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Jdg_7:9-11
Jdg_7:10. Go thou with Phurah thy servant. The case of Diomed, who according to Homer (Il. x. 220), ventures into the camp of the Trojans, is not altogether analogous. Diomed is to find out what the Trojans are doing, and design to do; Gideon is only to learn the spirit of his enemy, as they freely converse together. Diomed also desires a companion, “for two going together better observe what is profitable.” Gideon’s servant goes with him, not for this purpose, but that he also may hear what Gideon hears, and may testify to his fellow soldiers of what Gideon tells them, so that they may follow with the same assured courage with which he leads. The two commands are very clearly distinguished. Gideon with his troop were to advance “against” ( áְּ , as in Jdg_5:13) the encampment; but Gideon and his servant are to go “unto” ( àֶì ) it.—The name Phurah ( ôֻּøָä ), does not occur elsewhere. Pere ( ôֶּøֶà or ôֶּøֶä ) is a wild ass, onager, an animal much talked of and greatly dreaded among the Orientals. Here, however, the Masorites have pointed the same radicals ôֻּøָä ; according to which the name of the servant, as signifying “Branch” ( ôֻּàøָä ), was not unaptly chosen.— ðַòַø means both boy and servant or attendant.
Jdg_7:11. As far as the line (limit.) of the vanguard to the camp, àֶìÎ÷ְöֵä äַçֲîֻùִׁéí . The meaning of çַúֲîֻùִׁéí is obscure, although the rendering of the LXX. at Jos_1:14 affords a hint toward a probable explanation. úֹîֶùׁ is the small of the back, above the hips (lumbus, lumbi quinque inferiores spinœ vertebrœ), about which the girdle, zona, was worn. The chamushim were not, however, simply those who were girdled and equipped, but as the LXX. indicate in the passage referred to, the åí ̈ æùíïé , the well-girdled; which term the Greeks also used to designate the light-armed troops, who were everywhere in use as van and rear guards. Among many passages in Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and others, it will be sufficient to quote the following from the Cyropaedia (v. 3, 56), as illustrating this use of the Greek word: “ Ïôé ðñὸ ðáíôὸò ôïí ͂ óôñáôåí ́ ìáôïò ðåæïí ̀ ò åíæþíïõò ... ðñïí ̈ ðåìðåí . The same position as vanguard is, according to Jos_1:14, occupied in the Israelitish host by the two and a half trans-Jordanic tribes: “Ye shall march before your brethren as chamushim.” These tribes had left their families beyond the Jordan, and were therefore freer and lighter, expeditiores. To the same class of soldiery belonged the chamushim, to whom Gideon approached. They formed the outer rim of the encampment, and beyond them Gideon did not venture to proceed, if for no other reason, for want of time. What Bertheau says about 135,000 men who constituted this body, is like his whole explanation of the passage, a misapprehension.
Footnotes:
In the inn “Zur Hohen Schul” in Ulm, there is still shown a portrait of Gustavus Adolphus, as during the war he appeared, disguised, in that city, as a spy, which is only a legend. In Like manner, it is told of Alfred the Great of England, that in order to inspect for himself the situation of the Danes, he entered their camp as a harper. Hume, Hist. of Eng. i. 63.
[Bertheau says, indeed, that the chamushim numbered 135,000 men, cf Jdg_8:10; but by the chamushim, he, like most scholars, understands not the vanguard of the hostile army, but the whole body of fighting men in the army. “The eastern tribes,” he says, “had invaded the land with their herds and tents, i. e. families, Jdg_6:5. Among such nomadic tribes, the warriors, called çֲîֻùִׁéí , or çֲìåּöִéí Jos_4:12-13, are distinguished from the body of the people. The former, in view of the impending battle, were not scattered among the mass of the people, but were collected together in the camp to the number of 135, 000.”—Tr.]