Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 3. Return, agreeably to the law of Moses. Deuteronomy 20:8. If God had not enforced this order, it would perhaps have been neglected in the hurry, particularly as all seemed to have joined the army with such alacrity. Menochius.—Scipio going to destroy Carthage, was informed that some Sicilian knights went on this expedition with extreme reluctance and fear; whereupon he gave 300 leave to depart. Livy xxix.—Galaad perhaps may have been substituted for Gelboe, as there seems to have been none from the Galaad, on the other side of the Jordan, in the army of Gedeon. Calmet.—Abulensis thinks that some little mountain of this name might be in the vicinity of Jezrael.—Home. They were terrified at the sight of the enemy’s camp. Menochius.