Judges 6:15 (WEB)

Passage

He said to him, “O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

Nearby Context

Judges 6:13 Gideon said to him, “Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”

Judges 6:14 Yahweh looked at him, and said, “Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven’t I sent you?”

Judges 6:15 He said to him, “O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

Judges 6:16 Yahweh said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

Judges 6:17 He said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "said", "lord", "shall", "save", "israel", "behold", "family", and "poorest". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "said" and "lord", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 14's "Yahweh looked at him and said Go..." into verse 16's "Yahweh said to him Surely I will...", so "said" and "lord" belong inside that flow. In Judges context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "said" and "lord" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.