גִּדְעוֹן
Gideon
BDB lists 2 entries for ‘Gideon’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H1439 appears — 37 distinct verses across 1 book. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Judges 37 verses
- Judges 6:11 וְ/גִדְע֣וֹן conj + n Proper The angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
- Judges 6:13 גִּדְעוֹן֙ n Proper Gideon said to him, Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? and where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt? but now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.
- Judges 6:19 וְ/גִדְע֣וֹן conj + n Proper Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it.
- Judges 6:22 גִּדְע֔וֹן גִּדְע֗וֹן n Proper n Proper Gideon saw that he was the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, Alas, Lord Yahweh! because I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face.
- Judges 6:24 גִּדְע֤וֹן n Proper Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it Yahweh-shalom: to this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
- Judges 6:27 גִּדְע֜וֹן n Proper Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as Yahweh had spoken to him: and it happened, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
- Judges 6:29 גִּדְעוֹן֙ n Proper They said one to another, Who has done this thing? When they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.
- Judges 6:34 גִּדְע֑וֹן n Proper But the Spirit of Yahweh came on Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together after him.
- Judges 6:36 גִּדְע֖וֹן n Proper Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken,
- Judges 6:39 גִּדְעוֹן֙ n Proper Gideon said to God, Don't let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once: Please let me make a trial just this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.
- Judges 7:1 גִדְע֗וֹן n Proper Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod: and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
- Judges 7:2 גִּדְע֔וֹן n Proper Yahweh said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me.
- Judges 7:4 גִּדְע֗וֹן n Proper Yahweh said to Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down to the water, and I will try them for you there: and it shall be, that of whom I tell you, This shall go with you, the same shall go with you; and of whoever I tell you, This shall not go with you, the same shall not go.
- Judges 7:5 גִּדְע֗וֹן n Proper So he brought down the people to the water: and Yahweh said to Gideon, Everyone who laps of the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, him shall you set by himself; likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.
- Judges 7:7 גִּדְע֗וֹן n Proper Yahweh said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand; and let all the people go every man to his place.
- Judges 7:13 גִדְע֔וֹן n Proper When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his fellow; and he said, Behold, I dreamed a dream; and, behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.
- Judges 7:14 גִּדְע֥וֹן n Proper His fellow answered, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: into his hand God has delivered Midian, and all the host.
- Judges 7:15 גִּדְע֜וֹן n Proper It was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation of it, that he worshiped; and he returned into the camp of Israel, and said, Arise; for Yahweh has delivered into your hand the host of Midian.
- Judges 7:18 וּ/לְ/גִדְעֽוֹן conj + prep + n Proper When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow you the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, For Yahweh and for Gideon.
- Judges 7:19 גִ֠דְעוֹן n Proper So Gideon, and the hundred men who were with him, came to the outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands.
- Judges 7:20 וּ/לְ/גִדְעֽוֹן conj + prep + n Proper The three companies blew the trumpets, and broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands with which to blow; and they cried, The sword of Yahweh and of Gideon.
- Judges 7:24 גִּדְעוֹן֩ n Proper Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill-country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against Midian, and take before them the waters, as far as Beth Barah, even the Jordan. So all the men of Ephraim were gathered together, and took the waters as far as Beth Barah, even the Jordan.
- Judges 7:25 גִּדְע֔וֹן n Proper They took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian: and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.
- Judges 8:4 גִדְע֖וֹן n Proper Gideon came to the Jordan, [and] passed over, he, and the three hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing.
- Judges 8:7 גִּדְע֔וֹן n Proper Gideon said, Therefore when Yahweh has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.
- Judges 8:11 גִּדְע֗וֹן n Proper Gideon went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and struck the host; for the host was secure.
- Judges 8:13 גִּדְע֥וֹן n Proper Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle from the ascent of Heres.
- Judges 8:21 גִּדְע֗וֹן n Proper Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise you, and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength. Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels' necks.
- Judges 8:22 גִּדְע֔וֹן n Proper Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule you over us, both you, and your son, and your son's son also; for you have saved us out of the hand of Midian.
- Judges 8:23 גִּדְע֔וֹן n Proper Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: Yahweh shall rule over you.
- Judges 8:24 גִּדְע֗וֹן n Proper Gideon said to them, I would make a request of you, that you would give me every man the ear-rings of his spoil. (For they had golden ear-rings, because they were Ishmaelites.)
- Judges 8:27 גִדְע֜וֹן לְ/גִדְע֥וֹן n Proper prep + n Proper Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel played the prostitute after it there; and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house.
- Judges 8:28 גִדְעֽוֹן n Proper So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.
- Judges 8:30 וּ/לְ/גִדְע֗וֹן conj + prep + n Proper Gideon had seventy sons conceived from his body; for he had many wives.
- Judges 8:32 גִּדְע֥וֹן n Proper Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
- Judges 8:33 גִּדְע֔וֹן n Proper It happened, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and played the prostitute after the Baals, and made Baal Berith their god.
- Judges 8:35 גִּדְע֑וֹן n Proper neither shown they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, [who is] Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shown to Israel.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
“Gideon” is the headline sense of the Hebrew name גדעון (Gidʻôwn). It clusters heavily in Judges, which alone accounts for 100% of its uses. It turns up in 37 verses across 1 book, a moderately common footprint. First canonically at Judges 6:11, it enters the text early. The sections below give every occurrence and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1439 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 37
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 37 distinct verses.
- 1 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 1 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #922
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 922 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 37 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Judges 37 verses 100%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 37 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 37 verses · 100%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Gideon 35×
- American Standard Version: Gideon 33×, Is gideon 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Gideon 33×, He 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Gideon 38×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1439 across 39 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H1439 across 39 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1439 across 38 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1439 across 39 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 2 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- Gideon = "hewer"
- youngest son of Joash of the Abiezrites, fifth judge of Israel who led the Israelites against the Midianites
Word origin
n.pr.m. judge of Israel Ju 6:11, 13, 19 + 36 times Ju 6–8;—called also יְרֻבַּעַל (q.v.) Ju 6:32; 7:1 etc., & יְרֻבֶּשֶׁת (q.v.) 2 S 11:21.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from גדע (gâdaʻ) (H1438) — to hew.
Forms in the corpus
The 19 distinct written forms H1439 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| גִּדְע֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 6:22 | 7 |
| גִּדְע֗וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 6:22 | 7 |
| גִּדְע֥וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 7:14 | 3 |
| גִּדְעוֹן֙ | Noun, Proper | Judges 6:13 | 3 |
| גִּדְע֑וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 6:34 | 2 |
| גִּדְע֜וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 6:27 | 2 |
| וְ/גִדְע֣וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 6:11 | 2 |
| וּ/לְ/גִדְעֽוֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 7:18 | 2 |
| גִ֠דְעוֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 7:19 | 1 |
| גִדְע֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 7:13 | 1 |
| גִדְע֖וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 8:4 | 1 |
| גִדְע֗וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 7:1 | 1 |
| גִדְע֜וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 8:27 | 1 |
| גִדְעֽוֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 8:28 | 1 |
| גִּדְע֖וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 6:36 | 1 |
| גִּדְע֤וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 6:24 | 1 |
| גִּדְעוֹן֩ | Noun, Proper | Judges 7:24 | 1 |
| וּ/לְ/גִדְע֗וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 8:30 | 1 |
| לְ/גִדְע֥וֹן | Noun, Proper | Judges 8:27 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1439, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. 3 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Gideon). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
Called also Jerubbaal (Judg. 6:29, 32), was the first of the judges whose history is circumstantially narrated (Judg. 6-8). His calling is the commencement of the second period in the history of the judges. After the victory gained by Deborah and Barak over Jabin, Israel once more sank into idolatry, and the Midianites (q.v.) and Amalekites, with other "children of the east," crossed the Jordan each year for seven successive years for the purpose of plundering and desolating the land. Gideon received a direct call from God to undertake the task of delivering the land from these warlike invaders. He was of the family of Abiezer (Josh. 17:2; 1 Chr. 7:18), and of the little township of Ophrah (Judg. 6:11). First, with ten of his servants, he overthrew the altars of Baal and cut down the asherah which was upon it, and then blew the trumpet of alarm, and the people flocked to his standard on the crest of Mount Gilboa to the number of twenty-two thousand men. These were, however, reduced to only three hundred. These, strangely armed with torches and pitchers and trumpets, rushed in from three different points on the camp of Midian at midnight, in the valley to the north of Moreh, with the terrible war-cry, "For the Lord and for Gideon" (Judg. 7:18, R.V.). Terror-stricken, the Midianites were put into dire confusion, and in the darkness slew one another, so that only fifteen thousand out of the great army of one hundred and twenty thousand escaped alive. The memory of this great deliverance impressed itself deeply on the mind of the nation (1 Sam. 12:11; Ps. 83:11; Isa. 9:4; 10:26; Heb. 11:32). The land had now rest for forty years. Gideon died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of his fathers. Soon after his death a change came over the people. They again forgot Jehovah, and turned to the worship of Baalim, "neither shewed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal" (Judg. 8:35). Gideon left behind him seventy sons, a feeble, sadly degenerated race, with one exception, that of Abimelech, who seems to have had much of the courage and energy of his father, yet of restless and unscrupulous ambition. He gathered around him a band who slaughtered all Gideon's sons, except Jotham, upon one stone. (See OPHRAH.)
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(he that cuts down), youngest son of Joash of the Abiezrites, an undistinguished family who lived at Ophrah, a town probably on the west of Jordan, (Judges 6:15) in the territory of Manasseh, near Shechem. He was the fifth recorded judge of Israel, and for many reasons the greatest of them all. When we first hear of him he was grown up and had sons, (Judges 6:11; 8:20) and from the apostrophe of the angel, ch. (Judges 6:12) we may conclude that he had already distinguished himself in war against the roving bands of nomadic robbers who had oppressed Israel for seven years. When the angel appeared, Gideon was threshing wheat with a flail in the wine-press, to conceal it from the predatory tyrants. His call to be a deliverer, and his destruction of Baal's altar, are related in Judges 6. After this begins the second act of Gideon's life. Clothed by the Spirit of God, (Judges 6:34) comp. 1Chr 12:18; Luke 24:49 He blew a trumpet, and was joined by Zebulun, Naphtali and even the reluctant Asher. Strengthened by a double sign from God, he reduced his army of 32,000 by the usual proclamation. (20:8) comp. 1 Macc. 3:56. By a second test at "the spring of trembling the further reduced the number of his followers to 300. (Judges 7:5) seq. The midnight attack upon the Midianites, their panic, and the rout and slaughter that followed are told in (Judges 7:1) ... The memory of this splendid deliverance took deep root in the national traditions. (1 Samuel 12:11; Psalms 83:11; Isaiah 9:4; 10:26; Hebrews 11:32) After this there was a peace of forty years, and we see Gideon in peaceful possession of his well-earned honors, and surrounded by the dignity of a numerous household. (Judges 8:29-31) It is not improbable that, like Saul, he owed a part of his popularity to his princely appearance. (Judges 8:18) In this third stage of his life occur alike his most noble and his most questionable acts viz., the refusal of the monarchy on theocratic grounds, and the irregular consecration of a jewelled ephod formed out of the rich spoils of Midian, which proved to the Israelites a temptation to idolatry although it was doubtless intended for use in the worship of Jehovah.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
he that bruises or breaks; a destroyer
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 37 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 37 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
