Yahweh said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me.
"I suggest that the lapping by the 300 like dogs symbolizes a lapping of the enemy’s blood." [Note: D. Daube, "Gideon’s Few," Journal of Jewish Studies 7 (1956):156.] 