Judges 7:1
Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
The verse stands in the repeated story of Israel's backsliding followed by chastisement, then confession and deliverance, in which God did not utterly forsake Israel but preserved a remnant true to Him and at times raised up faithful, valiant men to put down idolatry and deliver Israel from its enemies. Its immediate setting is the Midianite oppression that came after Israel did evil, when the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian, with the tribes east of the Jordan as the first sufferers but the whole land coming to suffer. The oppressors were the Midianites from the eastern border and the deserts beyond together with the Amalekites from the south, still unrelenting enemies of Israel, for Midian had been nearly destroyed by Israel in the days of Moses but had since increased greatly and become numerous and powerful and thirsted for revenge, and seized its opportunity when God's protecting hand was withdrawn from Israel. The wild, fierce desert inhabitants came as locusts for multitude with their flocks and herds, spreading like a devouring plague from the Jordan to the Philistine plain, arriving when the harvests began to ripen and remaining until the last fruits were gathered, stripping the fields, robbing and maltreating the inhabitants, and then returning to the deserts, while Israelites in the open country abandoned their homes for walled towns, fortresses, and caves and rocky fastnesses in the mountains. The oppression continued seven years, until in distress the people gave heed to the Lord's reproof and confessed their sins, and God raised up a helper for them.
The verse pitches Gideon's force of 32,000 beside the well of Harod, with the vast Midianite host on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley of Jezreel. God declared Gideon's 32,000 too large lest Israel claim the victory for itself, so the force was reduced first by sending home the fearful and then by choosing 300 men at the water. Gideon's army prevailed not because of numbers but because in living faith they followed God's special directions, showing that victory depended on God. The choice of the 300 shows that courage, self-control, faith, and readiness to put duty before personal needs matter in those chosen to serve. The story warns that being faithless and narrow in views and making narrow plans results in very little accomplished.