Gideon

Chapter 6

¹Then the Israelites did what was offensive to the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Midianites for seven years. ²The hand of the Midianites prevailed over Israel; and because of Midian, the Israelites provided themselves with refuges in the caves and strongholds of the mountains. ³After the Israelites had done their sowing, Midian, Amalek, and the Ke-demites would come up and raid them; ⁴they would attack them, destroy^a the produce of the land all the way to Gaza, and leave no means of sustenance in Israel, not a sheep or an ox or an ass. ⁵For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, swarming as thick as locusts; they and their camels were innumerable. Thus they would invade the land and ravage it. ⁶Israel was reduced to utter misery by the Midianites, and the Israelites cried out to the Lord.

⁷When the Israelites cried to the Lord on account of Midian, ⁸the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites who said to them, “Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: I brought you up out of Egypt and freed you from the house of bondage. ⁹I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all your oppressors; I drove them out before you, and gave you their land. ¹⁰And I said to you, ‘I the Lord am your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you did not obey Me.”

¹¹An angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was then beating out wheat inside a winepress in order to keep it safe from the Midianites. ¹²The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, valiant warrior!” ¹³Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why has all this befallen us? Where are all His wondrous deeds about which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Truly the Lord brought us up from Egypt’? Now the Lord has abandoned us and delivered us into the hands of Midian!” ¹⁴The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this strength of yours and deliver Israel from the Midianites. I herewith make you My messenger.” ¹⁵He said to Him, “Please, my lord, how can I deliver Israel? Why, my clan is the humblest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s household.” ¹⁶The Lord replied, “I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian to a man.” ¹⁷And he said to Him, “If I have gained Your favor, give me a sign that it is You who are speaking to me: ¹⁸do not leave this place until I come back to You and bring out my offering and place it before You.” And He answered, “I will stay until you return.”

¹⁹So Gideon went in and prepared a kid, and [baked] unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and poured the broth into a pot, and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth. As he presented them, ²⁰the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, put them on yonder rock, and spill out the broth.” He did so. ²¹The angel of the Lord held out the staff that he carried, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread with its tip. A fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. ²²Then Gideon realized that it was an angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face.”

²³But the Lord said to him, “All is well; have no fear, you shall not die.” ²⁴So Gideon built there an altar to the Lord and called it ^bAdonaishalom.^b To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

²⁵That night the Lord said to him: “Take the young bull belonging to your father and another bull seven years old; pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the sacred post which is beside it. ²⁶Then build an altar to the Lord your God, on the level ground on top of this stronghold. Take the other bull and offer it as a burnt offering, using the wood of the sacred post that you have cut down.” ²⁷So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had told him; but as he was afraid to do it by day, on account of his father’s household and the townspeople, he did it by night. ²⁸Early the next morning, the townspeople found that the altar of Baal had been torn down and the sacred post beside it had been cut down, and that the second bull had been offered on the newly built altar. ²⁹They said to one another, “Who did this thing?” Upon inquiry and investigation, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did this thing!” ³⁰The townspeople said to Joash, “Bring out your son, for he must die: he has torn down the altar of Baal and cut down the sacred post beside it!” ³¹But Joash said to all who had risen against him, “Do you have to contend for Baal? Do you have to vindicate him? Whoever fights his battles shall be dead by morning! If he is a god, let him fight his own battles, since it is his altar that has been torn down!” ³²That day they named him^c Jerubbaal, meaning “Let Baal contend with him, since he tore down his altar.”

³³All Midian, Amalek, and the Kedemites joined forces; they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. ³⁴The spirit of the Lord enveloped Gideon; he sounded the horn, and the Abiezrites rallied behind him. ³⁵And he sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and they too rallied behind him. He then sent messengers through Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet the Manassites.

³⁶And Gideon said to God, “If You really intend to deliver Israel through me as You have said—³⁷here I place a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If dew falls only on the fleece and all the ground remains dry, I shall know that You will deliver Israel through me, as You have said.” ³⁸And that is what happened. Early the next day, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew from the fleece, a bowlful of water. ³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me if I speak just once more. Let me make just one more test with the fleece: let the fleece alone be dry, while there is dew all over the ground.” ⁴⁰God did so that night: only the fleece was dry, while there was dew all over the ground.

Chapter 7

¹Early next day, Jerubbaal—that is, Gideon—and all the troops with him encamped above En-harod, while the camp of Midian was in the plain to the north of him, at Gibeath-moreh. ²The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many troops with you for Me to deliver Midian into their hands; Israel might claim for themselves the glory due to Me, thinking, ‘Our own hand has brought us victory.’ ³Therefore, announce to the men, ‘Let anybody who is timid and fearful turn back, as a bird flies from Mount Gilead.’” Thereupon, 22,000 of the troops turned back and 10,000 remained.

⁴“There are still too many troops,” the Lord said to Gideon. “Take them down to the water and I will sift them for you there. Anyone of whom I tell you, ‘This one is to go with you,’ that one shall go with you; and anyone of whom I tell you, ‘This one is not to go with you,’ that one shall not go.” ⁵So he took the troops down to the water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “Set apart all those who ^dlap up the water with their tongues like dogs^dfrom all those who get down on their knees to drink.” ⁶Now those who “lapped” the water into their mouths by hand numbered three hundred; all the rest of the troops got down on their knees to drink. ⁷Then the Lord said to Gideon, “I will deliver you and I will put Midian into your hands through the three hundred ‘lappers’; let the rest of the troops go home.” ⁸So [the lappers] took the provisions and horns that the other men had with them, and he sent the rest of the men of Israel back to their homes, retaining only the three hundred men.

The Midianite camp was below him, in the plain. ⁹That night the Lord said to him, “Come, attack the camp, for I have delivered it into your hands. ¹⁰And if you are afraid to attack, first go down to the camp with your attendant Purah ¹¹and listen to what they say; after that you will have the courage to attack the camp.” So he went down with his attendant Purah to the outposts of the warriors who were in the camp.—¹²Now Midian, Amalek, and all the Kedemites were spread over the plain, as thick as locusts; and their camels were countless, as numerous as the sands on the seashore.— ¹³Gideon came there just as one man was narrating a dream to another. “Listen,” he was saying, “I had this dream: There was a commotion—a loaf of barley bread was whirling through the Midianite camp. It came to a tent and struck it, and it fell; it turned it upside down, and the tent collapsed.” ¹⁴To this the other responded, “That can only mean the sword of the Israelite Gideon son of Joash. God is delivering Midian and the entire camp into his hands.”^e

¹⁵When Gideon heard the dream told and interpreted, he bowed low. Returning to the camp of Israel, he shouted, “Come on! The Lord has delivered the Midianite camp into your hands!” ¹⁶He divided the three hundred men into three columns and equipped every man with a ram’s horn and an empty jar, with a torch in each jar. ¹⁷“Watch me,” he said, “and do the same. When I get to the outposts of the camp, do exactly as I do. ¹⁸When I and all those with me blow our horns, you too, all around the camp, will blow your horns and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

¹⁹Gideon and the hundred men with him arrived at the outposts of the camp, at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the sentries were posted. They sounded the horns and smashed the jars that they had with them, ²⁰and the three columns blew their horns and broke their jars. Holding the torches in their left hands and the horns for blowing in their right hands, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” ²¹They remained standing where they were, surrounding the camp; but the entire camp ran about yelling, and took to flight. ²²For when the three hundred horns were sounded, the Lord turned every man’s sword against his fellow, throughout the camp, and the entire host fled as far as Beth-shittah and on to Zererah—as far as the outskirts of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.

²³And now the men of Israel from Naphtali and Asher and from all of Manasseh rallied for the pursuit of the Midianites. ²⁴Gideon also sent messengers all through the hill country of Ephraim with this order: “Go down ahead of the Midianites and seize their access to the water all along the Jordan down to Beth-barah.” So all the men of Ephraim rallied and seized the waterside down to Beth-barah by the Jordan. ²⁵They pursued the Midianites and captured Midian’s two generals, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the Rock of Oreb and they killed Zeeb at the Winepress of Zeeb; and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb from the other side of the Jordan to Gideon.

Chapter 8

¹And the men of Ephraim said to him, “Why did you do that to us—not calling us when you went to fight the Midianites?” And they rebuked him severely. ²But he answered them, “After all, what have I accomplished compared to you? Why, Ephraim’s gleanings are better than Abiezer’s vintage! ³God has delivered the Midianite generals Oreb and Zeeb into your hands, and what was I able to do compared to you?” And when he spoke in this fashion, their anger against him abated.

⁴Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed it. The three hundred men with him were famished, but still in pursuit. ⁵He said to the people of Succoth, “Please give some loaves of bread to the men who are following me, for they are famished, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” ⁶But the officials of Succoth replied, “Are Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hands, that we should give bread to your troops?” ⁷“I swear,” declared Gideon, “when the Lord delivers Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I’ll thresh^f your bodies upon desert thorns and briers!” ⁸From there he went up to Penuel and made the same request of them; but the people of Penuel gave him the same reply as the people of Succoth. ⁹So he also threatened the people of Penuel: “When I come back safe, I’ll tear down this tower!”

¹⁰Now Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor with their army of about 15,000; these were all that remained of the entire host of the Kedemites, for the slain numbered 120,000 fighting men. ¹¹Gideon marched up the road of the tent dwellers, up to east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and routed the camp, which was off guard. ¹²Zebah and Zalmunna took to flight, with Gideon in pursuit. He captured Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, and threw the whole army into panic.

¹³On his way back from the battle at the Ascent of Heres, Gideon son of Joash ¹⁴captured a boy from among the people of Succoth and interrogated him. The latter drew up for him a list of the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven in number. ¹⁵Then he came to the people of Succoth and said, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you mocked me, saying, ‘Are Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hands, that we should give your famished men bread?’” ¹⁶And he took the elders of the city and, [bringing] desert thorns and briers, he punished the people of Succoth with them. ¹⁷As for Penuel, he tore down its tower and killed the townspeople.

¹⁸Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “Those men you killed at Tabor, what were they like?” “They looked just like you,” they replied, “like sons of a king.” ¹⁹“They were my brothers,” he declared, “the sons of my mother. As the Lord lives, if you had spared them, I would not kill you.” ²⁰And he commanded his oldest son Jether, “Go kill them!” But the boy did not draw his sword, for he was timid, being still a boy. ²¹Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Come, you slay us; for strength comes with manhood.” So Gideon went over and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescents that were on the necks of their camels.

²²Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son, and your grandson as well; for you have saved us from the Midianites.” ²³But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you myself, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord alone shall rule over you.” ²⁴And Gideon said to them, “I have a request to make of you: Each of you give me the earring he received as booty.” (They^g had golden earrings, for they were Ish-maelites.) ²⁵“Certainly!” they replied. And they spread out a cloth, and everyone threw onto it the earring he had received as booty. ²⁶The weight of the golden earrings that he had requested came to 1,700 shekels of gold; this was in addition to the crescents and the pendants and the purple robes worn by the kings of Midian and in addition to the collars on the necks of their camels. ²⁷Gideon made an ephod of this gold and set it up in his own town of Ophrah. There all Israel went astray after it, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

²⁸Thus Midian submitted to the Israelites and did not raise its head again; and the land was tranquil for forty years in Gideon’s time.

²⁹So Jerubbaal son of Joash retired to his own house. ³⁰Gideon had seventy sons of his own issue, for he had many wives. ³¹A son was also born to him by his concubine in Shechem, and he named him Abimelech. ³²Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age, and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³After Gideon died, the Israelites again went astray after the Baalim, and they adopted Baal-berith as a god. ³⁴The Israelites gave no thought to the Lord their God, who saved them from all the enemies around them. ³⁵Nor did they show loyalty to the house of Jerubbaal-Gideon in return for all the good that he had done for Israel.