Gidon
?–1100 BCE · Biblical · Jezreel Valley
Gidon son of Yoash, of the Abiezrite clan of Menashe, led Israel against the Midianites, who for seven years had swept in after the sowing and stripped the land of its produce and livestock (Judges 6:1-6). An angel found him threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it and called him a 'valiant warrior'. Gidon protested that his clan was the humblest in Menashe and he the youngest in his family (Judges 6:11-15). At God's command he tore down his father's altar to Baal by night. When the townspeople demanded his death, his father answered, 'If he is a god, let him fight his own battles', and Gidon was nicknamed Jerubbaal (Judges 6:25-32). He asked for signs with a fleece, wet and then dry (Judges 6:36-40). God reduced his army from thousands to three hundred men. These men surprised the Midianite camp at night with horns, jars and torches, and the camp fled in panic (Judges 7:2-22). Afterwards he refused to become king, saying 'GOD alone shall rule over you'. But the gold ephod he made from the spoil became 'a snare' to Israel (Judges 8:22-27). He died at a ripe old age (Judges 8:32).
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Jezreel ValleyNorthern Israel
What they did here
Midian and its allies camped in the Valley of Jezreel (Judges 6:33). Gidon camped above the spring of Harod, with Midian to the north by the hill of Moreh (Judges 7:1). The spring's traditional identification at the foot of Gilboa is disputed, so the pin marks the valley. His home town, Ophrah of the Abiezrites (Judges 6:11, 24; 8:32), is unidentified and not pinned.
Works
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