Judges 6:40

And that night God did so. Only the fleece was dry, and dew covered the ground.

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

ASV

And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

YLT

And God doth so on that night, and there is drought on the fleece alone, and on all the earth there hath been dew.

DBT

AndGod did so that night, and it was dry upon the fleece only, but on all the ground there was dew.

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On this verse

Some one perhaps will enquire whether he does not seem to have been wanting in faith, seeing that after being instructed by many signs he asked still more. But how can he seem to have asked as if doubting or wanting in faith, who was speaking in mysteries? He was not then doubtful, but careful that we should not doubt. For how could he be doubtful whose prayer was effectual?

Ambrose of Milan· On the Holy Spirit, Book 1, 397patristic

Related commentary

The truth of the Lord reaches even to the clouds. The clouds are the apostles and prophets; to them he gave the command not to rain upon Israel. This is in agreement with history as recorded in the book of Judges, where it speaks of the fleece that was dry while rain fell upon the rest of the world. It means that Israel is dry and the rain is pouring down over the whole world.

Jerome· HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 24 (PS 96), 420patristic

And God did so that night,.... The night following, the night being the season in which the dew falls: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground; and this might signify, that not Gideon only, as before, should partake of the divine favour, but all the Israelites, who would share in the salvation wrought by him.

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

Could God distinguish between a small fleece of Israel, and the vast floor of Midian? Yes, by this token it appears that he can. Is Gideon desirous, that the dew of divine grace might descend on himself in particular?

John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765evangelical

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Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

About this book

The Death of Samson — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Judges — The post-conquest slide into cyclical apostasy. Twelve judges delivering Israel from successive oppressors, a pattern repeating seven times, and an appendix whose violence diagnoses a nation with no king.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Anonymous; rabbinic tradition attributes to Samuel (Bava Batra 14b)
Date: Events c. 1375–1050 BC; compilation during the early monarchy