* Manasseh was said to have been established beyond the Jordan at the time that Gad and Reuben were in possession of the land of Gilead (Numb, xxxii. 33, 39-42, xxxiv. 14, 15; Dent. iii. 13-15; Josh. xiii. 8, 29-32, xxii.).  Earlier traditions placed this event in the period which followed the conquest of Canaan by Joshua.  It is not certain that all the families which constituted the half-tribe of Manasseh took their origin from Manasseh:  one of them, for example, that of Jair, was regarded as having originated partly from Judah (1 Chron. ii. 21-24).

** Judges vi. 2-6.  The inference that they dare not beat wheat in the open follows from ver. 11, where it is said that “Gideon was beating out wheat in his winepress to hide it from the Midianites.”

A perpetual terror reigned wherever they were accustomed to pass*:  no one dared beat out wheat or barley in the open air, or lead his herds to pasture far from his home, except under dire necessity; and even on such occasions the inhabitants would, on the slightest alarm, abandon their possessions to take refuge in caves or in strongholds on the mountains.1 During one of these incursions two of their sheikhs encountered some men of noble mien in the vicinity of Tabor, and massacred them without compunction.** The latter were people of Ophrah,*** brethren of a certain Jerubbaal (Gideon) who was head of the powerful family of Abiezer.****

* The history of the Midianite oppression (Judges vi.-viii.) seems to be from two different sources; the second (Judges viii. 4-21), which is also the shortest, is considered by some to represent the more ancient tradition.  The double name of the hero, Gideon-Jerubbaal, has led some to assign its elements respectively to Gideon, judge of the western portion of Manasseh, and Jerubbaal, judge of the eastern Manasseh, and to the consequent fusion of the two men in one.

     ** This is an assumption which follows reasonably from
     Judges viii. 18, 19.

     *** The site of the Ophrah of Abiezer is not known for
     certain, but it would seem from the narrative that it was in
     the neighbourhood of Shechem.

**** The position of Gideon-Jerubbaal as head of the house of Abiezer follows clearly from the narrative; if he is represented in the first part of the account as a man of humble origin (Judges vi. 15, 16), it was to exalt the power of Jahveh, who was accustomed to choose His instruments from amongst the lowly.  The name Jerubbaal (1 Sam. xii. 11:2 Sam. xi. 21, where the name is transformed into Jerubbesheth, as Ishbaal and Meribbaal are into Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth respectively), in which “Baal” seems to some not to represent the Canaanite God, but the title Lord as applied to Jahveh, was supposed to mean “Baal fights against him,” and was, therefore, offensive to the orthodox.  Kuenen thought it meant “Lord, fight for him!”