Judges 6:16

Jdg 6:16 And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.

Ver. 16. Surely I will be with thee.] I who, of myself, am a whole army. {Isa 52:12}

As one man.] So easy it is with God to deal with huge multitudes of people, when he once taketh them to do.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jdg 6:16-17. Thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man — As easily as if they were all but one man. Show me a sign — This Gideon desired, that he might be sure the commission was divine, and that God, who called him to his work, would give him success in it. This is one proof among many others which might be produced, that a sign or miracle was esteemed in those days both as a necessary and a sufficient evidence of a divine commission. And from hence we may learn that we have abundant reason to be satisfied and assured respecting the ground of our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, inasmuch as he was most abundantly approved of God, by signs, and miracles, and wonders, which God wrought by him, in the sight of all men. That thou talkest with me — By authority from God: or, that thou art a messenger from him, that discoursest with me. Or, a sign of the accomplishment of that, concerning which thou talkest with me; that is, that by me thou wilt smite the Midianites.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 16. Thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.] Thou shalt as surely conquer all their host as if thou hadst but one man to contend with; or, Thou shalt destroy them to a man.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(16) I will be with thee.—See Exo_3:12; Jos_1:5.

Smite the Midianites as one man.—See Chap’

19 1:8; Num_14:15.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16. Surely I will be with thee] The same words as in Exo_3:12 E. The LXX reads ‘And the Angel of the Lord said unto him, The Lord will be with thee’; hence Moore and Budde emend ‘and he said, Jehovah will be with thee.’ If the text be allowed to stand, we must suppose that the narrator is thinking of the reader, who knows the secret, rather than of Gideon, who is still in ignorance.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he said unto him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, &c. Or seeing he had, as appeared by his salutation of him as a man of might, by the work he gave him a commission to do, and by the promise of assistance and success:

then show me a sign that thou talkest with me; in the name of God, as a messenger sent by him, whether an angel or a man; for who he was as yet Gideon was not clear in it, and that what he had said was truth, and would be certainly fulfilled; and which Gideon might desire, not so much, or at least not only for his own sake, and the confirmation of his faith, for which he is renowned, as that he might be able to satisfy others that he had a commission from God, by a messenger of his, to attempt the deliverance of Israel.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

As easily as if they were all but one man; or, thou shalt destroy them to a man, as he did, Jdg 8.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

16. As one man — As if all the Midianitish host was a single individual, and he were executed at a stroke.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As one man - As easily, as if they were all but one man.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

I will be with you

Here "be with you" is an idiom that means Yahweh will help and bless Gideon. (See: Idiom)

as one man

You can state the full meaning explicitly. AT: "as easily as if you were fighting only one man" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

set it before you

"place it in front of you"

translationWords

Yahweh

Midian

Gideon

sign

gift

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.