[1] Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people who were with him,
rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod: and the camp of
Midian was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
[2] Yahweh said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me
to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves
against me, saying, My own hand has saved me. [3] Now therefore proclaim in
the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him
return and depart from Mount Gilead. There returned of the people
twenty-two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. [4] Yahweh said to
Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down to the water, and I
will try them for you there: and it shall be, that of whom I tell you, This
shall go with you, the same shall go with you; and of whoever I tell you,
This shall not go with you, the same shall not go. [5] So he brought down
the people to the water: and Yahweh said to Gideon, Everyone who laps of
the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, him shall you set by himself;
likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink. [6] The number of
those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men:
but all the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water.
[7] Yahweh said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who lapped will I save
you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand; and let all the people go
every man to his place. [8] So the people took victuals in their hand, and
their trumpets; and he sent all the men of Israel every man to his tent,
but retained the three hundred men: and the camp of Midian was beneath him
in the valley. [9] It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him,
Arise, get you down into the camp; for I have delivered it into your hand.
[10] But if you fear to go down, go you with Purah your servant down to the
camp: [11] and you shall hear what they say; and afterward shall your hands
be strengthened to go down into the camp. Then went he 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 children of the east lay
along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were
without number, as the sand which is on the sea-shore for multitude. [13]
When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his
fellow; and he said, Behold, I dreamed a dream; and, behold, 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 fellow answered, This is nothing else save the sword of
Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: into his hand God has delivered
Midian, and all the host. [15] It was so, when Gideon heard the telling of
the dream, and the interpretation of it, that he worshipped; and he
returned into the camp of Israel, and said, Arise; for Yahweh has delivered
into your hand the host of Midian. [16] He divided the three hundred 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,
Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outermost part
of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do. [18] When I blow
the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow you the trumpets also on
every side of all the camp, and say, For Yahweh and for Gideon. [19] So
Gideon, and the hundred men who were with him, came to the outermost part
of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly
set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and broke in pieces the pitchers
that were in their hands. [20] The three companies blew the trumpets, and
broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands, and the
trumpets in their right hands with which to blow; and they cried, The sword
of Yahweh and of Gideon. [21] They stood every man in his place round about
the camp; and all the host ran; and they shouted, and put [them] to flight.
[22] They blew the three hundred trumpets, and Yahweh set every man`s sword
against his fellow, and against all the host; and the host 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, and
out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after Midian. [24]
Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill-country of Ephraim, saying,
Come down against Midian, and take before them the waters, as far as
Beth-barah, even the Jordan. So all the men of Ephraim were gathered
together, and took the waters as far as Beth-barah, even the Jordan. [25]
They took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they killed Oreb at
the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb, and
pursued Midian: and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon
beyond the Jordan.
