Judges 6:36-38
He wringed the dew out of the fleece
The request is specific and the result is measured: a bowl full of water. Gideon is testing a promise he has already been given.
Objects of the Bible
The fleece of Gideon
He asked for a sign, got it, and then asked for the same sign backwards.
It happens after he has already been called, already torn down an altar at night, and already been told the LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. He puts a fleece of wool on the threshing floor and asks that dew fall on the fleece and nowhere else. In the morning he wrings a bowl full of water out of it. The sign works exactly as requested.
Scroll down to the story
The movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of The fleece of Gideon
- 01
- 02
Judges 6:39
Let me prove, I pray thee, but this once
The second request is prefaced with an apology. He names the risk of asking and asks anyway.
- 03
Judges 6:40
It was dry upon the fleece only
The reversal is granted without comment. The account records no anger, which is itself the answer to the way he asked.
- 04
Judges 7:2
The people that are with thee are too many
Having been reassured twice, he is immediately given a harder arrangement, and the reason is stated: lest Israel vaunt themselves against me.
Why it matters
Then he asks again, and the way he asks is the interesting part: let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once. He knows the request is pushing. The second test reverses the first, dry fleece and wet ground, because wool holding dew is the sort of thing that might happen anyway. He is not asking for a miracle, he is asking for a control. The text gives no rebuke, only the result, and the next thing he does is go out with thirty-two thousand men and get told it is too many.
3 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
