Gideon was beating out wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites (Judges 6:11). Judges describes Midian’s raids that took Israel’s produce and left them impoverished (Judges 6:1–6).
In Judges 6:11–16, a messenger of Yahweh meets Gideon while he secretly processes wheat to avoid Midianite raids. The greeting, “Yahweh is with you,” clashes with Gideon’s lived experience of trouble and loss. Gideon questions why hardship continues and where the old stories of deliverance have gone. This scene comes after Israel’s oppression by Midian and after a prophetic reminder that Israel’s trouble is connected to ignoring Yahweh’s instruction (Judges 6:1–10). The call of Gideon begins the narrative arc that will move from fear and hiding to mobilization and conflict.
This scene presents divine initiative in a time of collapse. Gideon is hiding his food-processing work from raiders, and the messenger’s greeting (“Yahweh is with you”) lands as a direct contradiction to Gideon’s daily reality (verses 11–13).
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Judges 6:11, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
11The angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.