 1 The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. The Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 The hand of Midian was strong against Israel. Before the faces of Midian, the children of Israel made dens in the mountains and caves and strongholds. 3 So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites and the children of the east, even they came up against them. 4 They camped against them and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza. They left no food for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor ass. 5 For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as locusts for multitude, both they and their camels were without number. They entered into the land to destroy it. 6 Israel was made very poor because of the Midianites. The children of Israel cried out to the Lord. 7 When the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, 8 the Lord sent a man, a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I brought you up from Egypt and brought you forth out of the house of bondage. 9 I delivered you from the Egyptians, and from all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, I am the Lord your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed my voice. 11 The angel of the Lord came and sat under an oak that was in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. And his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. 13 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 that our fathers told us of saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. 14 The Lord looked upon him and said, Go in your might, and you will save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you? 15 He said to him, O Lord, with what will I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. 16 The Lord said to him, Surely, I will be with you, and you will strike the Midianites as one man. 17 He said to Him, If now I have found grace in your sight, then show me a sign that you talk with me. 18 Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to you, and bring forth my food offering and set it before you. And He said, I will stay until you come again. 19 Gideon went in and made ready a kid and unleavened cakes of a bushel of flour. He put the flesh in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to Him to the oak, and offered it. 20 The angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay on this rock, and pour out the broth. He did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in His hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes. There rose fire out of the rock and burned up the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord went away out of his sight. 22 When Gideon saw that He was the angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God. Because I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. 23 The Lord said to him, Peace to you. Do not fear. You will not die. 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it Jehovahshalom. It is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites to this day. 25 On that night the Lord said to him, Take your father's young bull, even the second bull of seven years, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the pillar by it. 26 Build an altar to the Lord your God upon the top of this rock, in an orderly manner, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove that you cut down. 27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had said to him. And so it was, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day. So he did it by night. 28 When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the pillar that was by it was cut down, and the second bull had been offered upon the altar that was built. 29 They said to one another, Who has done this? And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this. 30 Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring out your son so that he may die because he had cast down the altar of Baal, and because he had cut down the pillar by it. 31 Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you plead for Baal? Will you save him? Anyone who contends for him will be killed by the morning. If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because one has cast down his altar. 32 On that day he called him Jerubbaal saying, Let Baal contend against him because he has thrown down his altar. 33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites, and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over and pitched in the valley of Jezreel. 34 But the spirit of the Lord came to Gideon, and he blew a ram's horn. He called the Abiezrites after him. 35 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also were gathered after him. He sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali. They came up to meet them. 36 Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the grain floor. And if the dew is on the fleece only, and dry upon all the ground, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said. 38 It was so. For he rose early in the morning and gathered the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. 39 Gideon said to God, Do not let your anger be hot against me. I will speak but this once. I ask you to let me test but once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only upon the fleece and upon all the ground let there be dew. 40 God did so that night, for it was dry on the fleece only and there was dew on all the ground.
|