Why does the Lord reduce Gedeon’s army to three hundred men?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

He says the people are too many for Madian to be delivered into their hands, lest Israel glory against him and credit its own strength. The fearful return home, and the water test separates the three hundred through whom he promises to save them.

Chapter breakdown

Jerobaal, also called Gedeon, rises early with all the people and comes to the fountain Harad. Madian’s camp lies below in the valley north of the high hill. The Lord says Gedeon’s people are too many: Madian will not be delivered into their hands, lest Israel glory against the Lord and say its own strength delivered it. Challoner separately says God does not choose as instruments of great achievements done purely by his grace those who, through pride and self-conceit, take the glory to themselves. Gedeon must announce in everyone’s hearing that the fearful and timid may return. Twenty-two thousand leave mount Galaad and go home; ten thousand remain. The Lord still finds too many and sends them to the waters, where he will test them: whoever he tells Gedeon to take shall go, and whoever he forbids shall return. Those lapping water with their tongues like dogs are set apart from those kneeling to drink. Three hundred lap water, bringing their hands to their mouths; the rest kneel. Challoner separately explains that those lapping from their hands are preferred to those lying quite down to drink, whose greater eagerness showed a more sensual disposition. The Lord promises to save through the three hundred and deliver Madian, while all the others return to their own places.

Gedeon’s men take provisions and trumpets according to their number. He sends the rest of the multitude to their tents and goes to battle with the three hundred; Madian’s camp lies below in the valley. That same night the Lord commands him to go down, saying the enemy is delivered into his hands. If afraid to go alone, he may take his servant Phara: hearing what they say will strengthen his hands so he can go more securely. Gedeon goes with Phara to where armed men keep watch. Madian, Amalec and all the eastern people lie in the valley like locusts, with camels as countless as seashore sand. Gedeon hears a man tell his neighbor a dream: a hearth cake of barley bread rolls into Madian’s camp, reaches a tent and overturns it flat on the ground. Challoner separately says observing dreams is commonly superstitious and condemned by God’s word, but in extraordinary cases God may foretell what he will do through a dream. The neighbor interprets this dream as the sword of Gedeon son of Joas, a man of Israel: the Lord has delivered Madian and all its camp into his hand.

After hearing the dream and its interpretation, Gedeon adores, returns to Israel’s camp and tells them to arise because the Lord has delivered Madian. He divides the three hundred into three parts and gives them trumpets and empty pitchers with lamps inside. They must copy him as he goes to one side of the camp. When his trumpet sounds, they must blow on every side and shout together for the Lord and Gedeon.

Gedeon and the three hundred men with him in that part come to the camp at the beginning of the midnight watch. The watchmen are alarmed; Gedeon’s men sound their trumpets and clap their pitchers together. Challoner separately gives a mystical reading about Gospel preachers making spiritual conquests: their trumpet is God’s word, their breaking of earthen pitchers is mortifying the flesh and its passions, and their lamps are the light of virtues. Gedeon’s men sound their trumpets in three places around the camp and break the pitchers. They hold lamps in their left hands and trumpets in their right, blowing and crying that this is the sword of the Lord and Gedeon. Each stands in his place. The camp is troubled; the men cry and howl as they flee. The three hundred persist in sounding the trumpets, and the Lord sends the sword throughout the camp so that the enemy men kill one another.

The enemy flees as far as Bethsetta and the border of Abelmahula in Tebbath. Israel’s men shout and pursue: Nephthali, Aser and all Manasses. Gedeon sends messengers throughout mount Ephraim to tell them to come against Madian and take the waters before them as far as Bethbera and the Jordan. Ephraim shouts and takes those waters and the Jordan as far as Bethbera. They capture Oreb and Zeb, kill Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeb at the winepress of Zeb, and pursue Madian. They carry the two men’s heads to Gedeon beyond the Jordan’s waters. Challoner separately identifies the two men as two chiefs.

The story inside

The Lord states why the large army must shrink before the fight: Israel must not claim its own strength delivered it. The public offer to return home and the water test leave the promised three hundred. That night’s conditional instruction lets Gedeon take Phara if afraid, and what he hears in the enemy camp leads to adoration and his call to arise. His three groups follow his instructions with trumpets, pitchers and lamps. The enemy flees while the Lord’s sword leads them to kill one another. The pursuit widens to named tribes, Ephraim takes the waters, and the capture and deaths of Oreb and Zeb close the chapter. Challoner’s notes remain separately attributed, including his rule and exception concerning dreams and his mystical reading of the equipment.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The reduction has a stated reason. The Lord says the larger force would allow Israel to glory against him and credit its own strength. The fearful men’s return and the water test are the actual steps that leave the three hundred, without a supplied theory about their alertness.
2
The dream has both a speaker and an interpreter. Gedeon hears one man’s dream and his neighbor’s explanation, then adores and returns to his own camp. Challoner’s note allows extraordinary dreams from God while retaining the usual condemnation of superstitious dream observation.
3
The victory and pursuit have distinct actions. The three hundred keep sounding trumpets while the enemy kills one another and flees. Other tribes pursue, Ephraim takes the waters, and Oreb and Zeb are killed at separately named places; the account does not reduce all these events to the first shout.

Test your recall

Why must the army shrink, what does Gedeon hear when he goes with Phara, and how does that hearing lead to his return and instructions?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 25803–25846
Judges Chapter 7 Gedeon, with three hundred men, by stratagem defeateth the Madianites. 7:1. Then Jerobaal, who is the same as Gedeon, rising up early, and all the people with him, came to the fountain that is called Harad. Now the camp of Madian was in the valley, on the north side of the high hill. 7:2. And the Lord said to Gedeon: The people that are with thee are many, and Madian shall not be delivered into their hands: lest Israel should glory against me, and say: I was delivered by my own strength. Lest Israel, etc.... By this we see that God will not choose for his instruments in great achievements, which depend purely on his grace, such as, through pride and self conceit, will take the glory to themselves. 7:3. Speak to the people, and proclaim in the hearing of all: Whosoever is fearful and timorous, let him return. So two and twenty thousand men went away from Mount Galaad and returned home, and only ten thousand remained. 7:4. And the Lord said to Gedeon: The people are still too many, bring them to the waters, and there I will try them: and of whom I shall say to thee, This shall go with thee, let him go: whom I shall forbid to go, let him return. 7:5. And when the people were come down to the waters, the Lord said to Gedeon: They that shall lap the water with their tongues, as dogs are wont to lap, thou shalt set apart by themselves: but they that shall drink bowing down their knees, shall be on the other side. 7:6. And the number of them that had lapped water; casting it with the hand to their mouth, was three hundred men: and all the rest of the multitude had drunk kneeling. 7:7. And the Lord said to Gedeon: By the three hundred men, that lapped water, I will save you, and deliver Madian into thy hand: but let all the rest of the people return to their place. That lapped water.... These were preferred that took the water up in their hands, and so lapped it, before them who laid themselves quite down to the waters to drink: which argued a more eager and sensual disposition.
Lines 25848–25881
7:8. So taking victuals and trumpets according to their number, he ordered all the rest of the multitude to depart to their tents: and he with the three hundred gave himself to the battle. Now the camp of Madia was beneath him in the valley. 7:9. The same night the Lord said to him: Arise, and go down into the camp: because I have delivered them into thy hand. 7:10. But if thou be afraid to go alone, let Phara, thy servant, go down with thee. 7:11. And when thou shalt hear what they are saying, then shall thy hands be strengthened, and thou shalt go down more secure to the enemies’ camp. And he went down with Phara his servant, into part of the camp, where was the watch of men in arms. 7:12. But Madian and Amalec, and all the eastern people, lay scattered in the valley, as a multitude of locusts: their camels also were innumerable, as the sand that lieth on the sea shore. 7:13. And when Gedeon was come, one told his neighbour a dream: and in this manner related what he had seen: I dreamt a dream, and it seemed to me as if a hearth cake of barley bread rolled and came down into the camp of Madian: and when it was come to a tent, it struck it, and beat it down flat to the ground. A dream.... Observation of dreams is commonly superstitious, and as such is condemned in the word of God: but in some extraordinary cases, as we here see, God is pleased by dreams to foretell what he is about to do. 7:14. He to whom he spoke, answered: This is nothing else but the sword of Gedeon, the son of Joas, a man of Israel. For the Lord hath delivered Madian, and all their camp into his hand.
Lines 25883–25896
7:15. And when Gedeon had heard the dream, and the interpretation thereof, he adored: and returned to the camp of Israel, and said: Arise, for the Lord hath delivered the camp of Madian into our hands. 7:16. And he divided the three hundred men into three parts, and gave them trumpets in their hands, and empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. 7:17. And he said to them: What you shall see me do, do you the same: I will go into one part of the camp, and do you as I shall do. 7:18. When the trumpet shall sound in my hand, do you also blow the trumpets on every side of the camp, and shout together to the Lord and to Gedeon.
Lines 25898–25919
7:19. And Gedeon, and the three hundred men that were with him, went into part of the camp, at the beginning of the midnight watch, and the watchmen being alarmed, they began to sound their trumpets, and to clap the pitchers one against another. Their trumpets, etc.... In a mystical sense, the preachers of the gospel, in order to spiritual conquests, must not only sound with the trumpet of the word of God, but must also break their earthen pitchers, by the mortification of the flesh and its passions, and carry lamps in their hands by the light of their virtues. 7:20. And when they sounded their trumpets in three places round about the camp, and had broken their pitchers, they held their lamps in their left hands, and with their right hands the trumpets which they blew, and they cried out: The sword of the Lord and of Gedeon: 7:21. Standing every man in his place round about the enemies’ camp. So all the camp was troubled, and crying out and howling, they fled away: 7:22. And the three hundred men nevertheless persisted sounding the trumpets. And the Lord sent the sword into all the camp, and they killed one another,
Lines 25921–25937
7:23. Fleeing as far as Bethsetta, and the border of Abelmahula, in Tebbath. But the men of Israel, shouting from Nephthali, and Aser, and from all Manasses, pursued after Madian. 7:24. And Gedeon sent messengers into all Mount Ephraim, saying: Come down to meet Madian, and take the waters before them to Bethbera and the Jordan. And all Ephraim shouted, and took the waters before them and the Jordan as far as Bethbera. 7:25. And having taken two men of Madian, Oreb and Zeb: Oreb they slew in the rock of Oreb, and Zeb in the winepress of Zeb. And they pursued Madian, carrying the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gedeon, beyond the waters of the Jordan. Two men.... That is, two of their chiefs.