Judges 6:16 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And the Lord said to him, "But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man."

NIV: The Lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive."

NASB: Yet the Lord said to him, 'I will certainly be with you, and you will defeat Midian as one man.'

CSB: "But I will be with you," the Lord said to him. "You will strike Midian down as if it were one man."

NLT: The Lord said to him, 'I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.'

KJV: And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.

NKJV: And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”

The Lord doesn't answer any of Gideon's objections about saving Israel from the Midianites (Judges 6:11–15). Instead, God simply says, "I will be with you." The Lord always insists that's the only answer any person should need to hear. Man's power is always irrelevant next to the will of their Creator (Luke 18:27; Exodus 15:6).

Moses objected to God's call in a way much like Gideon's excuses." God answered by saying, "But I will be with you" (Exodus 3:11–12). When a startled Jeremiah pointed to his poor speech and youth, the Lord answered, "I am with you to deliver you" (Jeremiah 1:6–8). Here, God gives the same answer to Gideon. It's the only and obvious cure to every inadequacy raised in response to God's call. Even when the task seems impossible, this is the truthful answer.

The Lord adds that because He is with Gideon, the victory will be clear and convincing. Commentators suggest two ways of reading this reference to "[striking] the Midianites as one man." Either option makes sense in this context, and its possible both are in mind. The first possibility is that God meant Israel would rally behind Gideon and they would fight with the unity and cooperation of a single person. Another possibility is that this is a prediction that Gideon would defeat every Midianite, to the last man, until none were left to oppress Israel.

Either way, Gideon is still dubious. God's initial reference to him as a "mighty man of valor" (Judges 6:12) becomes more ironic as the conversation continues (Judges 6:17).

Judges 6:11–27 begins in a town called Ophrah. There, the Angel of the Lord appears to a man named Gideon. The Lord calls Gideon mighty, despite his apparent lack of influence or power, and commands him to save Israel from Midian. After a display of power, God commands Gideon to tear down the town's altars to false idols, replacing them with an altar to Yahweh complete with a sacrifice of his father's bull. Gideon does so under the cover of darkness out of fear of his family and the townspeople.

Israel follows the sad pattern of the book of Judges, and once again turns to evil and idols. God turns them over to the Midianites. These foreign raiders spend the next seven years invading and consuming Israel's crops and livestock. Israel cries for help to the Lord. His first step is to send a prophet to remind them of God's goodness and their disobedience. The Lord then appears to Gideon, commanding him to save Israel because God will be with him. Gideon obeys God's command to tear down a Baal altar and build one to Yahweh in its place. He calls his countrymen to follow him and asks for signs from God.

The book of Judges contains a series of stories with a common theme: Israel falls into sin, suffers, and is rescued by God, only to fall once again (Judges 1—2). The next phase in Israel's downward spiral comes after 40 years of peace, won by Deborah and Barak (Judges 4—5). Israel is punished for sin through the Midianites. After seven years, the Israelites cry out for help. The Lord appears to Gideon, challenging the timid man to lead the battle against Israel's oppressors. Empowered by the Spirit, Gideon calls for his people to follow him, but still asks the Lord for signs. Gideon's successful campaigns are depicted in chapters 7 and 8.

The Book of Judges describes Israel's history from the death of Joshua to shortly before Israel's first king, Saul. Israel fails to complete God's command to purge the wicked Canaanites from the land (Deuteronomy 7:1–5; 9:4). This results in a centuries-long cycle where Israel falls into sin and is oppressed by local enemies. After each oppression, God sends a civil-military leader, labeled using a Hebrew word loosely translated into English as "judge." These appointed rescuers would free Israel from enemy control and govern for a certain time. After each judge's death, the cycle of sin and oppression begins again. This continues until the people of Israel choose a king, during the ministry of the prophet-and-judge Samuel (1 Samuel 1—7).