Judges 6–8

Chapter 6

Israel Oppressed by Midian

¹Then the sons of Israel ^adid what was evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of ^bMidian seven years.

²The ¹power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves ^athe dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

³For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and ¹go against them.

⁴So they would camp against them and ^adestroy the produce of the earth ¹as far as Gaza, and ^bleave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.

⁵For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in ^alike locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it.

⁶So Israel was brought ^avery low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.

⁷Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian,

⁸that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and ^ahe said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of ¹slavery.

⁹‘I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land,

¹⁰and I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; you ^ashall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not ¹obeyed Me.” ’ ”

Gideon Is Visited

¹¹Then ^athe angel of the Lord came and sat under the ¹oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the ^bAbiezrite as his son ^cGideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites.

¹²The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.”

¹³Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But ^anow the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴The Lord ¹looked at him and said, “^aGo in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”

^15aHe said to Him, “O Lord, ¹how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in ^bManasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”

^16aBut the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall ¹defeat Midian as one man.”

¹⁷So ¹Gideon said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me ^aa sign that it is You who speak with me.

¹⁸“Please do not depart from here, until I come back to You, and bring out my offering and lay it before You.” And He said, “I will remain until you return.”

¹⁹Then Gideon went in and ^aprepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ¹ephah of flour; he put the meat in a basket ²and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to him under the ³oak and presented them.

²⁰The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so.

²¹Then the angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and ^afire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord ¹vanished from his sight.

^22aWhen Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord, ¹he said, “Alas, O Lord ²God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.”

²³The Lord said to him, “Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die.”

²⁴Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it ¹The Lord is Peace. To this day it is still ^ain Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

²⁵Now on the same night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull ¹and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the ^2aAsherah that is beside it;

²⁶and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold in an orderly manner, and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”

²⁷Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had spoken to him; and because he was too afraid of his father’s household and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it by night.

The Altar of Baal Destroyed

²⁸When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was torn down, and the Asherah which was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar which had been built.

²⁹They said to one another, “Who did this thing?” And when they searched about and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash did this thing.”

³⁰Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has torn down the altar of Baal, and indeed, he has cut down the Asherah which was beside it.”

³¹But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal, or will you deliver him? Whoever will ¹plead for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because someone has torn down his altar.”

³²Therefore on that day he named him ^aJerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he had torn down his altar.

³³Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the sons of the east assembled themselves; and they crossed over and camped in ^athe valley of Jezreel.

³⁴So ^athe Spirit of the Lord ¹came upon Gideon; and he ^bblew a trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called together to follow him.

³⁵He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and they also were called together to follow him; and he sent messengers to Asher, ^aZebulun, and Naphtali, and ^bthey came up to meet them.

Sign of the Fleece

³⁶Then Gideon said to God, “^aIf You will deliver Israel ¹through me, as You have spoken,

³⁷behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that You will deliver Israel ¹through me, as You have spoken.”

³⁸And it was so. When he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he drained the dew from the fleece, a bowl full of water.

³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “^aDo not let Your anger burn against me that I may speak once more; please let me make a test once more with the fleece, let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground.”

⁴⁰God did so that night; for it was dry only on the fleece, and dew was on all the ground.

Chapter 7

Gideon’s 300 Chosen Men

¹Then ^aJerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him, rose early and camped beside ¹the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was on the north side of ²them by the hill of ^bMoreh in the valley.

²The Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, ^afor Israel ¹would become boastful, saying, ‘My own ²power has delivered me.’

³“Now therefore ¹come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘^aWhoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’ ” So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained.

^4aThen the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

⁵So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to drink.”

⁶Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water.

⁷The Lord said to Gideon, “I will deliver you ^awith the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his ¹home.”

⁸So ¹the 300 men took the people’s provisions and their trumpets into their hands. And ²Gideon sent all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the 300 men; and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

⁹Now the same night it came about that the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, ^afor I have given it into your hands.

¹⁰“But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp,

¹¹and you will hear what they say; and ^aafterward your hands will be strengthened that you may go down against the camp.” So he went with Purah his servant down to the ¹outposts of the army that was in the camp.

¹²Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley ^aas numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, ^bas numerous as the sand on the seashore.

¹³When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating a dream to his friend. And he said, “Behold, I ¹had a dream; ²a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it ³upside down so that the tent lay flat.”

¹⁴His friend replied, “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp ^ainto his hand.”

¹⁵When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hands.”

¹⁶He divided the 300 men into three ¹companies, and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers.

¹⁷He said to them, “Look at me and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, ¹do as I do.

¹⁸“When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets all around the camp and say, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’ ”

Confusion of the Enemy

¹⁹So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came…