Judges 8:1-3

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Judges 8:2

Judges 8:2. What have I done now? &c. What I have done in cutting off some of the common soldiers is not to be compared with your destroying their princes. I began the war, but you have finished it. Gideon here shows a noble temper of mind, which deserves admiration and imitation. Though in the midst of a most glorious victory, in which he was the chief instrument; yet, for the sake of the common good, that there might be no dissension, nor the help of the Ephraimites be wanting to... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Judges 8:3

Judges 8:3. Then their anger was abated According to that fine maxim of Solomon, “A soft answer turneth away wrath.” read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Judges 8:1-35

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 8:1

chide. This was the beginning of the strife which ended in the division of the kingdom (1 Kings 12:0 ). read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Judges 8:2

What . . . ? Is not. . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6 . read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Judges 8:3

God = Elohim delivered His creatures; not Jehovah the Covenant-God. App-4 . anger. Hebrew. ruach, spirit ( App-9 ). Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause) for the angry manifestations of it. read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Judges 8:1

GIDEON'S OTHER ACTIONS; HE REFUSED KINGSHIPGIDEON APPEASED THE WRATH OF THE EPHRAIMITES (Judges 8:1-3)"And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou callest us not, when thou wentest to fight with Midian? And they did chide with him sharply. And he said unto them, What have I now done in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God hath delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Judges 8:1

CHAP. VIII. Gideon pacifies the Ephraimites; he takes the two kings, Zeba and Zalmunna, prisoners. He refuses the kingdom offered to him, and dies, being the father of seventy children. Before Christ 1267. read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Judges 8:2

Judges 8:2. Is not the gleaning, &c.— The Ephraimites, displeased that they had not been called to share the glory of this enterprise with their brethren of the tribe of Manasseh, to whom they judged themselves superior, sharply expostulate with Gideon upon the occasion. He gives them a soft and gentle answer, which had the due effect, abating their anger towards him, Judges 8:3. (See Proverbs 15:1.) He magnifies their service, as greatly superior to his own; disarming their insolence by... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Judges 8:1

1. the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus?—Where this complaint was made, whether before or after the crossing of the Jordan, cannot be determined. By the overthrow of the national enemy, the Ephraimites were benefited as largely as any of the other neighboring tribes. But, piqued at not having been sharers in the glory of the victory, their leading men could not repress their wounded pride; and the occasion only served to bring out an old and deep-seated feeling of... read more

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