Judges 6:11–40

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.