Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Then the man, instructed and foreknowing what was to be, observes the heavenly mysteries, and therefore, according to the warning, killed the bull destined for idols by his father, and himself offered to God another bull seven years old. By doing this he most plainly showed that after the coming of the Lord all Gentile sacrifices should be done away and that only the sacrifice of the Lord’s passion should be offered for the redemption of the people. For that bull was, in a type, Christ, in whom, as Isaiah said, dwelled the fullness of the seven gifts of the Spirit. This bull Abraham also offered when he saw the day of the Lord and was glad. He it is who was offered at one time in the type of a kid, at another in that of a sheep, at another in that of a bull. Of a kid, because he is a sacrifice for sin; of a sheep, because he is an unresisting victim; of a bull, because he is a victim without blemish. - "On the Holy Spirit 1, Prologue 4"
House, his relations and fellow-citizens, (Calmet) who were addicted to idolatry. Prudence dictated that he should do this privately, lest he might be prevented by them. They would soon perceive the weakness of their idol. Yet some of the servants, or others who had been on the watch, disclosed to the idolaters that Gedeon had done the daring deed, unless perhaps they accused him on suspicion, as his enmity to that worship could not be concealed. (Haydock)
