3 So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the dpeople of the East would come up against them. 4 Then they would encamp against them and edestroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor fdonkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were 1without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. 6 So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel gcried out to the Lord.

7 And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, 8 that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the hhouse of 2bondage; 9 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and idrove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; jdo not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My kvoice.’ ”

Gideon

11 Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash lthe Abiezrite, while his son mGideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the nAngel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is owith you, you mighty man of valor!”