SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:20
Y los tres escuadrones tocaron sus trompetas, y quebrando los cántaros tomaron en la mano izquierda las teas, y en la derecha las trompetas con que tocaban, y dieron grita: -¡El cuchillo del SEÑOR y el de Gedeón!
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Judges 7:20
Verse 20. Blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers] How astonishing must the effect be, in a dark night, of the sudden glare of three hundred torches, darting their splendour, in the same instant, on the half-awakened eyes of the terrified Midianites, accompanied with the clangour of three hundred trumpets, alternately mingled with the thundering shout of brj w[dglw hwhyl chereb layhovah ulegidon, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!" Origen, in his ninth homily on this book, makes these three hundred men types of the preachers of the Gospel; their trumpets of the preaching of Christ crucified; and their lights or torches, of the holy conduct of righteous men. In some verses of an ancient author, attributed to Tertullian, and written against the heretic Marcion, Gideon's three hundred men are represented as horsemen; and in this number he finds the mystery of the cross; because the Greek letter T, tau which is the numeral for 300, is itself the sign of the cross. The verses, which may be found in vol. v. of the Pisaurian Collection of the Latin heathen and Christian poets, Advers, Marcion., lib. 3, ver. 18, as being very curious, and not often to be met with, I shall here subjoin: - Exodus quibus ut Gideon dux agminis, acer in hostem, Non virtute sua tutelam acquirere genti Firmatusque fide signum petit excita menti, Quo vel non posset, vel posset vincere bellum, Vellus ut in noctem positum de rore maderet, Et tellus omnis circum siccata jaceret, Hoc inimicorum palmam coalescere mundo; Atque iterum solo remanenti vellere sicco, Hoc eadem tellus roraret nocte liquore, Hoc etenim signo praedonum stravit acervos. Congressus populo Christi, sine milite multo: Tercenteno equite (numerus Tau littera Graeca) Armatis facibusque et cornibus ore canentum.
Vellus erat populus ovium de semine sancto.
Nam tellus variae gentes fusaeque per orbem, Verbum quod nutrit, sed nox est mortis imago.
Tau signum crucis et cornu praeconia vitae, Lucentesque faces in lychno spiritus ardens.
"Gideon, keen in arms, was captain of the host, And acquired redemption for his people, but not by his own power.
Being strengthened in faith, his heart was influenced to ask a sign By which he might know whether or not he should be successful in battle.
A fleece was so placed by night, that it might be wet with dew; And all the surrounding earth remain dry.
By this he was to learn that he should gain the victory over his enemies.
The sign was reversed; the fleece remaining dry while all the ground was moist; And by this sign he was to know that he should slaughter those troops of robbers.
The people of Christ conquer without any military force; Three hundred horsemen, (for the Greek letter T, tau, is the emblem of the number,) Armed with torches, and blowing with trumpets.
The fleece of the sheep are the people sprung from the Messiah, And the earth are the various nations dispersed over the world.
It is the word which nourishes; but might is the image of death.
Tau is the sign of the cross; and the trumpets, the emblems of the heralds of life; And the burning torches in the pitchers, the emblems of the Holy Spirit." We see here what abstruse meanings a strong imagination, assisted by a little piety, may extract from what was never intended to be understood as a mystery.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 20. And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers , etc.] The other two, observing what Gideon and his company did, followed their example, and at the same time blew their trumpets, and broke their pitchers; for that there were four companies, three besides Gideon’s, as Kimchi and Ben Melech suggest, there is no reason to believe: and held the lamps in their left hands ; which they took out of the pitchers when they broke them, and holding them up in their left hands, gave a great blaze of light, which must be very surprising to the host of Midian, just awaked out of their sleep: and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal ; and which they continued blowing, the sound of which must be very dreadful, since it might be concluded, from such a number of trumpets, that there must be a vast army: and they cried, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon ; signifying that was drawn against the Midianites, and they must expect to be cut in pieces by it, since the sword was Jehovah’s, sent and commissioned by him, and was put into the hand of Gideon as an instrument, with which execution would be done, the Lord helping him. The Targum is, ``the sword of the Lord, and victory by the hand of Gideon” which victory was to be ascribed to the sword and power of God. This was an emblem of the efficacy of the word of God, accompanied with his power, to the destruction of the kingdom of Satan; the blowing of the trumpets may denote the ministration of the Gospel, the great trumpet to be blown by the apostles and ministers of the word; the holding forth the lamps may signify the same, the light of the divine word in the ministers of it, and the holding forth of it to others; and which is carried in earthen vessels, frail mortal men; and done that the excellency of the power may appear to be of God, and not of men; and the sword of the Lord is the word of God in the mouths of ministers, accompanied by the power of God; for it can only be through God that such weapons of warfare can become mighty to do the execution that is done by them; (see Corinthians 4:7 10:4,5) blowing of trumpets, and then a cry or shout of the soldiers to terrify the enemy, were used in later times f160 .
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 16-22 - This method of defeating the Midianites may be alluded to, a exemplifying the destruction of the devil's kingdom in the world, by the preaching of the everlasting gospel, the sounding that trumpet, an the holding forth that light out of earthen vessels, for such are the ministers of the gospel, 2Co 4:6, 7. God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, a barley-cake to overthrow the tents of Midian, that the excellency of the power might be of God only. The gospel is a sword, not in the hand, but in the mouth: the sword of the Lord and of Gideon; of God and Jesus Christ, of Him that sits on the throne and the Lamb. The wicked are often led to avenge the cause of God upon each other, under the power of their delusions, and the fur of their passions. See also how God often makes the enemies of the church instruments to destroy one another; it is a pity that the church's friends should ever act like them.
Original Hebrew
ויתקעו 8628 שׁלשׁת 7969 הראשׁים 7218 בשׁופרות 7782 וישׁברו 7665 הכדים 3537 ויחזיקו 2388 ביד 3027 שׂמאולם 8040 בלפדים 3940 וביד 3027 ימינם 3225 השׁופרות 7782 לתקוע 8628 ויקראו 7121 חרב 2719 ליהוה 3068 ולגדעון׃ 1439
