Judges 6:1–32

Gideon

6The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord,^z and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.^{a 2}Because the power of Midian was so oppressive,^b the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves^c and strongholds.^{d 3}Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites^e and other eastern peoples^f invaded the country. ⁴They camped on the land and ruined the crops^g all the way to Gaza^h and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. ⁵They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts.ⁱ It was impossible to count them or their camels;^j they invaded the land to ravage it. ⁶Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out^k to the Lord for help.

⁷When the Israelites cried out^l to the Lord because of Midian, ⁸he sent them a prophet,^m who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt,ⁿ out of the land of slavery.^{o 9}I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors;^p I drove them out before you and gave you their land.^{q 10}I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship^r the gods of the Amorites,^s in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

¹¹The angel of the Lord^t came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah^u that belonged to Joash^v the Abiezrite,^w where his son Gideon^x was threshing^y wheat in a winepress^z to keep it from the Midianites. ¹²When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you,^a mighty warrior.^b”

¹³“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders^c that our ancestors told^d us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned^e us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have^f and save^g Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

¹⁵“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan^h is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.ⁱ”

¹⁶The Lord answered, “I will be with you^j, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

¹⁷Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign^k that it is really you talking to me. ¹⁸Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”

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

¹⁹Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat,^l and from an ephah^am of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.ⁿ

²⁰The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock,^o and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. ²¹Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread^p with the tip of the staff^q that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. ²²When Gideon realized^r that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”^s

²³But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid.^t You are not going to die.”^u

²⁴So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called^v it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah^w of the Abiezrites.

²⁵That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old.^b Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole^cx beside it. ²⁶Then build a proper kind of^d altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second^e bull as a burnt offering.^y”

²⁷So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

²⁸In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar,^z demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!

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

When they carefully investigated, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash^a did it.”

³⁰The people of the town demanded of Joash, “Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar^b and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.”

³¹But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, “Are you going to plead Baal’s cause?^c Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.” ³²So because Gideon broke down Baal’s altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Baal^fd that day, saying, “Let Baal contend with him.”