And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.

JUDGES 6:26KJV
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Judges 6:26 (KJV)

What does Judges 6:26 mean?

Judges 6:26 describes God directing Gideon to establish a place of worship for the LORD and make an offering there. The command places worship of the LORD where Gideon has just been told to remove objects associated with the worship of Baal.

The verse follows God’s instruction to tear down Gideon’s father’s altar to Baal and cut down the nearby grove (verse 25). The wood from that grove is to become fuel for the offering. The phrase “in the ordered place” suggests that the new altar is to be arranged in a particular manner on top of the rock.

The Hebrew behind Judges 6:26

  • “grove” — אֲשֵׁרָה (asherah): This word can refer to an object associated with the worship of Asherah, a goddess. The command to cut it down and use its wood points to a wooden object rather than necessarily a group of trees.
  • “burnt sacrifice” — עֹלָה (olah): This word refers to an offering burned on an altar. The term helps identify the kind of offering Gideon is told to make with the second bullock, a young bull.

Why Judges 6:26 matters

  • The command concerns the altar in Gideon’s own household setting. Verse 25 identifies the altar to Baal as belonging to Gideon’s father, so the change takes place close to home.
  • The verse identifies the bull used for the offering. By calling it “the second bullock,” the command connects the sacrifice to the animal named in verse 25.
  • Gideon carries out the instructions at night because he fears his family and the townspeople, according to verse 27. Their reaction in the verses that follow shows why the destruction of Baal’s altar was a serious matter in that community.

Where else these words appear

“place” Hebrew H4634 · used in 18 verses

  • Exodus 39:37 The pure candlestick, with the lamps thereof, even with the lamps to be set in order, and all the vessels thereof, and the oil for light,
  • 1 Samuel 17:8 And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.
  • 1 Samuel 17:26 And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

“rock” Hebrew H4581 · used in 35 verses

  • 2 Samuel 22:33 God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.
  • Proverbs 10:29 The way of the LORD is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
  • Ezekiel 24:25 Also, thou son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters,

“grove” Hebrew H842 · used in 40 verses

  • Exodus 34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
  • 2 Kings 13:6 Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, but walked therein: and there remained the grove also in Samaria.)
  • 2 Chronicles 17:6 And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the LORD: moreover he took away the high places and groves out of Judah.

“bullock” Hebrew H6499 · used in 119 verses

  • Genesis 32:15 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.
  • Numbers 7:57 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering:
  • Numbers 29:32 And on the seventh day seven bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without blemish: