Judges 6:11–23

¹¹Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. ¹²And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.” ¹³And Gideon said to him, “Pray, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this befallen us? And where are all his wonderful deeds which our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian.” ¹⁴And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” ¹⁵And he said to him, “Pray, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” ¹⁶And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man.” ¹⁷And he said to him, “If now I have found favor with thee, then show me a sign that it is thou who speakest with me. ¹⁸Do not depart from here, I pray thee, until I come to thee, and bring out my present, and set it before thee.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”

¹⁹So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them. ²⁰And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. ²¹Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and there sprang up fire from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. ²²Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” ²³But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die.”