(22) Blew the trumpets.--They continued to blow incessantly, to add to the panic.

The Lord set every man's sword against his fellow.--We have an exact parallel to this in the mutual slaughter of the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, when stricken with a similar panic before the army of Jehoshaphat, in 2Chronicles 20:21-22; and on a smaller scale in the camp of the Philistines at Gibeah (1 Samuel 14). The tremendous tragedy of their flight can only be appreciated by the vivid impression which it made on the national imagination (Isaiah 9:4; Isaiah 10:26). In Psalm 83:13-14, it is compared to the whirling flight of dry weeds before a rush of flame and wind, recalling the Arab imprecation, "May you be whirled like the akukb ('wild artichoke,' 'a wheel,' 'a rolling thing') before the wind, until you are caught in the thorns or plunged into the sea" (Thomson, Land and Book, Judges 36).

Beth-shittah.--It should be rather, Beth hash-shit-tah, "the house of the acacia"--a place named from the trees which are still abundant in that neighbourhood, just as we have such names as Burntash, Seven-oaks, Nine Elms, &c. (Comp. Abel-Shittim, Numbers 33:49; Joshua 21.) If Beth hash-shittah was the village Shultah, with which Robinson (Bibl. Reg., 3:219) identifies it, some of the host must have fled northwards. It is improbable that it was another name for Beth-shean, though the LXX. have Bethsead in some MSS. It is, however, by no means unlikely that some of the marauders would fly towards the fords of the Jordan near Bethshean (comp. Jos. Antt. v. 6, ? 5), as others fled south to the fords near Succoth, which lay to the south of the Jabbok.

In.--Rather, towards, as in the margin.

Zererath.--Rather, Zererah. This is omitted in the Vulgate; the LXX. have the extraordinary reading Tagaragatha, or in some MSS. "and he led them." The final th is no part of the name, but the mode of connecting the name with the particle of motion. Zererath is not again mentioned, but the distinction between the Hebrew letters r () and d () is so slight that the reading Zeredath may here be correct; and if so, it may be the Zeredath in Ephraim, which was the birthplace of Jeroboam (1Kings 11:26), and the Zaretan of Joshua 3:16, 1Kings 7:46, which is sixteen miles north of Jericho.

To the border.--Literally, as in the margin, to the lip, or brink, as in Genesis 22:17; Exodus 4:30. It does not, however, necessarily prove that Abel-meholah was on the edge of the Jordan valley.

Abel-meholah.--"The meadow of the dance." It was in Ephraim, and was the native place of Elisha (1Kings 19:16; see, too, 1Kings 4:12). Eusebius and Jerome place it ten miles south of Bethshean, at Wady Maleb. Abel means "a moist, grassy meadow."

Unto Tabbath.--Literally, upon Tabbath. The name seems to mean "famous," but the site is unknown, unless it be the remarkable bank called Tubukhat Fahil,

Verse 22. - Blew the trumpets, etc. Hearing the confusion, the three companies blew their trumpets, probably more loudly than before, to give the impression of a hot pursuit being at hand. The Midianites, thinking the enemy were upon them, and not being able in the dark to distinguish friend from foe, mistook their flying comrades for pursuing Israelites, and fell upon and slew one another. In like manner the Philistines had done when attacked by Jonathan and his armour-bearer (1 Samuel 14:20), and the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites when attacked by Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:23). Beth-shittah. House of acacias. The exact situation of it, and of Zererath and Tabbath, is unknown. They must have been villages lying on the route from the plain of Esdraelon to the banks of Jordan, probably between Little Hermon on the north and Mount Gilboa on the south, where there was a very ancient high road from Jezreel to the Jordan by Beth-sham Indeed it is highly probable that Shuta, a village mentioned by Robinson, marks the site, as it retains the name of Beth-shittah. For Zererath some read, with some of the old versions and manuscripts, Zeredath (r and d being scarcely distinguishable in Hebrew), and identify it with Zarthan near Succoth, mentioned Joshua 3:16 and 1 Kings 4:12; 1 Kings 7:46. Abel-meholah (the meadow of the dance) was the birthplace of Elisha (1 Kings 19:16), and is mentioned in conjunction with Beth-shan, Jezreel, and Zartana in 1 Kings 4:12. Eusebius tells us that in his time Abel-meholah was called Beth-maiela, and situated ten miles below Beth-shan, or Scy-thopolis. There was also, he says, close by an Abel-maiela.

7:16-22 This method of defeating the Midianites may be alluded to, as exemplifying the destruction of the devil's kingdom in the world, by the preaching of the everlasting gospel, the sounding that trumpet, and the holding forth that light out of earthen vessels, for such are the ministers of the gospel, 2Co 4:6,7. God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, a barley-cake to overthrow the tents of Midian, that the excellency of the power might be of God only. The gospel is a sword, not in the hand, but in the mouth: the sword of the Lord and of Gideon; of God and Jesus Christ, of Him that sits on the throne and the Lamb. The wicked are often led to avenge the cause of God upon each other, under the power of their delusions, and the fury of their passions. See also how God often makes the enemies of the church instruments to destroy one another; it is a pity that the church's friends should ever act like them.And the three hundred men blew the trumpets,.... Kept blowing them to continue and increase the terror of the enemy, and still held the lamps in their hands, and stood as torch bearers to light the Midianites and their associates to destroy one another, as follows:

and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow throughout the host; and so slew one another; either suspecting treachery, as Grotius, and so in revenge, wrath, and indignation, drew their swords on each other; or through the terror and amazement they were in at the sounds they heard, and the blazing torches dazzling their eyes, they knew not what they did, or who they fell upon, taking their friends for foes, supposing the Israelites were got into their camp; and the rather they might be led into this mistake, since there were people of different languages among them, as Josephus (m) observes; but the thing was of God, it was he that took away their reason and judgment from them, and infatuated them, and filled their imaginations with such strange apprehensions of things; and threw into their minds such terror and amazement, and directed them to point their swords at one another:

and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath; that is, which was left of it, which had not destroyed each other; the first of these places should be read Bethhashittah; and perhaps had its name from the "shittah" or "shittim" trees which might grow near it in plenty, or the houses in it might be built of shittim wood; or it may be here stood a temple formerly dedicated to some deity of this name, and near it a grove of the above trees. Zererath, Kimchi observes, is written with two "reshes", or R's, to distinguish it from another place called Tzeredah; but where either of these places mentioned were cannot be particularly said; though it is highly probable they were in the tribe of Manasseh, and in the way to Jordan, whither in all probability the Midianites would steer their course to escape to their own land:

and to the border of Abelmeholah unto Tabbath; the former of these was the birth place of Elisha the prophet, 1 Kings 19:16 and it appears very plainly that it was in the tribe of Manasseh, being mentioned with other places in that tribe, 1 Kings 4:12. Jerome (n) under this word says, there was in his time a village in Aulon, or the plain, ten miles from Scythopolis to the south, which was called Bethahula; and the Targum is,"to the border of the plain of Abelmeholah;''but of Tabbath we nowhere else read.

(m) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 5. (n) De loc. Heb. fol. 88. M.