Judges Chapter 8 verse 2 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 2. - What have I done, etc. Gideon's character comes out splendidly in this answer. Humble and unassuming (Judges 6:15, 36, note), and indisposed to glory, he was willing to give the Ephraimites full credit for their share in the great victory; prudent, and a lover of his country, he saw the immense importance of union among themselves, and the danger of intestine divisions and discord, and so at once met Ephraim's taunts by the soft answer which turneth away wrath (Proverbs 15:1). The grapes. The insertion of the word grapes, which is not in the Hebrew, rather spoils the proverb. It would run better, The gleaning of Ephraim is better than the vintage of Abi-ezer. The word vintage sufficiently shows that the gleaning meant was a gleaning of grapes. Ephraim, who came in at the end of the fight, like the gleaner when the vintage is finished, had got more glory by the capture of Oreb and Zeeb than the Manassites, who had gone through the whole campaign. The passage above referred to in Isaiah (Isaiah 10:25) implies that a great slaughter of the Midianites took place at the rock of Oreb. CHAPTER 8:4-12

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2) What have I done now in comparison of you?--Since Gideon was by no means a man of very placable and pacific disposition, we see the strong and noble self-control which this answer manifests. He was not in a condition, even had he wished it, to humble the fierce jealousy of this kindred tribe, as the more independent Jephthah, who was not so closely bound to them, did not scruple to do. He remembered that Zebah and Zalmunna were still safe; the Midianites were as yet by no means finally crushed. Patriotism as well as right feeling demanded that at such a moment there should be no civil discord.Is not the gleaning . . .?--The answer has a proverbial sound. (Comp. Deuteronomy 24:21.) It here implies that Ephraim, by a mere subsequent and secondary effort, had achieved more (as yet) than Gideon himself had done, or perhaps that the two bloody heads which were their "gleaning" were better than the "vintage" of obscure thousands. In admitting this, in waiving all self-assertion, Gideon was setting an example of the spirit which is content to suffer wrong, and to take less than its proper due (elassousthai, Time. i. 77). Nor was there any irony or wilful sacrifice of truth in his remark, for there can be no doubt that the Ephraimites had wrought a splendid victory (Isaiah 10:26). The Chaldee renders it, "Are not the weak of the house of Ephraim better than the strong of the house of Abiezer?"