Gideon

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(c. 12th cent. BCE). Judge in ancient Israel. Gideon of Ophrah was called upon to deliver Israel from the Midianites, a nomadic people preying on the land (Judg. 6:1-6, 11ff.). Gideon chose 300 men, divided into three companies, and defeated the Midianites in a daring night attack, sowing confusion among the enemy by having his men surround the enemy camp and blow trumpets and shatter pitchers containing lamps (7:16-21). The Midianite princes Oreb and Zeeb were captured and slain (7:25) and the kings Zebah and Zalmunna pursued and also slain (8:5-21). Afterwards Gideon punished the elders of Succoth and killed the men of Penuel, both non-Israelite cities, because they had refused to feed his army (8:5-8, 15-17). The men of Israel wished to make Gideon their king, but he refused, saying, "The Lord shall rule over you" (8:22-23).

Gideon lived to a prosperous old age, with many wives and 70 sons (8:30, 32). With Samson and Jephthah he is deemed in the Talmud one of the three least worthy of the judges (RH 25a, b). In the story of Gideon there is a first glimmer of the process that would tranform Israel from a tribal society to a monarchy.

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("he who casts down")

The son of Joash the Abiezrite from Ophrah (Judg 6:11); Israel's fourth major judge in the period between the death of Joshua and the institution of the monarchy. Fulfilling no judiciary role, the judges were individuals imbued with the spirit of God who headed military campaigns to free Israel from periodic foreign oppression.

Gideon had several wives, and it is related that he had 70 sons, one of them, Abimelech, by a concubine in Shechem (Judg 8:30-31). He was also known as Jerubbaal, "let Baal contend" (Judg 6:32; I Sam 2:11), a name he acquired after overturning an altar to Baal which had been built by the Israelites (Judg 6:24-32). For this idolatrous behavior, it was held, God had set the Midianites against Israel (Judg 6:11).

Gideon was called to be a judge by an angel and later by a miracle involving wet and dry fleece (Judg 6:11-24, 36-40). His task was to deliver Israel from the Midianites, the Amalekites and the children of the East (Judg 6:3). With an army of 300 men, selected out of 22,000 by means of several selective tests, Gideon defeated the Midianites in a night attack (Judg 7:3-25). The Midianite princes Oreb and Zeeb were captured and beheaded (Judg 7:25), and Gideon also pursued the kings Zebah and Zalmunna until he captured and killed them (Judg 8:5-21).

After the pursuit Gideon returned to Succoth where he took the elders of the city and tortured them with the thorns of the wilderness because the men of Succoth and Penuel, out of fear of Zebah and Zalmunna, had refused to provide Gideon's men with bread (Judg 8:5-8, 16). Gideon beat down the tower of Penuel and slew the men of the city (Judg 8:17). His victory over the Midianites was remembered for many generations as the "Day of Midian" (Is 9:4).

The men of Israel requested Gideon to be their ruler, but he refused saying that only God is the ruler of Israel (Judg 8:22). Instead he returned to his home and lived to an old age. He was buried in Ophrah in the sepulcher of Joash his father (Judg 8:29-32).

Concordance
Judg 6:11, 13,19, 22, 24, 27,29, 34, 36, 39; 7:1-2, 4-5, 7,13-15, 18-20,24-25; 8:4, 7,11, 13, 21-24,26-28, 30, 32-33, 35. Heb 11:32

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In the Bible, a Hebrew judge who vehemently opposed the Baal cult and defeated the Midianites.