Moreh, the Hill of

The Hill of Moreh was a ridge in the Jezreel valley where the Midianite and Amalekite coalition camped before Gideon's famous night attack with his band of three hundred men (Judg. 7:1). It lay to the north of the spring of Harod, where Gideon's forces encamped, so that the Israelite army looked down across the valley toward the vast enemy encampment below. The hill is generally identified with the long ridge known today as Jebel ed-Duhy (Nebi Dahi), also called Little Hermon, which runs parallel to Mount Gilboa on the south, with the plain of Jezreel stretching between them. Gideon's victory there — won by divine strategy rather than military strength, and with his drastically reduced force of three hundred — became a paradigmatic example of God's deliverance against overwhelming odds (Judg. 7:2–22; Heb. 11:32).