Bible Strands
Judges 7:13
And as Gideon arrived, a man was telling his friend about a dream. “Behold, I had a dream,” he said, “and I saw a loaf of barley bread come tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent so hard that the tent overturned and collapsed.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Gideon arrives at the edge of the Midianite camp and overhears a soldier recounting a dream to his companion. The encounter occurs at night, directly preceding the Israelite assault described in the surrounding narrative.
The words — מְסַפֵּר (mesapper) means “[was] recounting” or narrating, and חֲלוֹם (chalom) denotes “a dream.” The text records the soldier’s literal vision of a barley loaf tumbling into the camp and collapsing a tent.
The thread — The pattern of God raising unexpected deliverers and using foreign visions to announce judgment appears in Judges 3:15, Judges 3:31, and Judges 4:9. This verse continues that structural motif of divine reversal through ordinary means.
Why it lands — The verse demands attention to how God communicates judgment before any human action unfolds. It asks the reader to notice that the text records the dream’s physical details first, leaving interpretation to the companion and the reader.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.
Cross-references
- Judges 3:15 And again they cried out to the LORD, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjamite, as their deliverer. So they sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.
- Judges 3:31 After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath. And he too saved Israel, striking down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.
- Judges 4:9 “I will certainly go with you,” Deborah replied, “but the road you are taking will bring you no honor, because the LORD will be selling Sisera into the hand of a woman.” So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh,
- Judges 4:21 But as he lay sleeping from exhaustion, Heber’s wife Jael took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She drove the peg through his temple and into the ground, and he died.
- Judges 6:15 “Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”
- Isaiah 41:14 Do not fear, O Jacob, you worm, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
- 1 Corinthians 1:27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.