Israel Oppressed by Midian

1 Then 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.

2 The 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.

3 For 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.

4 So 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.

5 For 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.

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

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

8 that 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,

10 and 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

11 Then 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.

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

13 Then 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.”