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.
And so of the thirty-two thousand that came to fight with Gideon, twenty-two thousand were afraid to fight so they went home. Now there was a reason that God wanted to get rid of the fearful. It's not good to have men who are really frightened in the battle lines with you, for they're apt to panic in a time of crises and to flee and leave that flank exposed.So, God first got rid of the fearful.