Gideon

Gideon (Heb. Gid‘on, “hewer”), also called Jerubbaal (“let Baal contend”), is the son of Joash the Abiezrite of Manasseh, called by the Angel of the LORD while he was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from Midianite raiders (Jdg.6.11). His first act of obedience is to pull down his father’s altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it (Jdg.6.25–32). Twice he asks God to confirm the call by a sign on a sheepskin fleece — once wet while the ground stays dry, then the reverse (Jdg.6.36–40). When the muster of 32,000 men is winnowed to 300 by drinking-test at the spring of Harod, Gideon’s small band descends to the camp of Midian and Amalek armed only with trumpets, jars, and torches, and the LORD throws the Midianite host into self-slaughter and flight (Jdg.7.16–22). The kings Zebah and Zalmunna are caught and executed, and the land has rest for forty years (Jdg.8.28). Gideon refuses the people’s offer to make him king (Jdg.8.23), but the ephod he makes from the spoils later becomes a snare to Israel (Jdg.8.27). He is named in the New Testament roll of faith (Heb.11.32).