Bible Strands
Judges 7:2
Then the LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for Me to deliver Midian into their hands, lest Israel glorify themselves over Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Gideon directly after the Israelite host has camped at the spring of Harod, facing the Midianite camp to the north. The moment is one of numerical strength, and God's response is to reduce it.
The words — רַב (rav), "too numerous" or "exceedingly great," carries the verse's weight: the people are not merely many but excessive for the purpose at hand.
The thread — The same logic runs through Deuteronomy 8:17, where Israel is warned against crediting "the power and strength of my hands," and through 1 Corinthians 1:27 and 2 Corinthians 4:7, where God selects the weak and the fragile so the source of power is unmistakable.
Why it lands — It asks the reader to stop treating personal capability as the engine of God's work and to see limitation not as deficiency but as design.
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 the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 8:17 You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.”
- 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.
- 2 Corinthians 4:7 Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.
- Romans 11:18 do not boast over those branches. If you do, remember this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
- Zechariah 4:6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of Hosts.
- Zechariah 12:7 The LORD will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and of the people of Jerusalem may not be greater than that of Judah.
- Deuteronomy 32:27 if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries misunderstand and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it was not the LORD who did all this.’”
- 1 Samuel 14:6 Jonathan said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let us cross over to the outpost of these uncircumcised men. Perhaps the LORD will work on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.”
- Ezekiel 28:17 Your heart grew proud of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor; so I cast you to the earth; I made you a spectacle before kings.
- 1 Corinthians 2:4 My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,