Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
Called also Jerubbaal (Judg. 6:29, 32), was the first of the judges whose history is circumstantially narrated (Judg. 6-8). His calling is the commencement of the second period in the history of the judges. ) and Amalekites, with other “children of the east,” crossed the Jordan each year for seven successive years for the purpose of plundering and desolating the land. Gideon received a direct call from God to undertake the task of delivering the land from these warlike invaders. He was of the family of Abiezer (Josh. 17:2; 1 Chr. 7:18), and of the little township of Ophrah (Judg. 6:11).
First, with ten of his servants, he overthrew the altars of Baal and cut down the asherah which was upon it, and then blew the trumpet of alarm, and the people flocked to his standard on the crest of Mount Gilboa to the number of twenty-two thousand men. These were, however, reduced to only three hundred. ). Terror-stricken, the Midianites were put into dire confusion, and in the darkness slew one another, so that only fifteen thousand out of the great army of one hundred and twenty thousand escaped alive.
The memory of this great deliverance impressed itself deeply on the mind of the nation (1 Sam. 12:11; Ps. 83:11; Isa. 9:4; 10:26; Heb. 11:32). The land had now rest for forty years. Gideon died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of his fathers. Soon after his death a change came over the people. They again forgot Jehovah, and turned to the worship of Baalim, “neither shewed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal” (Judg. 8:35).
Gideon left behind him seventy sons, a feeble, sadly degenerated race, with one exception, that of Abimelech, who seems to have had much of the courage and energy of his father, yet of restless and unscrupulous ambition. He gathered around him a band who slaughtered all Gideon’s sons, except Jotham, upon one stone.
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(he that cuts down), youngest son of Joash of the Abiezrites, an undistinguished family who lived at Ophrah, a town probably on the west of Jordan, (Judges 6:15) in the territory of Manasseh, near Shechem. He was the fifth recorded judge of Israel, and for many reasons the greatest of them all. When we first hear of him he was grown up and had sons, (Judges 6:11; 8:20) and from the apostrophe of the angel, ch. (Judges 6:12) we may conclude that he had already distinguished himself in war against the roving bands of nomadic robbers who had oppressed Israel for seven years.
When the angel appeared, Gideon was threshing wheat with a flail in the wine-press, to conceal it from the predatory tyrants. His call to be a deliverer, and his destruction of Baal’s altar, are related in Judges 6. After this begins the second act of Gideon’s life. Clothed by the Spirit of God, (Judges 6:34) comp. 1Chr 12:18; Luke 24:49 He blew a trumpet, and was joined by Zebulun, Naphtali and even the reluctant Asher. Strengthened by a double sign from God, he reduced his army of 32,000 by the usual proclamation. (20:8) comp. 1 Macc. 3:56.
By a second test at “the spring of trembling the further reduced the number of his followers to 300. (Judges 7:5) seq. The midnight attack upon the Midianites, their panic, and the rout and slaughter that followed are told in (Judges 7:1) ... The memory of this splendid deliverance took deep root in the national traditions. (1 Samuel 12:11; Psalms 83:11; Isaiah 9:4; 10:26; Hebrews 11:32) After this there was a peace of forty years, and we see Gideon in peaceful possession of his well-earned honors, and surrounded by the dignity of a numerous household.
(Judges 8:29-31) It is not improbable that, like Saul, he owed a part of his popularity to his princely appearance. (Judges 8:18) In this third stage of his life occur alike his most noble and his most questionable acts viz., the refusal of the monarchy on theocratic grounds, and the irregular consecration of a jewelled ephod formed out of the rich spoils of Midian, which proved to the Israelites a temptation to idolatry although it was doubtless intended for use in the worship of Jehovah.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
GID'EON (a hewer), the son of Joash the Abiezrite, and fifth judge of Israel. He first comes into notice when an angel appears to him under the oak in Ophrah and assures him of God's special favor, Jud 6:11-12. Subsequently, God commanded him to offer as a sacrifice to the Lord the bullock which his father had set apart for Baal, and to destroy the altar of Baal. He did both of these things, but only escaped the murderous wrath of his fellow-citizens through the wily intervention of his father, Jud 6:31.
The great works of Gideon's life were the abolition of idolatry, Jud 8:33, and the deliverance of the land from the invasions of the Midianites. Before undertaking the latter enterprise, he secured a pledge of the divine favor in the phenomena of the dew and the fleece, Jud 6:36-40. God, desirous of showing the victory to be the immediate result of supernatural agency, diminished Gideon's army from 32,000 to 300. With this small force Gideon had recourse to stratagem, and in an assault by night completely terrified and successfully routed the enemy, Judges 7.
Gideon refused the crown, Jud 8:23, from the whole nation, which his son Abimelech afterward received from a part. He judged Israel for 40 years, Jud 8:28, and the nation enjoyed peace and engaged in the worship of God, Jud 8:33. He was one of her greatest rulers, and is honorably mentioned Heb 11:32.
Hitchcock's Bible Names (1869)
he that bruises or breaks; a destroyer