SERIES H --- THE JUDGES --- LESSON 07

PITCHERS AND TORCHES

THE ARMY OF THREE HUNDRED

From Judges 7

Early one morning Gideon, whose other name was Jerubaal, left with his troops to fight against the enemy. He set up camp beside the Spring of Harod. The camp of the Midianites was north of them in the valley by the hill of Moreh. ‘You have too many soldiers,’ YHVH said to Gideon. ’If you defeat Midian with all those soldiers, you’ll think you did it and brag to Me about the way you saved yourself. Tell your men that those who are afraid may go home.’ When Gideon gave his soldiers permission to leave, twenty-two thousand of them went home. Only ten thousand were left. ‘You still have too many soldiers,’ Adonai said to Gideon. ‘Bring them down to the Spring of Harod and I’ll show you which to keep and which to send home.’ When Gideon brought his troops down to the Spring of Harod, Adonai gave these orders: ‘Separate those who lap up the water like a dog from those who get down on their knees to drink.’ There were only three hundred soldiers who put water up to their mouths and lapped it from their hands. All the other soldiers knelt down to drink from the spring. ‘With these three hundred men, I will conquer the whole Midianite army,’ YHVH promised Gideon. ‘Tell all your other men to go home.’ The three hundred gathered clay pitchers and trumpets from the rest of tile soldiers before Gideon sent them away. Then they stayed with Gideon to do battle with the Midianites, who were camped in the valley below. That night Adonai spoke to Gideon again. ‘Get up now and go down to take the army of Midian, for I have already given you the victory. But if you are afraid to attack, take your servant Purah and go quietly to the Midianite can and listen to what they say. Then you will certainly have the courage to attack.’ Gideon was afraid, so he took Purah with him and went quietly to the edge of the Midianite camp. The valley was filled with the Midianites and the Amalekites and other nations of the east. They had crowded the valley like swarms of locusts, with so many camels that no one could count them, almost like the sand on the seashore. Then Gideon heard a man telling a friend about his dream. ‘In this dream,’ he said, ‘a loaf of barley bread came rumbling into camp and knocked our tent flat.’ ‘That was the sword of Gideon, the Israelite, the son of Joash,’ said his friend. ‘YHVH has given him a great victory over us.’ When Gideon had heard about the dream and what it meant, he bowed his head and worshiped YHVH. Then he returned to camp and shouted orders ‘Get up! Adonai has given us the victory over the Midianites.’ Gideon divided the three hundred men into three bands. Each man had a trumpet and an empty pitcher with a torch inside each pitcher. ‘Watch me!’ he told his men. ‘When we come to the outer edges of the Midianites camp, do what my group and I do. When we blow our trumpets, you will blow your trumpets too. Then shout, ‘For Adonai and for Gideon.’ A little past midnight and the changing of the guard, Gideon and his troops crept to the outer edges of the Midianite camp, surrounding it. Gideon and his band blew their trumpets with a flourish and broke the clay pitchers so that their torches blazed out suddenly to the Midianites. Then the other two hundred men blew on their trumpets, which they held in their right hands and broke the clay pitchers so that their torches suddenly blazed in the night also. ‘A sword for Adonai and for Gideon!’ they shouted. Gideon’s men surrounded the Midianite camp, blowing on their trumpets. The terrified Midianite soldiers ran for their lives, fighting and killing one another as they went. They fled from the camp to places as far away as Beth-shittah near Zererah and Abel-meholah by Tabbath. Gideon issued a call to the soldiers of Naphtali, Asher and Manasseh to go after the Midianites. He sent messages also throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, ‘Come and fight Midian! Capture the fords of the Jordan at Beth-barah so that they cannot escape!’ The soldiers of Israel captured the two commanders of the Midianite forces; Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at a rock that was later named for him and they killed Zeeb at a winepress that now bears his name. Then they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb across the Jordan River to Gideon.

COMMENTARY

CANAANITE WEAPONS

Joshua once won a victory with an army that silently marched around Jericho. Now Gideon would win a victory over a great army with only three hundred men, holding pitchers, torches and trumpets. How clear it would be to all Israel that YHVH had again acted to deliver them. The Israelites often had to fight with little more than their farming tools, while their Canaanite enemies were well supplied with bronze and iron weapons. Entire companies of Canaanite swordsmen sometimes went into battle. One- and two-edged bronze swords were sharpened until the edge could slice through a human body. Other swords had a triangular blade designed to pierce very deeply. Sometimes weapon makers would attach a protruding piece of metal on the blades of swords and daggers. Such a mid-rib made a wider wound, thus guaranteeing the victim’s death. In battle each soldier carried as many weapons as he could afford to buy. Many kept daggers sheathed around their waists for use when wooden spears or javelins broke. Others wielded a heavy bronze axe-axe or a spiked mace that shattered the leather and-wood shields of the time. Attached to the wrist, a simple slingshot was just as lethal a weapon. One accurate shot sent stones flying at speeds that would kill on impact. Archers commanded one of the most dangerous weapons of the Canaanite armies. With complicated bows of wood, bone and tendon, they could fire a volley of deadly arrows twice the distance of the simpler Israelite bows. Canaanite archers also used bronze battle bows so powerful a warrior needed his full strength just to draw the string. They commonly carried a leather quiver of arrows with flint, stone and bronze tips. When they had to, Canaanite soldiers used makeshift weapons. Hunting nets, thick cords and even a broken spear shaft could serve in an emergency. But the Canaanites rarely found themselves without the metal weapons they depended on. Bronze was plentiful and iron was becoming more common as the smiths experimented with ways of making the new harder metal. Sometimes a dagger hilt was cast of bronze and riveted to an iron blade. Iron arrowheads were so prized that archers fortunate enough to own them often carved their name on the wooden shaft. Rulers kept heavy-duty battering rams in their armouries to break down gates and walls. They used fleets of ironbound war chariots to transport their archers and spearmen. Some also hired professional warriors from surrounding regions to strengthen their ranks. These superior weapons and skilled warriors gave the Canaanites a great advantage over their Israelite foes.