²The Midianites treated the people of Israel very badly. That’s why they made hiding places for themselves. They hid in holes in the mountains. They also hid in caves and in other safe places.

³Each year the people planted their crops. When they did, the Midianites came into the country and attacked it. So did the Amalekites and other tribes from the east. ⁴They camped on the land. They destroyed the crops all the way to Gaza. They didn’t spare any living thing for Israel. They didn’t spare sheep or cattle or donkeys.

⁵The Midianites came up with their livestock and tents. They came like huge numbers of locusts. It was impossible to count all of those men and their camels. They came into the land to destroy it.

⁶Midian made the people of Israel very poor. So they cried out to the Lord for help.

⁷They cried out to the Lord because of what Midian had done. ⁸So he sent a prophet to them. The prophet said, “The Lord is the God of Israel. He says, ‘I brought you up out of Egypt. That is the land where you were slaves. ⁹I saved you from the power of Egypt. I saved you from all those who were beating you down. I drove the people of Canaan out to make room for you. I gave you their land.

¹⁰“ ‘I said to you, “I am the Lord your God. You are now living in the land of the Amorites. Do not worship their gods.” But you have not listened to me.’ ”

¹¹The angel of the Lord came. He sat down under an oak tree in Ophrah. The tree belonged to Joash. He was from the family line of Abiezer.

Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress at Ophrah. He was the son of Joash. Gideon was threshing in a winepress to hide the wheat from the Midianites.

¹²The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon. He said, “Mighty warrior, the Lord is with you.”

¹³“But sir,” Gideon replied, “you say the Lord is with us. Then why has all of this happened to us? Where are all of the wonderful things he has done? Our parents told us about them. They said, ‘Didn’t the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has deserted us. He has handed us over to Midian.”

¹⁴The Lord turned to Gideon. He said to him, “You are strong. Go and save Israel from the power of Midian. I am sending you.”

¹⁵“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I possibly save Israel? My family group is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh. And I’m the least important member of my family.”

¹⁶The Lord answered, “I will be with you. So you will strike down the men of Midian all at one time.”

¹⁷Gideon replied, “If you are pleased with me, give me a special sign. Then I’ll know that it’s really you talking to me. ¹⁸Please don’t go away until I come back. I’ll bring my offering and set it down in front of you.”

The Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

¹⁹Gideon went and prepared a young goat. From more than half a bushel of flour he made bread without using yeast. He put the meat in a basket. In a pot he put soup that was made from the meat. Then he brought all of it and offered it to the Lord under the oak tree.

²⁰The angel of God spoke to Gideon. He said, “Take the meat and the bread. Place them on this rock. Then pour out the soup.” So Gideon did it.

²¹The angel of the Lord had a wooden staff in his hand. With the tip of his staff he touched the meat and the bread. Fire blazed out of the rock. It burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel of the Lord disappeared.

²²Gideon realized it was the angel of the Lord. He cried out, “Lord and King, I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

²³But the Lord said to him, “May peace be with you! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

²⁴So Gideon built an altar to honor the Lord there. He called it The Lord Is Peace. It still stands in Ophrah to this very day. Ophrah is in the territory that belongs to the family line of Abiezer.

²⁵That same night the Lord spoke to Gideon. He said, “Get the second bull from your father’s herd. Get the one that is seven years old. Tear down the altar your father built in honor of Baal. Cut down the pole that is beside it. The pole is used to worship the goddess Asherah.

²⁶“Then build the right kind of altar. Build it in honor of the Lord your God. Build it on top of this hill. Then use the wood from the Asherah pole you cut down. Sacrifice the second bull as a burnt offering.”

²⁷So Gideon went and got ten of his servants. He did just as the Lord had told him. But he was afraid of his family. He was also afraid of the men in the town. So he did everything at night instead of during the day.

²⁸In the morning the men in the town got up. They saw that Baal’s altar had been torn down. The Asherah pole that was beside it had been cut down. And the second bull had been sacrificed on the new altar that had been built.

²⁹They asked each other, “Who did this?”

They looked into the matter carefully. Someone told them, “Gideon, the son of Joash, did it.”

³⁰The men in the town spoke to Joash. They ordered him, “Bring your son out here. He must die. He has torn down Baal’s altar. He has cut down the Asherah pole that was beside it.”

³¹But Joash replied to the angry crowd that was around him. He said, “Are you going to stand up for Baal? Are you trying to save him? Those who stand up for him will be put to death by morning! Is Baal really a god? If he is, he can stand up for himself when someone tears down his altar.”

³²That’s why Gideon was called Jerub-Baal that day. He said, “Let Baal take his stand against him.” Gideon had torn down Baal’s altar.

³³All of the Midianites and Amalekites gathered their armies together. Other tribes from the east joined them. All of them went across the Jordan River. They camped in the Valley of Jezreel.

³⁴Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon. So Gideon blew the trumpet to send for the men of Abiezer. He told them to follow him. ³⁵He sent messengers all through Manasseh. He called for the men of Manasseh to fight. He also sent messengers to the men of Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali. So all of those men went up to join the others.

³⁶Gideon said to God, “You promised you would use me to save Israel. ³⁷Please do something for me. I’ll put a piece of wool on the threshing floor. Suppose dew is only on the wool tomorrow morning. And suppose the ground all around it is dry. Then I will know that you will use me to save Israel. I’ll know that your promise will come true.”

³⁸And that’s what happened. Gideon got up early the next day. He squeezed the dew out of the wool. The water filled a bowl.

³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Don’t let your anger burn against me. Let me ask you for just one more thing. Let me use the wool for one more test. This time make the wool dry. And cover the ground with dew.”

⁴⁰So that night God did it. Only the wool was dry. The ground all around it was covered with dew.

Gideon Wins the Battle Over the Midianites

7Early in the morning Jerub-Baal and all of his men camped at the spring of Harod. Jerub-Baal was another name for Gideon. The camp of Midian was north of Gideon’s camp. It was in the valley near the hill of Moreh.

²The Lord spoke to Gideon. He said, “I want to hand Midian over to you. But you have too many men for me to do that. I do not want Israel to brag that their own strength has saved them. ³So here is what I want you to announce to your men. Tell them, ‘Those who tremble with fear can turn back. They can leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So 22,000 men left. But 10,000 remained.

⁴The Lord spoke to Gideon again. He said, “There are still too many men. So take them down to the water. I will sort them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one will go with you,’ he will go. But if I say, ‘That one will not go with you,’ he will not go.”

⁵So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord spoke to him. He said, “Some men will drink the way dogs do. They will lap up the water with their tongues. Separate them from those who get down on their knees to drink.”

⁶Three hundred men lapped up the water. They brought it up to their mouths with their hands. All of the rest got down on their knees to drink.

⁷The Lord spoke to Gideon. He said, “With the help of the 300 men who lapped up the water I will save you. I will hand the Midianites over to you. Let all of the other men go home.”

⁸So Gideon sent the rest of the men of Israel to their tents. But he kept the 300 men. They took over the supplies and trumpets the others had left.

The Midianites had set up their camp in the valley below where Gideon was.

⁹During that night the Lord spoke to Gideon. He said, “Get up. Go down against the camp. I am going to hand it over to you. ¹⁰But what if you are afraid to attack? Then go down to the camp with your servant Purah. ¹¹Listen to what they are saying. After that, you will not be afraid to attack the camp.”

So Gideon and his servant Purah went down to the edge of the camp. ¹²The Midianites had settled in the valley. So had the Amalekites and all of the other tribes from the east. There were so many of them that they looked like huge numbers of locusts. Like the grains of sand on the seashore, their camels couldn’t be counted.

¹³Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend about his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came rolling into the camp of Midian. It hit a tent with great force. The tent turned over and fell down flat.”

¹⁴His friend replied, “That can only be the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash. Gideon is from Israel. God has handed the Midianites over to him. He has given him the whole camp.”

¹⁵Gideon heard the man explain what the dream meant. Then Gideon worshiped God. He returned to the camp of Israel. He called out, “Get up! The Lord has handed the Midianites over to you.”

¹⁶Gideon separated the 300 men into three companies. He put a trumpet and an empty jar into the hands of each man. And he put a torch inside each jar.

¹⁷“Watch me,” he told them. “Do what I do. I’ll go to the edge of the…

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