Yahweh said to him, Peace be to you; don't be afraid: you shall not die.
      I. The person to be commissioned for this service was Gideon, the son of Joash, Judges 5:14; Judges 5:14. The father was now living, but he was passed by, and this honour put upon the son, for the father kept up in his own family the worship of Baal (Judges 5:25; Judges 5:25), which we may suppose this son, as far as was in his power, witnessed against. He was of the half tribe of Manasseh that lay in Canaan, of the family of Abiezer; the eldest house of that tribe, Joshua 17:2. Hitherto the judges were raised up out of that tribe which suffered most by the oppression, and probably it was so here.