Judges 6:19 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Judges 6:19
And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
ready
וַיַּ֤עַשׂvai.Ya.'as
H6213
to do or make · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
kid
עִזִּים֙'i.Zim
H5795
a she-goat (as strong) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
cakes
מַצּ֔וֹתma.Tzot
H4682
properly · noun, common feminine plural absolute
ephah
וְאֵיפַתve.'ei.fat-
H374
an ephah or measure for grain · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct
flour
קֶ֣מַחKe.mach
H7058
flour · noun, common masculine singular construct
flesh
הַבָּשָׂר֙ha.ba.Sar
H1320
flesh (from its freshness) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
put
שָׂ֣םsam
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
basket
בַּסַּ֔לba.Sal
H5536
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
put
שָׂ֣םsam
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
broth
וְהַמָּרַ֖קve.ha.ma.Rak
H4839
soup (as if a rinsing) · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
pot
בַּפָּר֑וּרba.pa.Rur
H6517
a skillet (as flat or deep) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
out
וַיּוֹצֵ֥אvai.yo.Tze'
H3318
to go (causatively · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
oak
הָאֵלָ֖הha.'e.Lah
H424
an oak or other strong tree · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
presented
וַיַּגַּֽשׁvai.ya.Gash
H5066
to be or come (causatively · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 18:6-8 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the h…
Leviticus 2:4 And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleaven…
Judges 13:15-19 And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Judges 6:11-24
It is not said what effect the prophet's sermon had upon the people, but we may hope it had a good effect, and that some of them at least repented and reformed upon it; for here, immediately after, we have the dawning of the day of their deliverance, by the effectual calling of Gideon to take upon him the command of their forces against the Midianites.
I. The person to be commissioned for this service was Gideon, the son of Joash, Jdg 6:14. The father was now living, but he was passed by, and this honour put upon the son, for the father kept up in his own family the worship of Baal (Jdg 6:25), which we may suppose this son, as far as was in his power, witnessed against. He was of the half tr…
Gideon went in, and made ready a kid; . . . the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot--(See on Gen 18:7). The flesh seems to have been roasted, which is done by cutting it into kobab, that is, into small pieces, fixed on a skewer, and put before the fire. The broth was for immediate use; the other, brought in a hand-basket was intended to be a future supply to the traveller. The miraculous fire that consumed it and the vanishing of the stranger, not by walking, but as a spirit in the fire, filled Gideon with awe. A consciousness of demerit fills the heart of every fallen man at the thought of God, with fear of His wrath; and this feeling was increased by a belief prevalent…
And Gideon went in,.... Into his own house, or his father's:
and made ready a kid; boiled it, as appears by the broth he brought, at least part of it was so dressed; and perhaps it was only some part of one that he brought, since a whole one was too much to be set before one person, and if even he himself intended to eat with him:
and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour; that is, probably those were made out of an ephah of flour; not that the whole ephah was made into cakes; since an omer, the tenth part of an ephah, was sufficient for one man a whole day; and, according to the computation of Waserus (n) an ephah was enough for forty five men for a whole day; unless it can be thought tha…
The Church Fathers
And Gideon, moved by that message, when he heard that, though thousands of the people failed, God would deliver His own from their enemies by means of one man, offered a kid, and according to the word of the Angel, laid its flesh and the unleavened cakes upon the rock, and poured the broth upon them. And as soon as the Angel touched them with the end of the staff which he bore, fire burst forth out of the rock, and so the sacrifice which he was offering was consumed. By which it seems clear that that rock was a figure of the Body of Christ, for it is written: "They drank of that rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ." Which certainly refers not to His Godhead, but to His Flesh, which watered the hearts of the thirsting people with the perpetual stream of His Blood. Even at that time was it declared in a mystery that the Lord Jesus in His Flesh would, when crucified, do away the sins of the whole world, and not only the deeds of the body, but the desires of the soul. For the flesh of the kid refers to sins of deed, the broth to the enticements of desire as it is written: "For the people lusted an evil lust, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?" That the Angel then stretched forth his staff, and touched the rock, from which fire went out, shows that the Flesh of the Lord, being filled with the Divine Spirit, would burn away all the sins of human frailty. Wherefore, also, the Lord says: "I am come to send fire upon the earth."
"But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." "The humour," therefore, "is wiped off," when sin is not only severed from the deed, but also from the thought. It is hence that Jerubbaal saw the Angel when he was winnowing corn from the chaff, at whose bidding he forthwith dressed a kid and set it upon a rock, and poured over it the broth of the flesh, which the Angel touched with a rod, and thereupon fire coming out of the rock consumed it. For what else is it to beat corn with a rod, but to separate the grains of virtues from the chaff of vices, with an upright judgment? But to those that are thus employed the Angel presents himself, in that the Lord is more ready to communicate interior truths in proportion as men are more earnest in ridding themselves of external things. And he orders a kid to be killed, i.e. every appetite of the flesh to be sacrificed, and the flesh to be set upon a rock, and the broth thereof to be poured upon it. Whom else does the "rock" represent, saving Him, of Whom it is said by Paul, "And that rock was Christ"? We "set flesh then upon the rock," when in imitation of Christ we crucify our body. He too pours the juice of the flesh over it, who, in following the conversation of Christ, empties himself even of the mere thoughts of the flesh themselves. For "the broth" of the dissolved flesh is in a manner "poured upon the rock," when the mind is emptied of the flow of carnal thoughts too. Yet the Angel directly touches it with a rod, in that the might of God's succour never leaves our striving forsaken. And fire issues from the rock, and consumes the broth and the flesh, in that the Spirit, breathed upon us by the Redeemer, lights up the heart with so fierce a flame of compunction, that it consumes every thing in it that is unlawful either in deed or in thought.
Dictionary and topics
Bread — Among the Jews was generally made of wheat (Ex. 29:2; Judg. 6:19), though also sometimes of other grains (Gen. 14:18; Judg. 7:13). Parched grain was sometimes used for food without any other…
Cattle — Abounded in the Holy Land. To the rearing and management of them the inhabitants chiefly devoted themselves (Deut. 8:13; 12:21; 1 Sam. 11:5; 12:3; Ps. 144:14; Jer. 3:24). They may be classified as,…
Cook — A person employed to perform culinary service. In early times among the Hebrews cooking was performed by the mistress of the household (Gen. 18:2-6; Judg. 6:19), and the process was very…
Elm — Hos. 4:13; rendered “terebinth” in the Revised Version. It is the Pistacia terebinthus of Linn., a tree common in Palestine, long-lived, and therefore often employed for landmarks and in designating…
Gideon — Called also Jerubbaal (Judg. 6:29, 32), was the first of the judges whose history is circumstantially narrated (Judg. 6-8). His calling is the commencement of the second period in the history of the…
Goat — (1.) Heb. ‘ez, the she-goat (Gen. 15:9; 30:35; 31:38). This Hebrew word is also used for the he-goat (Ex. 12:5; Lev. 4:23; Num. 28:15), and to denote a kid (Gen. 38:17, 20). Hence it may be regarded…
Kid — The young of the goat. It was much used for food (Gen. 27:9; 38:17; Judg. 6:19; 14:6). The Mosaic law forbade to dress a kid in the milk of its dam, a law which is thrice repeated (Ex. 23:19; 34:26;…
Teil tree — (an old name for the lime-tree, the tilia), Isa. 6:13, the terebinth, or turpentine-tree, the Pistacia terebinthus of botanists. The Hebrew word here used (elah) is rendered oak (q.v.) in Gen. 35:4;…
Weights And Measures — A. WEIGHTS.—The general principle of the present inquiry is to give the evidence of the monuments the preference on all doubtful points. All ancient Greek systems of weight were derived, either…
Altars · Natural rocks sometimes used as — Natural rocks sometimes used as
Call of Gideon to Be the Deliverer of Israel. - As the reproof of the prophet was intended to turn the hearts of the people once more to the Lord their God and deliverer, so that manner in which God called Gideon to be their deliverer, and rescued Israel from its oppressors through his instrumentality, as intended to furnish the most evident proof that the help and salvation of Israel were not to be found in man, but solely in their God. God had also sent their former judges. The Spirit of Jehovah had come upon Othniel, so that he smote the enemy in the power of God (Jdg 3:10). Ehud had put to death the hostile king by stratagem, and then destroyed his army; and Barak had received the comman…
Matzos containing flour. We learn that it was Pesach, the day the Omer offering was waved.12On the second day of Pesach. (Vayikra, 23:11) This is why it is said,13Below, 7:13. "Behold, a toasted barley bread was careening,14 “… into the camp of Midyon. It reached the tent and struck it down.” This was in the merit of the Omer offering (Rashi, there, Yalkut, 62), which was made of barley. etc."
Soup. Broth.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Broth · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Communion · .Gi — .Gi
Goat · By Gi — By Gi
Goat, The · The young of: Considered a delicacy — The young of: Considered a delicacy
God · .To Gi — .To Gi
Judge · 5. Gi — 5. Gi
Kirjath-Jearim · General references — General references
Measure · about a bushel and a half — about a bushel and a half
Oak Tree, The · The ancients often: Rested under — The ancients often: Rested under
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).