Informed Comment

GIDEON In the Qur’an there is evidently a confusion in one passage between the story of Saul as told therein, and the account of Gideon given in the Old Testament, as the following extract will show:-
“And when Saul marched forth with his forces, he said, ‘God will test you by a river; He who drinketh of it shall not be of my band; but he who shall not taste it, drinking a drink out of the hand excepted, shall be of my band’. And, except a few of them, they drank of it. And when they had passed it, he and those who believed with him, the said, ‘We have no strength this day against Goliath (Jalut) and his forces;’ But they who held it as certain that they must meet God, said, ‘How oft, by God’s will, hath a small host vanquished a numerous host! And God is with the steadfastly enduring.’” (Surah ii 250).
Which compares with Judges vii 5:-
“So they brought down the people unto the water; and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set be himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink…. The Lord said, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand.”

Based on Hughes, Dictionary of Islam