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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Judges 7:19 - 7:19
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Gideon then proceeded with the 100 who were with him, i.e., the company which was led by himself personally, to the end of the hostile camp, at the beginning of the middle watch, i.e., at midnight רֹאשׁ is an accusative defining the time: see Ges. 118, 2, and Ewald, §204, a. The only other watch that is mentioned in the Old Testament beside the middle night-watch, is the morning night-watch (Exo 14:24; 1Sa 11:11), from which it has been correctly inferred, that the Israelites divided the night into three night-watches. The division into four watches (Mat 14:25; Mar 6:48) was first adopted by the Jews from the Romans. “They (the Midianites) had only (just) posted the watchmen (of the middle watch),” - a circumstantial clause, introduced to give greater distinctness to the situation. When the first sentries were relieved, and the second posted, so that they thought they might make quite sure of their night's rest once more, Gideon and his host arrived at the end of the camp, and, as we must supply from the context, the other two hosts at two other ends of the camp, who all blew their trumpets, breaking the pitchers in their hands at the same time. The inf. abs. נָפֹוץ, as a continuation of the finite verb יִתְקְעוּ, indicates that the fact was contemporaneous with the previous one (see Ewald, §351, c.).