Judges 6
1 The Israelites did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD handed them over to Midian for seven years.
2 Midian's power prevailed over Israel. Because of Midian, the Israelites made for themselves the hiding places in the mountains, the caves, and the strongholds.
3 Whenever Israel sowed crops, Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would come up and attack them.
4 They camped against them and destroyed the produce of the land as far as the entrance to Gaza. They left no food in Israel, nor any sheep, ox, or donkey.
5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, and they came in great numbers, like locusts. They and their camels were beyond counting. They came into the land to devastate it.
6 Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the LORD.
7 When the Israelites cried out to the LORD because of Midian,
8 the LORD sent a prophet to the Israelites, who said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery.
9 I rescued you from the power of the Egyptians and from the power of all who oppressed you. I drove them out before you and gave you their land.
10 And 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 did not obey my voice.’”
11 The Angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. Gideon, his son, was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from Midian.
12 The Angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
13 Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about, saying, ‘Was it not the LORD who brought us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”
14 The LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from Midian’s power. Am I not the one sending you?”
15 He answered, “Please, Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s household.”
16 The LORD said to him, “I will be with you, and you will strike Midian down as if it were one man.”
17 He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is you speaking with me.
18 Please do not leave here until I come back to you, bring my offering, and set it before you.” The LORD answered, “I will stay until you return.”
19 Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them out to him under the terebinth, and presented them.
20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, put them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so.
21 The Angel of the LORD stretched out the tip of the staff in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire sprang from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the Angel of the LORD disappeared from his sight.
22 Gideon realized that he was the Angel of the LORD, and he said, “Oh, Lord GOD! I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face!”
23 The LORD said to him, “Peace to you. Do not be afraid; you will not die.”
24 Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it The LORD Is Peace. It is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites to this day.
25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, the second bull, seven years old. Tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah beside it.
26 Build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this stronghold, arranging it properly. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering, using the wood of the Asherah you cut down.”
27 Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was afraid of his father’s household and the men of the town, he did not do it by day; he did it at night.
28 When the men of the town got up early in the morning, they saw that Baal’s altar had been torn down, the Asherah beside it had been cut down, and the second bull had been offered on the altar that had been built.
29 They asked one another, “Who did this?” They investigated and searched, then said, “Gideon son of Joash did this.”
30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring your son out, and let him die, because he tore down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah beside it.”
31 Joash said to all those who had taken their stand against him, “Are you going to plead Baal’s case? Are you going to save him? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him plead his own case, since his altar has been torn down.”
32 That day Gideon was given the name Jerubbaal, meaning, “Let Baal contend with him,” because he had torn down Baal’s altar.
33 All Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east gathered together, crossed over, and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.
34 The Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon. He sounded the trumpet, and Abiezer was called to follow him.
35 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called to follow him. He sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.
36 Gideon said to God, “If you will rescue Israel by my hand, as you have said,
37 look, I will put this fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If dew is on the fleece alone and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will rescue Israel by my hand, as you have said.”
38 And so it happened. He got up early the next day, squeezed the fleece, and wrung from it a bowlful of water.
39 Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me; let me speak just once more. Please let me make one more test with the fleece: let only the fleece be dry, and let dew be on all the ground.”
40 God did so that night: only the fleece was dry, and there was dew on all the ground.
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