¹¹The angel of the Lordⁿ came, and he sat under the oak that was in Ophrah,^o which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites. ¹²Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, valiant warrior.”^p

¹³Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened? And where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about? They said, ‘Hasn’t the Lord brought us out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

¹⁴The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the grasp of Midian. I am sending you!”^q

¹⁵He said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Look, my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s family.”

¹⁶“But I will be with you,”^r the Lord said to him. “You will strike Midian down as if it were one man.”

¹⁷Then he said to him, “If I have found favor with you,^s give me a sign^t that you are speaking with me. ¹⁸Please do not leave this place until I return to you. Let me bring my gift and set it before you.”

And he said, “I will stay until you return.”

Read in Logos

Judges 6:13–14: And Gideon said to him, “… if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? … the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” And the LORD … said, “Go … and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”

Cross references

n Ex 3:2
o Jos 18:23; Jdg 8:27,32
p Jos 1:14; 8:3; 2Kg 24:14; 1Ch 12:8
q Ex 3:10; 1Sm 9:16; 16:1; Jr 1:7; 25:15; Ezk 2:3–4; Mal 4:5; Jn 20:21
r Gn 26:3; Ex 3:12
s Gn 6:8; 18:3; Ex 33:12–13; Ru 2:2,10,13; Est 5:8; 7:3
t Ex 3:12; 1Sm 10:7,9; Is 7:11,14