(32) He called him.--Rather, people called him, he got the name of. The phrase is impersonal. (Vocatus est, Vulg.; hiess man ihn, Luther.)

Jerubbaal.--The name meant, "Let Baal strive;" but might also mean, "let it be striven with Baal," or "Baal's antagonist," and this gave the name a more ready currency. It is possible that the name may have been yet more allusive, since from the Palmyrene inscriptions it appears that there was a deity named Jaribolos (Mover's Ph”nizier, 1:434). If in 2Samuel 11:21 we find the name Jerubbesheth, this is only due to the fondness of the Jews for avoiding the names of idols, and changing them into terms of insult. It was thus that they literally interpreted the law of Exodus 23:13 (comp. Joshua 23:7). It was a part of that contumelia numinum with which the ancients charged them (Plin. xiii. 9). I have adduced other instances in Language and Languages, p. 232. (Longmans.) Bosheth means "shame," i.e., "that shameful thing," and was a term of scorn for Baal (Hosea 9:10; Jeremiah 11:13). We have two other instances of this change in the case of the sons of Saul. Whether from a faithless syncretism, or a tendency to downright apostasy, he called one of his sons Esh-baal, i.e., "man of Baal," and another Merib-baal (1Chronicles 8:33-34); but the Jews angrily and contemptuously changed these names into Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth (2Samuel 2:10; 2Samuel 4:4). Ewald, however, and others have conjectured that both Baal and Bosheth may, at one time, have had more harmless associations (see especially 2Samuel 5:20), and it appears that there was a Baal among the ancestors of Saul (1Chronicles 8:30). The LXX. write the name Hierobalos; and Eusebius (Praep. Evang. i. 9), quoting from Philo Byblius, tells us that a Gentile historian named Sanchoniatho, of Berytus, whom he praises for his accuracy in Jewish history and geography, had received assistance "from Hierombalos, the priest of the god Iao." Some have supposed that this is an allusion to Gideon, under the name Jerubbaal.

Verse 32. - Jerubbaal, i.e. Jarov Baal, let Baal plead. In Judges 7:1; Judges 8:29, 35; Judges 9:1, etc., Jerubbaal is used as the synonym of Gideon, just as in English history Coeur de Lion is used as a synonym for Richard. The name Jerubbaal appears as Jerubbesheth; besheth or bosheth, meaning shame, i.e. a shameful idol, being substituted for Baal, as in the name Ishbosheth, for Eshbaal (see 2 Samuel 2:8; 1 Chronicles 8:33).

CHAPTER 6:33-40

6:25-32 See the power of God's grace, that he could raise up a reformer; and the kindness of his grace, that he would raise up a deliverer, out of the family of a leader in idolatry. Gideon must not think it enough not to worship at that altar; he must throw it down, and offer sacrifice on another. It was needful he should make peace with God, before he made war on Midian. Till sin be pardoned through the great Sacrifice, no good is to be expected. God, who has all hearts in his hands, influenced Joash to appear for his son against the advocates for Baal, though he had joined formerly in the worship of Baal. Let us do our duty, and trust God with our safety. Here is a challenge to Baal, to do either good or evil; the result convinced his worshippers of their folly, in praying to one to help them that could not avenge himself.Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal,.... That is, Joash called his son Gideon by that name; who, some think, is the same with Jerombalus, the priest of the god Jevo, or Jehovah; from whom Sanchoniatho, an ancient Phoenician writer, as Philo Byblius says (w), received the principal things in his history respecting the Jews:

saying, let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar; giving this as the reason of the name of Jerubbaal he called him by, which signifies, "let Baal plead"; let Baal plead his own cause, and avenge himself on Gideon for what he has done to him, and put him to death if he can.

(w) Apud Euseb. Evangel Praepar. l. 1. p. 31.