Judges 6:11–18

The Call of Gideon

¹¹Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash ^vthe Abiezrite, while his son ^wGideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. ¹²And ^xthe angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, ^y“The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” ¹³And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are ^zall his wonderful deeds ^athat our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” ¹⁴And the Lord¹ turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; ^bdo not I send you?” ¹⁵And he said to him, ^c“Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, ^dmy clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” ¹⁶And the Lord said to him, ^e“But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” ¹⁷And he said to him, ^f“If now I have found favor in your eyes, then ^gshow me a sign that it is you who speak with me. ¹⁸Please ^hdo not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”