Judges 7:16-25 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Verses 16-25

Judges 7:16-Lamentations : . The Night Alarm and Rout.— Gideon’ s stratagem consisted in the division of his small force into three companies, who charged the enemy from three sides at once, making an uproar and producing a panic.

Judges 7:18 . The battle-cry agreed upon was “ For Yahweh and for Gideon!” When the actual conflict began, many or all prefixed to this “ A sword,” suggested by the gleaming weapons they had unsheathed. The words express with splendid terseness a double loyalty, to God and a trusted leader; an ideal, Yahweh’ s victory and glory; and a means of attaining it, the sword.

Judges 7:20 . If each soldier carried a trumpet, a torch, an empty pitcher, and a sword, his hands were too full. There are awkward repetitions in the narrative (see Judges 7:20 and Judges 7:22), and it is possible that the trumpets are derived from one source, the jars and torches from another.

Judges 7:23 . It is strange to see how the men who had no heart for the attack are ready to join in the pursuit. Some think that the verse is a later addition.

Judges 7:24 . The words “ even Jordan” (twice) seem meaningless. Perhaps we should read with the Peshitto “ as far as Bethbara upon (the bank of) Jordan.”

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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