CHAPTER 6

¹And the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and He gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. ²And the hand of Midian was strong over Israel. Because of Midian the Israelites made themselves the dugouts that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. ³And it happened when Israel planted, that Midian and Amalek and the Easterners came up against them. ⁴And they encamped against them and destroyed the yield of the land all the way to Gaza, and they would not leave a source of livelihood in Israel, nor sheep nor ox nor donkey. ⁵For they with their flocks and tents would come up, like locusts in multitude, and they and their camels were beyond numbering, and they came into the land to destroy it. ⁶And Israel was sorely impoverished because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the LORD. ⁷And it happened, when the Israelites cried out to the LORD about Midian, ⁸that the LORD sent a prophet-man to the Israelites, and he said to them, “Thus said the LORD God of Israel, ‘It is I Who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slaves. ⁹And I saved you from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors, and I drove them out before you and I gave you their land. ¹⁰And I said to you—I am the LORD your God. You shall not revere the gods of the Amorite in whose land you dwell. And you did not heed My voice.’” ¹¹And the LORD’s messenger came and sat under the terebinth that is in Ophrah, which belongs to Joash the Abiezerite, and Gideon his son was threshing wheat in the winepress to conceal it from Midian. ¹²And the LORD’s messenger appeared to him and said, “The LORD is with you, valiant warrior.” ¹³And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this overtaken us, and where are all His wonders of which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ And now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the grip of Midian.” ¹⁴And the LORD’s messenger turned to him and said, “Go in this power of yours and rescue Israel from the grip of Midian. Have I not sent you?” ¹⁵And he said to him, “Please, my lord, how shall I rescue Israel? Look, my clan is poor in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” ¹⁶And the LORD’s messenger said to him, “For I shall be with you, and you will strike down Midian as a single man.” ¹⁷And he said to him, “If, pray, I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that you are speaking with me. ¹⁸Pray, do not move from here until I come to you and bring out my offering and set it before you.” And he said, “I shall sit here until you return.” ¹⁹And Gideon had gone and prepared a kid and an ephah worth of flour of flatbread. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and he brought it out to him under the terebinth and brought it forward. ²⁰And God’s messenger said to him, “Take the meat and the flatbread, and set them on yonder crag, and pour out the broth.” And so he did. ²¹And the LORD’s messenger reached out with the tip of the walking stick that was in his hand and touched the meat and the flatbread, and fire went up from the rock and consumed the meat and the flatbread. And the LORD’s messenger went from his sight. ²²And Gideon saw that he was a messenger of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, LORD my Master, for I indeed have seen a messenger of the LORD face-to-face.” ²³And the LORD said to him, “It is well with you. Do not fear. You shall not die.” ²⁴And Gideon built there an altar to the LORD, and called it YHWH Shalom. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezerites. ²⁵And it happened on that night that the LORD said to him, “Take the bull which is your father’s and the second bull, seven years old, and you shall destroy the altar of Baal which is your father’s, and the cultic pole that is on it you shall cut down. ²⁶And you shall build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this stronghold on the surface, and you shall take the second bull and offer it up as a burnt offering on the wood of the cultic pole that you cut down.” ²⁷And Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had spoken to him. And it happened as his father’s household and the men of the town feared to do it by day, that he did it at night. ²⁸And the men of the town rose early in the morning, and, look, the altar of Baal was shattered and the cultic pole that was on it was cut down, and the second bull was offered up on the altar that had been built. ²⁹And every man said to his fellow, “Who has done this thing?” And they inquired and sought out, and they said, “Gideon son of Joash has done this thing.” ³⁰And the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son that he may die, for he has shattered the altar of Baal and cut down the cultic pole that was on it.” ³¹And Joash said to all who stood round him, “Will you contend for Baal, will you rescue him? Let he who would contend for him be put to death by morning. If he is a god, he will contend for himself, for his altar has been shattered.” ³²And he was called on that day Jerubaal, which is to say, “Let him contend for himself, for his altar has been shattered.”

³³And all of Midian and Amalek and the Easterners gathered together, and they crossed over and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. ³⁴And the spirit of the LORD invested Gideon, and he blasted the ram’s horn, and Abiezer was mustered behind him. ³⁵And he sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and it, too, was mustered behind him. And he sent messengers in Asher and in Zebulun and in Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. ³⁶And Gideon said to God, “If You are going to rescue Israel by my hand as You have spoken, ³⁷look, I am about to place a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone but on the ground it is dry, I shall know that You will rescue Israel by my hand as You have spoken.” ³⁸And so it was: he rose early the next day and squeezed the fleece and wrung out dew from the fleece, a bowlful of water. ³⁹And Gideon said to God, “Let Your wrath not flare up against me. I would speak just this one time more and I would make a trial, pray, just this one time more with the fleece. Let it be dry on the fleece alone, and on the ground let there be dew.” ⁴⁰And, so God did on that night, and it was dry on the fleece alone and on all the ground there was dew.