SEV Biblia, Chapter 6:11
¶ Y vino el ángel del SEÑOR, y se sentó debajo del alcornoque que está en Ofra, el cual era de Joás abiezerita; y su hijo Gedeón estaba sacudiendo el trigo en el lagar, para hacerlo esconder de los madianitas.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Judges 6:11
Verse 11. There came an angel of the Lord] The prophet came to teach and exhort, the angel comes to confirm the word of the prophet, to call and commission him who was intended to be their deliverer, and to work miracles, in order to inspire him with supernatural courage and a confidence of success. Ophrah] Or Ephra, was a city, or village rather, in the half tribe of Manasseh, beyond Jordan.
His son Gideon threshed wheat] This is not the only instance in which a man taken from agricultural employments was made general of an army, and the deliverer of his country. Shamgar was evidently a ploughman, and with his ox-goad he slew many Philistines, and became one of the deliverers of Israel. Cincinnatus was taken from the plough, and was made dictator and commander-in-chief of the Roman armies. There is a great similarity between his case and that of Gideon.
Threshed wheat by the winepress] This was a place of privacy; he could not make a threshing-floor in open day as the custom was, and bring either the wheel over the grain, or tread it out with the feet of the oxen, for fear of the Midianites, who were accustomed to come and take it away as soon as threshed. He got a few sheaves from the field, and brought them home to have them privately threshed for the support of the family. As there could be no vintage among the Israelites in their present distressed circumstances, the winepress would never be suspected by the Midianites to be the place of threshing corn.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 11. And there came an angel of the Lord , etc.] This was not the prophet before mentioned, as Ben Gersom thinks, but an angel of God, as expressed, and not a created one, but the Angel of Jehovah’s presence, the Word and Son of God, and who is expressly called Jehovah himself, ( Judges 6:14,23,24) and sat under an oak ; or stayed there a while, as Kimchi interprets it, seeing, according to his observation, angels are not said to sit, but stand: which was in Ophrah, that pertaineth to Joash the Abiezrite ; which shows that this Ophrah is different from a city of this name in the tribe of Benjamin, ( Joshua 18:23) for the oak that was in it, under which the angel sat, belonged to Joash an Abiezrite, a descendant of Abiezer, son of the sister of Gilead, who was the son of Machir the son of Manasseh, ( Joshua 17:2 1 Chronicles 7:17,18,14), it is called by Josephus f128 Ephra, and by Jerom Ephrata: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites ; lest they should take it away, and bereave his father’s family of their sustenance, as they were wont to do, wherever they could find it; and all circumstances attending this affair were on this account; he threshed it himself, this he chose to do, and not trust his servants, lest it should be discovered; and he beat the wheat out with a staff, that it might be more silently done, and not with oxen, which was the usual way of treading out corn, who, bellowing f130 , would discover it; and this was done not on a threshing floor, but where a winepress stood, where there could be no suspicion of such work being doing.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 11-24 - Gideon was a man of a brave, active spirit, yet in obscurity throug the times: he is here stirred up to undertake something great. It wa very sure that the Lord was with him, when his Angel was with him Gideon was weak in faith, which made it hard to reconcile the assurances of the presence of God with the distress to which Israel wa brought. The Angel answered his objections. He told him to appear an act as Israel's deliverer, there needed no more. Bishop Hall says While God calls Gideon valiant, he makes him so. God delights to advance the humble. Gideon desires to have his faith confirmed. Now under the influences of the Spirit, we are not to expect signs befor our eyes such as Gideon here desired, but must earnestly pray to God that if we have found grace in his sight, he would show us a sign in our heart, by the powerful working of his Spirit there, The Ange turned the meat into an offering made by fire; showing that he was no a man who needed meat, but the Son of God, who was to be served an honoured by sacrifice, and who in the fulness of time was to make himself a sacrifice. Hereby a sign was given to Gideon, that he ha found grace in God's sight. Ever since man has by sin exposed himsel to God's wrath and curse, a message from heaven has been a terror to him, as he scarcely dares to expect good tidings thence. In this world it is very awful to have any converse with that world of spirits to which we are so much strangers. Gideon's courage failed him. But God spoke peace to him.
Original Hebrew
ויבא 935 מלאך 4397 יהוה 3068 וישׁב 3427 תחת 8478 האלה 424 אשׁר 834 בעפרה 6084 אשׁר 834 ליואשׁ 3101 אבי העזרי 33 וגדעון 1439 בנו 1121 חבט 2251 חטים 2406 בגת 1660 להניס 5127 מפני 6440 מדין׃ 4080
