Judges 7 · a question people ask
"The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!" (7:20). Was it right to shout Gideon's name beside the LORD's?
Gideon told the three hundred to shout, "For the LORD and for Gideon!" (7:18), and they shouted, "The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!" (7:20). The chapter passes no verdict on the words. It does say who struck: "the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow" (7:22). Christians read the shout in more than one way. All the views agree on what the chapter says: the LORD cut the army "lest Israel brag against me" (7:2), and the LORD gave the victory (7:7, 7:22).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The LORD's own words put them together
Those who hold this view note that the LORD had joined his work and Gideon's himself: "Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man" (6:16), and "I will save you by the three hundred men who lapped, and deliver the Midianites into your hand" (7:7). Even in Midian's camp, the dreamer's fellow answered, "This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has delivered Midian into his hand" (7:14). The shout names the LORD first, and Gideon had already "worshiped" (7:15) and said, "the LORD has delivered the army of Midian into your hand!" (7:15). On this reading the shout says what the LORD had said.
Judges 6:16 · Judges 7:7 · Judges 7:14-15
A name set beside the LORD's, and what followed
Those who hold this view read the shout alongside the warning of 7:2, "lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’", and alongside what the men of Israel say after the battle: "Rule over us… for you have saved us out of the hand of Midian" (8:22). Gideon answers, "The LORD shall rule over you" (8:23), yet the ephod he makes "became a snare to Gideon and to his house" (8:27). On this reading the shout isn't condemned in chapter 7, but the book goes on to show how easily a man's name grows beside the LORD's.
Judges 7:2 · Judges 8:22-23 · Judges 8:27
The verses
“The LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’”
“The LORD said to Gideon, “I will save you by the three hundred men who lapped, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, each to his own place.””
“When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon!’””
“The three companies blew the trumpets, broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands with which to blow; and they shouted, “The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!””