Judges 7 · a question people ask
Why were the fearful sent home?
The LORD told Gideon to proclaim, "Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead" (7:3) (tap trembling). The chapter's reason is the one in 7:2: the people were "too many". Moses' law for going to war already had a place for this. The officers were to say, "What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart" (Deuteronomy 20:8). The same law told Israel, when they saw "a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them" (Deuteronomy 20:1), "for the LORD your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you" (Deuteronomy 20:4). Judges doesn't say Gideon was keeping Deuteronomy 20; it tells only what the LORD said to him (7:2-3). Twenty-two thousand went home, and ten thousand remained (7:3).
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.’ Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.”
“When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.”
“for the LORD your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.””
“The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, “What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.””