Gideon’s Army of Three Hundred

¹ Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him, rose up early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. Midian’s camp was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.

² The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many people with you for me to give the Midianites into your hand, lest Israel brag, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ ³ Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him turn and depart from Mount Gilead.’ ” So 22,000 people returned, and 10,000 remained.

⁴ The Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many people. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. It shall be, that those whom I tell you, ‘These shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and whoever I tell you, ‘Those shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” ⁵ So he brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps the water with his tongue, like a dog laps, you shall set him apart; the same for everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.” ⁶ The number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water. ⁷ The Lord said to Gideon, “I will save you by the 300 men who lapped and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, each to his own place.”

⁸ So the people took food in their hand, and their trumpets. He sent all the rest of the Israelite men to their own tents but retained the 300 men, and the Midianite’s camp was beneath him in the valley.

Gideon’s Dream

⁹ That same night, the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up. Go down into the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. ¹⁰ But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp. ¹¹ You will hear what they say, and afterward your hands will be strengthened to go down into the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outermost part of the armed men who were in the camp.

¹² The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along in the valley like locusts in their multitude, and their camels were without number, like the sand on the seashore.

¹³ When Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his friend. He said, “I had a dream, and a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat.”

¹⁴ His friend answered, “This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. The Lord has delivered Midian into his hand, with all the army.”

Gideon Defeats Midian

¹⁵ When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. Then he returned into the camp of Israel and said, “Get up, for the Lord has delivered the army of Midian into your hand!”

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

¹⁷ He said to them, “Watch me, and do likewise. When I come to the outermost part of the camp, do as I do. ¹⁸ When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’ ”

¹⁹ So Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outermost part of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch. Then they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers in their hands in pieces. ²⁰ The three companies blew the trumpets, broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands with which to blow; and they shouted, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” ²¹ They each stood in place around the camp, and the entire army ran, and they shouted, and put them to flight. ²² They blew the 300 trumpets, and the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow and against all the army; and the army fled as far as Beth Shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath. ²³ The men of Israel were gathered together out of Naphtali, out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued Midian.

²⁴ Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against Midian and take over of the waters before them as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan!” So all the men of Ephraim were gathered together and took over the waters as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan. ²⁵ They took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at Oreb’s rock, and Zeeb they killed at Zeeb’s wine press, as they pursued Midian. Then they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.

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