Judges 6:11–24

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.