Judges 6

Israel Oppressed by Midian

 ¹Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years.

 ²The power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

 ³For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them.

 ⁴So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.

 ⁵For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it.

 ⁶So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord
.

 ⁷Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian,

 ⁸that the Lord  sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slavery.

 ⁹'I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land,

 ¹⁰and I said to you, "I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed Me."'"

Gideon Is Visited

 ¹¹Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon 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 now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian."

 ¹⁴The Lord looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?"

 ¹⁵He said to Him, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house."

 ¹⁶But the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."

 ¹⁷So Gideon said to Him, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a 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 prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour; he put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to him under the oak 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 fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord
 vanished from his sight.

 ²²When Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! 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 The Lord  is Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Sign of the Fleece

 ³⁶Then Gideon said to God, "If You will deliver Israel through 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 through 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, "Do 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.

Judges 7

Gideon's 300 Chosen Men

 ¹Then Gideon and all the people who were with him, rose early and camped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.

 ²The Lord said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.'

 ³"Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, 'Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.'" So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained.

 ⁴Then the Lord said to Gideon, "The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to you, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go."

 ⁵So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, "You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to drink."

 ⁶Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water.

 ⁷The Lord said to Gideon, "I will deliver you with the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his home."

 ⁸So the 300 men took the people's provisions and their trumpets into their hands. And Gideon sent all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the 300 men; and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

 ⁹Now the same night it came about that the Lord said to him, "Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hands.

 ¹⁰"But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp,

 ¹¹and you will hear what they say; and afterward your hands will be strengthened that you may go down against the camp." So he went with Purah his servant down to the outposts of the army that was in the camp.

 ¹²Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore.

 ¹³When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating a dream to his friend. And he said, "Behold, I had a dream; a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat."

 ¹⁴His friend replied, "This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand."

 ¹⁵When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, "Arise, for the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hands."

 ¹⁶He divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers.

 ¹⁷He said to them, "Look at me and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do.

 ¹⁸"When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets all around the camp and say, 'For the Lord
 and for Gideon.'"

Confusion of the Enemy

 ¹⁹So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.

 ²⁰When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!"

 ²¹Each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled.

 ²²When they blew 300 trumpets, the Lord set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Bethshittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abelmeholah, by Tabbath.

August 2009
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