogance, as if he would equal himself with God, but from prudent policy, because his name was grown formidable to them, and so was likely... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Judges 7:19

Judges 7:19. Middle watch That is, of the second watch; for though afterward the night was divided into four watches by the Romans, (Matthew 14:25,) yet in more ancient times, and in the eastern parts, it was divided into three: he chose the dark and dead of the night, to increase their terror by the trumpets, whose sound would then be loudest, and the lamps, whose light would then shine most brightly, to surprise them, and conceal the smallness of their numbers. read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Judges 7:1-25

Deliverance under Gideon (7:1-8:35)God allowed Gideon only three hundred men to launch the attack against the Midianites, so that Israel might know that victory was not by military power but by God’s power (7:1-8). A Midianite soldier’s dream showed that an unnatural fear had come upon the Midianites. When he dreamt that a poor man’s loaf of barley overthrew a rich man’s tent, he thought that poverty-stricken Israel would overthrow Midian’s army. The Midianites could, in fact, have wiped out... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Judges 7:16

lamps = torches, which smoulder till waved in the air. read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Judges 7:18

The sword. These words are supplied by Figure of speech Ellipsis from Judges 7:20 . But some codices, with Aram, and Syriac, read these words in the text. Literally "For Jehovah and for Gideon". read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Judges 7:19

THE ATTACK"So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came to the outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, and they blew the trumpets, and brake in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands wherewith to blow; and they cried, The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his place round about the... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Judges 7:18

Judges 7:18. The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon— Though the word sword is not in the Hebrew in this place, yet, as it is read in the 20th verse, our translators have very properly added it. It is evident, says Houbigant, that in these words Gideon alludes to the interpretation of the dream given in the 14th verse. As the three hundred men were divided into three companies, detached to different parts of the Midianitish camp, Gideon, as appears from the next verse, was attended only by one... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Judges 7:16

16-22. he divided the three hundred men into three companies—The object of dividing his forces was, that they might seem to be surrounding the enemy. The pitchers were empty to conceal the torches, and made of earthenware, so as to be easily broken; and the sudden blaze of the held-up lights—the loud echo of the trumpets, and the shouts of Israel, always terrifying ( :-), and now more terrible than ever by the use of such striking words, broke through the stillness of the midnight air. The... read more

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