Judges 7:1

THE ROUT OF THE MIDIANITES;

GIDEON ENCAMPS NEAR THE MIDIANITES

"Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod: and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh in the valley."

"It is impossible at this time exactly to locate these opposing armies,"[1] except that the confrontation was somewhere in the western portion of the valley of Jezreel. It is not the exact location here; this is important. The great fact is that Gideon, having been greatly encouraged by the sign of the fleece (at the end of preceding chapter), took his army of some 32,000 armed men and confronted the encampment of the hordes of the Midianites. This was a development which the Midianites had not expected, as their previous seven years of raiding the helpless Israelites had been very successful with practically no opposition. This was a new year and a new situation!