Judges Chapter 7 verse 1 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 1. - Jerubbaal. The mention of this name seems intended to keep before our minds that it is emphatically the servant of the Lord who is going forth to victory. The well of Harod, i.e. of trembling, so called, no doubt, from the incident recorded in ver. 3, that every one who was afraid (Hebrew, hated) departed from Mount Gilead. The well of Harod is not mentioned elsewhere, though two of David's mighty men are called Harodites (2 Samuel 23:25); but it is thought to be identical with "the fountain which is in Jezreel" (1 Samuel 29:1), on the slope of Mount Gilboa, and now called Ain Jahlood, the spring of Goliah. On the north side, etc. Gideon and his Abi-ezrites were naturally on the south side of the plain, on the hill, apparently Mount Gilboa, which there shuts in the plain. The Midianitc host was encamped to the north of him (so it is in the Hebrew), in the valley, i.e. the plain of Jezreel (Judges 6:33, note). By the hill of Moreh. Nowhere else mentioned; probably only a hillock, of which there are many in that part of the plain.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(1) Jerubbaal, who is Gideon.--Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, Esther, Daniel, St. Paul, &c, are other instances of Scriptural characters who have two names.Beside.--Rather, above. It would have been foolish and dangerous to encamp on the plain.The well of Harod.--The name "Harod" means "trembling," with an obvious allusion to the timidity of the people (chareed, Judges 7:3), to which there may be again an allusion in 1Samuel 28:5. The name is here used by anticipation. It occurs here only, though two Harodites are mentioned in 2Samuel 23:25; and the same fountain is obviously alluded to in 1Samuel 29:1. From the fact that Gideon's camp was on Mount Gilboa there can be little doubt that Harod must be identified with the abundant and beautiful fountain at the foot of the hill now known as Ain Jal-d, or "the spring of Goliath," from a mistaken legend that this was the scene of the giant's death; or possibly from a mistaken corruption of the name Harod itself. There is another reading, "Endor" (comp. Ps. 82:10).By the hill of Moreh.--Bertheau renders it, "stretching from the hill of Moreh into the valley." The only hill of this name which we know from other sources is that at Shechem (Genesis 12:6; Deuteronomy 11:30), but that is twenty-five miles south of Mount Gilboa. There can be no doubt that Moreh is here used for Little Hermon, now Jebel ed-Duhy. The Vulgate renders it "of a lofty hill," perhaps to avoid a supposed difficulty. The word Moreh means "archer," and Little Hermon may have been called "the Archer's Hill," from the bowmen of the Amalekites. . . .