Judges 7
1 Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, rose early with all the troops who were with him, and they camped by the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of him, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The troops with you are too numerous for me to deliver Midian into their hands. Israel might boast against me, saying, ‘My own hand saved me.’”
3 Now proclaim to the troops, ‘Whoever is afraid and trembling may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” Then twenty-two thousand men turned back, and ten thousand remained.
4 The LORD said to Gideon, “The troops are still too numerous. Take them down to the water, and there I will sift them for you. The one about whom I say to you, ‘This one will go with you,’ will go with you; and the one about whom I say to you, ‘This one will not go with you,’ will not go.”
5 So he took the troops down to the water, and the LORD said to Gideon, “Set apart everyone who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, and also everyone who kneels down to drink.”
6 The number of those who lapped, bringing their hands to their mouths, was three hundred men. All the rest of the troops knelt down to drink water.
7 The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped, I will save you and deliver Midian into your hand. Let all the rest of the troops go, each to his own place.”
8 They took the troops’ provisions and their trumpets in their hands. Gideon sent all the men of Israel away, each to his tent, but kept the three hundred men. The camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
9 That night the LORD said to him, “Get up, go down to the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.
10 But if you are afraid to go down, take your servant Purah with you to the camp.
11 Listen to what they are saying. After that, you will be strengthened, and you will go down to the camp.” He went down with his servant Purah to the edge of the armed men in the camp.
12 Midian, Amalek, and all the peoples of the east were spread out in the valley, as numerous as locusts; their camels were countless, as numerous as the sand on the seashore.
13 Gideon arrived, and there was a man telling his companion about a dream. He said, “I had a dream: a loaf of barley bread came tumbling through the camp of Midian. It reached a tent and struck it, and the tent fell. It turned the tent upside down, and it lay there on the ground.”
14 His companion answered, “This can only be the sword of Gideon son of Joash, an Israelite. God has delivered Midian and the whole camp into his hand.”
15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Get up, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hands.”
16 He divided the three hundred men into three groups and gave every man a trumpet and an empty jar, with a torch inside each jar.
17 He said to them, “Watch me and do the same. When I reach the edge of the camp, do as I do.
18 When I blow the trumpet, I and everyone with me, you too blow your trumpets all around the camp 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 the sentries had been changed. They blew their trumpets and smashed the jars in their hands.
20 The three groups blew their trumpets and smashed their jars. They held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow them, and they shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”
21 Each man stood in his place around the camp. The whole camp began to run, shouting as they fled.
22 As the three hundred blew their trumpets, the LORD turned each man’s sword against his companion throughout the camp. The camp fled as far as Beth-shittah, toward Zererah, as far as the bank of Abel-meholah, near Tabbath.
23 The men of Israel were called out from Naphtali, Asher, and all of Manasseh, and they pursued Midian.
24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Go down to meet Midian and seize the waters from them as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they seized the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.
25 They captured the two commanders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan.
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