Verse 13
13. I dreamed a dream Dreaming has ever been the subject of curious speculations, and the Scriptures afford us various and some wonderful specimens of dreams. Compare Genesis 20:3; Genesis 28:12; Genesis 31:11; Genesis 31:24; Genesis 37:6-11; 1 Kings 3:5. They were one medium of divine revelation.
Numbers 12:6. The dream of this Midianite was a noticeable interposition of Divine Providence, and was designed to encourage Gideon. There may have been, and probably was, a natural psychological basis for the dream in the fears and suspicions of this Midianite, for the assembling of over thirty thousand Israelites at the call of Gideon could hardly be kept a secret from the entire host of Midianites.
A cake of barley bread Apt symbol, in the conceptions of a nomad, for a cultivator of the soil, whose life would seem to be all occupied in raising grain and baking bread.
Tumbled Rolled down the mountain like a wheel.
Unto a tent The tent of some Midianitish chieftain, which, in the mind of the dreamer, would be associated with nomadic habits of life, and therefore a symbol of his people’s freedom, greatness, and power.
The tent lay along The different expressions which describe the overthrow of the tent are noticeable. The barley cake smites it so as to knock it down; it falls, then is turned over upwards ( למעלה ) from having the tent pins torn out of the ground, and, rolling over and over, finally falls out flat upon the earth. This was a significant image of the complete overthrow of the Midianitish power.
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