What Does Judges 6:35 Mean?

(35) **Throughout all Manasseh.**—The loyalty with which his own clan, the Abi-ezrites, rallied round him gave him a right to claim still wider support. **Asher.**—This tribe, by faithfulness on this occasion, partly redeemed its honour from the tarnish attached of its former defection. This time Asher did not linger on the sands of Accho or the rocks of the Tyrian Ladder. Issachar, however, as before, “bowed his shoulder to the yoke.” Perhaps the fact that the Plain of Jezreel, the battle-field of Palestine, was in the domains of this tribe, though not far from the border of Manasseh (Joshua 17:16), was unfavourable to their independence and strength. The fierce and haughty character of the tribe of Ephraim, and their jealousy of any leader who did not come from themselves, may have prevented Gideon from risking a rebuff by sending to them. **Zebulun, Naphtali.**—These tribes again distinguished themselves, as in the campaign against Jabin (Judges 5:18).