GIDEON


Taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1978 by the New 
York Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

JDG 6:11  The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah 
that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing 
wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.

14  The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save 
Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"

15  "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the 
weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."

16  The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all 
the Midianites together."

21  With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD 
touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, 
consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared.

22  When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, 
"Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"

23  But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going 
to die."

24  So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is 
Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

25  That same night the LORD said to him, "Take the second bull from your 
father's herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father's altar to 
Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.

26  Then build a proper kind of 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 bull as a burnt offering."

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

33  Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined 
forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.

34  Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, 
summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.

35  He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also 
into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.

36  Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have 
promised--

37  look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is 
dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you 
will save Israel by my hand, as you said."

38  And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed 
the fleece and wrung out the dew--a bowlful of water.

39  Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one 
more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the 
fleece dry and the ground covered with dew."

40  That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was 
covered with dew.

7:1  Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men 
camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the 
valley near the hill of Moreh.

2  The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian 
into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her 
own strength has saved her,

3  announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back 
and leave Mount Gilead.'" So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten 
thousand remained.

4  But the LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them 
down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, 'This one 
shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with 
you,' he shall not go."

5  So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, 
"Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those 
who kneel down to drink."

6  Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest 
got down on their knees to drink.

7  The LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will 
save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, 
each to his own place."

8  So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the 
three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. Now 
the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley.

9  During that night the LORD said to Gideon, "Get up, go down against the 
camp, because I am going to give it into your hands.

10  If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant 
Purah

11  and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged 
to attack the camp." So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts 
of the camp.

12  The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had 
settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be 
counted than the sand on the seashore.

13  Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. "I had a 
dream," he was saying. "A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the 
Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned 
and collapsed."

14  His friend responded, "This can be nothing other than the sword of 
Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the 
whole camp into his hands."

15  When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God. 
He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, "Get up! The LORD has 
given the Midianite camp into your hands."

16  Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets 
and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.

17  "Watch me," he told them. "Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of 
the camp, do exactly as I do.

18  When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around 
the camp blow yours and shout, 'For the LORD and for Gideon.'"

19  Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the 
beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They 
blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands.

20  The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping 
the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the 
trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, "A sword for the LORD and for 
Gideon!"

21  While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites 
ran, crying out as they fled.

22  When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the LORD caused the men 
throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled 
to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near 
Tabbath.

23  Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and 
they pursued the Midianites.

24  Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, 
"Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead 
of them as far as Beth Barah." So all the men of Ephraim were called out 
and they took the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah.

25  They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. They 
killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They 
pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, 
who was by the Jordan.

8:1  Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, "Why have you treated us like this? 
Why didn't you call us when you went to fight Midian?" And they criticized 
him sharply.

2  But he answered them, "What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren't 
the gleanings of Ephraim's grapes better than the full grape harvest of 
Abiezer?

3  God gave Oreb and Zeeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was 
I able to do compared to you?" At this, their resentment against him 
subsided.

4  Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, 
came to the Jordan and crossed it.

5  He said to the men of Succoth, "Give my troops some bread; they are worn 
out, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian."

6  But the officials of Succoth said, "Do you already have the hands of 
Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your 
troops?"

7  Then Gideon replied, "Just for that, when the LORD has given Zebah and 
Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and 
briers."

8  From there he went up to Peniel and made the same request of them, but 
they answered as the men of Succoth had.

9  So he said to the men of Peniel, "When I return in triumph, I will tear 
down this tower."

10  Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen 
thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a 
hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen.

11  Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah 
and fell upon the unsuspecting army.

12  Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them 
and captured them, routing their entire army.

14  He caught a young man of Succoth and questioned him, and the young man 
wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Succoth, the 
elders of the town.

15  Then Gideon came and said to the men of Succoth, "Here are Zebah and 
Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me by saying, 'Do you already have the 
hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to 
your exhausted men?'"

16  He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Succoth a lesson 
by punishing them with desert thorns and briers.

17  He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town.

22  The Israelites said to Gideon, "Rule over us--you, your son and your 
grandson--because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian."

23  But Gideon told them, "I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule 
over you. The LORD will rule over you."

24  And he said, "I do have one request, that each of you give me an 
earring from your share of the plunder." (It was the custom of the 
Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)

25  They answered, "We'll be glad to give them." So they spread out a 
garment, and each man threw a ring from his plunder onto it.

26  The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred 
shekels, not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments 
worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels' necks.

27  Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his 
town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it 
became a snare to Gideon and his family.

30  He had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives.

32  Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb 
of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

HEB 11:32  And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about 
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets,

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