What does Judges 7:8 mean?
God has used a two-stage test to reduce Gideon's forces. If the numbers given in these passages are literal, Israel's forces will be outnumbered something like 450-to-1 (Judges 7:7; 8:10). The first test was a standard practice commanded by God in the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 20:5–8; Judges 7:3): everyone desperately afraid was allowed to go home. That left only a third of the original volunteers. The next test was to let those men drink from a brook and divide out those who drank the water from their hands instead of directly from the brook with their faces. That left only 300. The Lord has promised Gideon to give him victory over the swarming Midianite raiders (Judges 6:5) with those 300 men.In obedience, Gideon sends several thousand men back to their tents. The 300 took the provisions the people had given to the army and their trumpets and prepared for the battle. The Midianite camp was approximately five miles, or eight kilometers, along the valley below the Israelite position.