(nisiTtip Tinin ''T\^'t'2 ^yj ^n^"2'"ii '••rhy^, i have
dealt out fame and victorious help ; I have spoken oracles in fulness) an old prophetic saying with which an ora- cle began, whose words were applied to the five [as soubricpicts] ; the tone itself [as a name it would reg- ularly be Giddalti'2 pointing to this explanation." See Hkman.
Gid'del (Heb. Giddel', 'b'l's, perhaps giant ; Sept. rtcd)i\, VaSdt'jX, 'Sa^i'iX), the name of two men whose descendants or relatives (^Bene-Gvldel) returned from the captivitj' with Zerubbabel ; perhaps Gibeonites (q. v.).
1. One of the Nethinim (Ezra ii, 47 ; Neh. vii, 49). B.C. ante 536.
2. One of "Solomon's servants," i. e. perhaps of the Canaanitish tribes enslaved by Solomon (Kzra ii, 56 ; Neh. vii, 58 ; compare 1 Kings ix, 21). B.C. ante 53G. See Solomon.
Giddings, Rockwood, a Baptist minister, was boni in Plymouth, N. H., Aug. 8, 1812, graduated at "Waterville College in 1833, and then went to Virginia, •where he commenced the study of medicine. He was about settling as a physician in ^lissouri when he felt called to preach the Gospel. He was shortlv after- wards ordained, and in 1835 became pastor of the Bap-
tist church in Shelby ville, Ky., where his ministra- tions were very successful. In 1838 he was appointed president of the Baptist College of Georgetown, then in a most destitute condition. He accepted the nomi- nation, and in less than eight months secured more than eighty thousand dollars towards an endowment. But the severe labor he imposed on himself under- mined his health, and he died Oct. 29, 1839. — Sprague, Annals, vi, 818.
Gid'eon (Heb. Gidon', 'ii"7?, tree-feller, i. e. war- rior, comp. Isa. X, 33; Sept. and N. T. rtctior), a Ma- nassite, youngest son of Joash of the Abiezrites, an undistinguished family, who lived at 0]>hrah, a town probably on the western side of Jordan (Judg. vi, 15). He was the fifth recorded judge of Israel, and for many reasons the greatest of them all, being the first of them whose history is circumstantially narrated (Judg. vi- viii). B.C. 1362-1322.
1. When we first hear of him he was grown up and had sons (Judg. vi, 11 ; viii, 20), and from the apostro- phe of the angel (vi, 12) we may conclude that he had already distinguished himself in war against the rov- ing bands of nomadic robbers who had oppressed Is- rael for seven years, and whose countless multitudes (compared to locusts from their terrible devastations, vi, 5) annually destroyed all the produce of Canaan, except such as could be concealed in mountain-fast- nesses (vi, 2). The Midianites, in conjunction with the Amalekites and other nomadic tribes, invaded the country ever}- year, at the season of produce, in great numbers, with their flocks and herds, rioting in the country after the manner which the Bedouin Arabs practise at this day. It was probablj* during this dis- astrous period that the emigration of Eliuielcch took place (Ruth i. 1, 2 ; Jahn's Ilebr. Comm. § xxi). Some have identified the angel who appeared to Gideon {(pavTaajin 7'tav'inKov fiOQtpy, Josephus, Ant. v, 6) with the prophet mentioned in vi, 8, which will remind the reader of the legends about Malachi in Origcn and other commentators. Paulus {Exeg. Conserv. ii, 190 sq.) endeavors to give the narrative a subjective col- oring, but rationalism is of little value in accounts like this. When the angel appeared, Gideon was thresh- ing wheat with a flail (Sept. iKoiTTt) in the wine-press, to conceal it from the predatorj' t^'rants. Such was the position and such the employment in which he was found by the angel of the Lord, w ho appeared to him and said, " Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valor." It was a startling address, and one that seemed rather like a bitter irony, when viewed in con- nection with the existing state of affairs, than the words of soberness and truth. Therefore Gideon re- plied, "Oh! my Lord, if Jehovah be Avith us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all the mir- acles which our fathers told us of, saj'insj. Did not Je- hovah bring us up from Egypt ? But now Jehovah hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the IMidianites." The desponding tone of the replj-- was not unnatural in the circumstances, and what fol- lowed was designed to reassure his mind, and brace him with energy and fortitude for the occasion. Je- hovah, it is said — for, instead of the angel of Jehovah, as formerl}', it is now Jehovah himself — "Jehovah looked upon him, and said. Go in this th_y might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the IMidian- ites; have not I sent thee.'" Gideon still expressed Ills fear of the result, mentioning his own comparative insignificance, and that of his father's family, but was again met with a word of encouragement, "Sui'el}' I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the IMidianites as one man." Gideon's heart now began to take courage ; but to make him sure that it really was a divine messenger he was dealing with, and that the commission he had received was from the Lord, he re- (luested a sign from heaven ; and it was given him in connection with an ofiering, which he was allowed to