2. The troops that are with you are too many. One suspects that behind this tale of a test that eliminates the vast majority of the fighting men there may lie a historical memory of a small group of guerillas that defeated numerically superior Midianite forces in a surprise attack.

3. turn round. The verb ts-p-r is unusual and the meaning uncertain, but there is a noun derived from this root that suggests going around.

5. Whoever laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps. The point of the first of the two winnowing procedures—sending home whoever is afraid—is self-evident. This second elimination procedure is at first blush peculiar because similarity to a dog—in general a reviled animal in the biblical world—might not appear to be a recommendation for a good soldier. The lapping of the water, as the next verse clarifies, is not done by putting face to water source but rather by scooping up water in one’s palm and then lapping it. The fighters who drink in this way remain alert and ready for combat even as they drink, unlike those who kneel to drink. Perhaps the feral and dangerous connotations of “dog” in Hebrew usage are also invoked here.

8. of the troops. The troops in question would have to be those who were sent back, leaving their provisions and ram’s horns (which in this context serve as battle horns) behind.

10. if you are afraid to go down. God has already experienced Gideon’s hesitancy in the two miraculous signs Gideon asked of Him.

your lad. The all-purpose noun na‘ar in this context clearly indicates a function like “attendant” or even “armor bearer.”

12. like locusts in multitude . . . beyond numbering, like the sand that is on the shore of the sea. This repetition of the vastness of the Midianite forces is an obvious counterpoint to the bare three hundred men whom Gideon now leads. The Hebrew writer evinces a special fascination with the numerous camels, the unfamiliar mounts of the Midianite marauders.

13. loaf. The meaning of the Hebrew tselil is disputed. Some interpreters link it to the root ts-l-l, which means to make a ringing noise and thus understand it to have a sense like “commotion” or “noise.” Rolling noise, however, is a problematic notion. Many medieval Hebrew commentators derive it, plausibly, from tseli, “roast,” construing it as a term for a round flat loaf baked over coals, which in fact is how Bedouins to this day make their pittah. It remains a puzzle as to why bread, and specifically barley bread, is the instrument of destruction in the dream, other than its being totally unexpected in this function, like Gideon’s strategy with the horns and the torches. It might be linked with the first image of Gideon threshing grain.

15. he bowed down. This may be a gesture of obeisance to God, Who, as he now confidently knows, is about to make him triumph.

16. he split the three hundred men into three columns. This move makes it possible for Gideon’s men to come down on the Midianite from three sides. Perhaps four sides would have been even more strategically effective, but that consideration is trumped by the numerical neatness of three hundred divided by three.

17. Look to me and do the same. In the Hebrew, the force of this command is underscored by a rhyme: mimeni tirʾu wekhein taʿasu.

18. and all those by me. These would be the one hundred men in the column headed by Gideon, as we see in the next verse.

For the LORD and for Gideon. Some Hebrew manuscripts and two ancient versions show “sword for the LORD,” as in verse 20.

19. at the beginning of the middle watch. The night was divided into three watches (which here neatly correspond to the tripartite division of Gideon’s fighters), so this would be sometime approaching midnight, when the Midianite troops were deep in slumber.

they had just then posted the watchmen. Either they have not yet settled into their positions of observation or they are not yet fully alert because they have just been wakened to take up their watch.

20. held the torches with their left hand, and their right hand the ram’s horns. Presumably, their swords remained strapped to their sides as they rely entirely on the effect of panic caused by the sudden blaring sound and the torchlight.

21. each one stood in his place. These are the horn-blowing, torch-wielding Israelites.

22. the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow. In other accounts of Israelite victories, we are told that the LORD “panicked” the enemy. Only here do we get the mechanism of the panic, which in fact is a stratagem devised by Gideon to terrorize the sleeping army.

brook. Though most translations treat ʾavel as a proper noun (“Abel”), it means “brook,” being an alternate form of the more common yuval. Representing it as “brook” clarifies the meaning of “banks” (the Hebrew sefat is a singular noun).

24. Gideon sent messengers. Having routed the large Midianite army with only three hundred men, he now rallies behind him a much larger force to pursue the fleeing enemy.

took the water sources. In the first instance, they take hold of brooks to the west of the Jordan, where they can readily cut down the Midianites seeking to ford the streams, and then they take hold of the fords of the Jordan itself. The prominence of bodies of water in the destruction of the Midianites loops back to the test of how the Israelite fighters drink water from a stream.

25. Oreb and Zeeb. The two names mean, respectively, “raven” and “wolf.” Animal names were common among the Northwest Semites, including the Israelites.

they brought to Gideon from across the Jordan. The fleeing Midianite commanders are overtaken and killed east of the Jordan, having eluded the Israelite forces holding the fords. Gideon himself is still on the west side of the Jordan. He will cross it in the next episode in pursuit of the enemy.