(13) Before the sun was up.--If the rendering were certain, it would prove that he had made a night attack on Karkor; but it seems more probable that the words should be rendered "from the ascent of Heres," or "of Hechares," as in the LXX., Peshito, and Arabic. If so, it implies that he came round by some other road to attack Succoth. The word for "going up" is maaleh, as in Maaleh Ahrabbim, "the ascent of scorpions" (see Note on Judges 1:36), which is also applied to sunrise. (Genesis 19:15.) It cannot possibly mean "before sunset" (ehe die Sonne heraufgekommen war), as Luther renders it, following the Chaldee and various Rabbis. The ordinary word for "sun" is shemesh, not cheres; but the latter word occurs in various names (see on Judges 1:35; Judges 2:9), which makes it perhaps more probable that this also is the name of some place. It might, indeed, be prudent for Gideon to desist from further pursuit when the dawn revealed the paucity and exhaustion of his followers; and in poetic style (Job 9:7) cheres may mean "sun," so that here the phrase might be an archaism, as cheresah is in Judges 14:18; but the preposition used (min) cannot mean "before." Aquila renders it "from the ascent of the groves" and Symmachus "of the mountains;" but this is only due to a defective reading.

Verse 13. - Before the sun was up. There is a wonderful diversity in the renderings of this verse. Some of the old versions and Jewish Rabbis interpret it before sunset. Many of the best Jewish commentators, however, understand the phrase as the A.V. does - "Before the going up of the sun," i.e. before sunrise; supposing Gideon's attack on the Midianitish camp to have been a night attack, and Succoth to have been so near to Karkor that he was able to reach it by sunrise. But others say that the word here rendered sun (heres) is only used in poetry, and that the word rendered up is never used of sunrise, but, as, in the phrase "the going up of Akrabbim" (Judges 1:36), of an ascent up a hill. They therefore take heres as a proper name, and translate "from the going up of Hems." Others again, by an almost imperceptible change in the last letter, read "the mountains" instead of Heres. But the A.V. may be well defended, and gives an excellent sense. In Judges 14:18 the same word for the sun is used in the very similar phrase, "before the sun went down." In Genesis 19:15 the phrase, "the morning arose," has the verb from which the word here rendered up is derived; and a note of time here exactly suits the context. It marks the celerity of Gideon's move. ments that he was actually on his way back to Succoth at sunrise, after having routed the Midianites and taken their two kings prisoners.

8:13-17 The active servants of the Lord meet with more dangerous opposition from false professors than from open enemies; but they must not care for the behaviour of those who are Israelites in name, but Midianites in heart. They must pursue the enemies of their souls, and of the cause of God, though they are ready to faint through inward conflicts and outward hardships. And they shall be enabled to persevere. The less men help, and the more they seek to hinder, the more will the Lord assist. Gideon's warning being slighted, the punishment was just. Many are taught with the briers and thorns of affliction, who would not learn otherwise.And Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle,.... To Penuel and Succoth, to chastise them for their ill treatment of him and his men:

before the sun was up; by which it appears that it was in the night that he fell upon the host at Karkor, which must be the night following; it could not be the same night in which he had defeated them in the valley of Jezreel; though Vatablus thinks this battle was begun and finished in one night; but there were, according to this history, so many things done after the first defeat, as sending messengers to Mount Ephraim and the Ephraimites, upon the taking the fords of Jordan, and bringing the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, expostulating with him, and his answer to them, and his stay at Succoth and Penuel; which make it more probable that the day following was spent in the pursuit, and that it was the night after that that the whole affair was finished; and before sunrise Gideon returned to Penuel and Succoth again; so Ben Gersom and Abarbinel; but according to the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, this phrase is to be rendered, "before the sunset", while it yet appeared, and was above the horizon; and so it must be in the daytime that he pursued the two kings and took them, and returned before sunset. Abendana observes the word for "sun" may be the name of a place, and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions call it the ascent of Ares or Heres; as if it was the name of the place from whence Gideon returned, so called in like manner as the ascent of Akrabbim, and the like.