The writer has more examples than he has room for. Barnes puts it simply: "There are numerous other instances, showing the strength of faith, which there is not time to mention." Gill says the question shows the writer had said enough to prove what faith is (Hebrews 11:1) and that the elders "obtained a good report" by it (Hebrews 11:2), yet he had not said all he could. Gill reads "the time would fail me" in one of two ways: the time of a whole life, said as an overstatement for effect, or the time fitting for a letter, which would grow too long. Either way, the question marks a turn. Instead of telling each story, he will name people and sum up what faith did through them.

The writer answers his own question by naming "Gedeon, and... Barak, and... Samson, and... Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets" (Hebrews 11:32). He sums up what they did: they "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions" (Hebrews 11:33). Then the list turns to suffering: "others were tortured, not accepting deliverance" (Hebrews 11:35-37). He concludes that "these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise" (Hebrews 11:39), and draws the lesson: "let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).

The KJV spells two names in their Greek form: "Gedeon" is Gideon and "Jephthae" is Jephthah, as the ESV has them. These are leaders from the book of Judges, along with David the king and Samuel the prophet. Barnes notes that Gideon's story is told in Judges 6-7, and that Barak went to war against Sisera at the call of Deborah the prophetess (Judges 4). Barnes also admits that naming Jephthah "has given occasion to much perplexity among expositors," and he says that mentioning Samson does not mean the writer approved all that he did. What the writer commends in each of them is their faith.

This question opens a window onto a crowd too large to count. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary says, "We should be pleased to think, how great the number of believers was under the Old Testament." Some names on this list belong to people whose lives were far from spotless, as Barnes admits. The writer simply shows that God worked through their faith. One phrase captures it: "out of weakness were made strong" (Hebrews 11:34).

The list also refuses to measure faith only by outcomes. Some "escaped the edge of the sword" (Hebrews 11:34); others "were slain with the sword" (Hebrews 11:37). Both groups "obtained a good report through faith" (Hebrews 11:39). God had "provided some better thing" that they would share with later believers (Hebrews 11:40).