Judges 6:37 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Judges 6:37
Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.
to place permanently · verb, hiphil active participle, masculine singular absolute
fleece
גִּזַּ֥תgi.Zat
H1492
a fleece · noun, common feminine singular construct
wool
הַצֶּ֖מֶרha.Tze.mer
H6785
wool · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
floor
בַּגֹּ֑רֶןba.Go.ren
H1637
a threshing-floor (as made even) · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
dew
טַל֩tal
H2919
dew (as covering vegetation) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
fleece
הַגִּזָּ֜הha.gi.Zah
H1492
a fleece · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
dry
חֹ֔רֶבCho.rev
H2721
drought or desolation · noun, common masculine singular absolute
earth
הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
know
וְיָדַעְתִּ֗יve.ya.da'.Ti
H3045
to know (properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
save
תוֹשִׁ֧יעַto.Shi.a'
H3467
properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
hand
בְּיָדִ֛יbe.ya.Di
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix
said
דִּבַּֽרְתָּdi.Bar.ta
H1696
perhaps properly · verb, piel perfect, 2nd 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
Hosea 14:5 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
Matthew 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Matthew 10:5-6 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye…
Psalms 72:6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.
Deuteronomy 32:2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the g…
Psalms 147:19-20 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
Hosea 6:3-4 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Judges 6:33–end
Here we have, I. The descent which the enemies of Israel made upon them, Jdg 6:33. A vast number of Midianites, Amalekites, and Arabians, got together, and came over Jordan, none either caring or daring to guard that important and advantageous pass against them, and they made their headquarters in the valley of Jezreel, in the heart of Manasseh's tribe, not far from Gideon's city. Some think that the notice they had of Gideon's destroying Baal's altar brought them over, and that they came to plead for Baal and to make that a pretence for quarrelling with Israel; but it is more likely that it was now harvest-time, when they had been wont each year to make such a visit as this (Jdg 6:3), and t…
the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon--Called in this sudden emergency into the public service of his country, he was supernaturally endowed with wisdom and energy commensurate with the magnitude of the danger and the difficulties of his position. His summons to war was enthusiastically obeyed by all the neighboring tribes. On the eve of a perilous enterprise, he sought to fortify his mind with a fresh assurance of a divine call to the responsible office. The miracle of the fleece was a very remarkable one--especially, considering the copious dews that fall in his country. The divine patience and condescension were wonderfully manifested in reversing the form of the miracle. Gideon himself…
Behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the floor,.... On the floor where he was threshing, where the angel first appeared to him, and which lay exposed to the open air, so that the dew might easily fall upon it:
and if the dew be on the fleece only; the dew that falls from heaven in the night, when he proposed it should lie on the floor till morning:
and it be dry upon all the earth beside; meaning not upon all the world, nor even upon all the land of Israel, but upon all the floor about the fleece: then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said; for the dew being a token of divine favour, see Hosea 14:5 it would show that Gideon would partake of it, while his e…
The Church Fathers
Nor was it without a reason that he put the fleece neither in a field nor in a meadow, but in a threshing-floor, where is the harvest of the wheat: "For the harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few;" because that, through faith in the Lord, there was about to be a harvest fruitful in virtues.
Rightly, then, do we compare Mary with fleece—she who conceived the Lord in such a way that she absorbed him with her whole body; nor did she undergo a rending of that same body, but she was tender in submission and firm in chastity. Rightly, I say, is Mary compared with fleece—she from whose offspring saving garments are woven for the people. Clearly Mary is fleece since from her tender womb came forth the Lamb who himself, bearing his mother's wool (that is, flesh), covers the wounds of all peoples with a soft fleece. For every wound of sin is covered with the wool of Christ, tended by the blood of Christ, and, so that it may receive health, clothed in the garment of Christ.
Nor, again, was it without a reason that he dried the fleece of the Jews, and put the dew from it into a basin, so that it was filled with water, yet he did not himself wash his feet in that dew. The prerogative of so great a mystery was to be given to another. He was being waited for Who alone could wash away the filth of all. Gideon was not great enough to claim this mystery for himself, but "the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Let us, then, recognize in Whom these mysteries are seen to be accomplished. Not in holy Gideon, for they were still at their commencement. Therefore the Gentiles were surpassed, for dryness was still upon the Gentiles, and therefore did Israel surpass them, for then did the dew remain on the fleece. Let us come now to the Gospel of God. I find the Lord stripping Himself of His garments, and girding Himself with a towel, pouring water into a basin, and washing the disciples' feet. That heavenly dew was this water, this was foretold, namely, that the Lord Jesus Christ would wash the feet of His disciples in that heavenly dew.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Fleece — The wool of a sheep, whether shorn off or still attached to the skin (Deut. 18:4; Job 31:20). The miracle of Gideon’s fleece (Judg. 6:37-40) consisted in the dew having fallen at one time on the…
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…
Condescension Of God · Indulges Gi — Indulges Gi
Dew · Miraculous profusion and absence of — Miraculous profusion and absence of
Gideon · His prayer tests — His prayer tests
Judge · 5. Gi — 5. Gi
Meteorology And Celestial Phenomena · . — .
Prayer · .Gi — .Gi
Sign · .Gi — .Gi
Threshing · Floors for — Floors for
Token · General references — General references
Wool · Fleece of — Fleece of
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).
Equipment of Gideon for the Battle. - When the Midianites and their allies once more invaded the land of Israel, Gideon was seized by the Spirit of God, so that he gathered together an army from the northern tribes of Israel (Jdg 6:33-35), and entreated God to assure him by a sign of gaining the victory over the enemy (Jdg 6:36-40).
Jdg 6:33-35
The enemy gathered together again, went over (viz., across) the Jordan in the neighbourhood of Beisan (see at Jdg 7:24 and Jdg 8:4), and encamped in the valley of Jezreel (see at Jos 17:16). "And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Gideon" (לבשׁה, clothed, i.e., descended upon him, and laid itself around him as it were like a coat of mail, or a strong equ…
