He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them trumpets, and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers.
Gideon’s strategy was so effective that the Lord must have revealed it to him, though the text does not state this. Almost equally amazing is the fact that Gideon’s 300 followers obeyed his bizarre instructions. This too had to have been from the Lord. The three companies of Israelites may not have completely encircled the enemy. Nevertheless the presence of three widely separated groups of soldiers gave the Midianites the impression that a very large number of Israelites was out there in the dark. The trumpets were rams horns that the Israelite soldiers tied around their necks. The empty pitchers concealed and protected the torches until the soldiers broke them. The light from the torches combined with the noise of the breaking pitchers, the blowing of trumpets that made each soldier sound like a company commander, and the shouting of the soldiers. All this led the sleepy Midianites to conclude that a vast host of Israelite warriors surrounded them.