Judges 6

1 And the children of Israel did what was evil before the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian was strong against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made themselves the crevices in the mountains, and the caves, and the hanging places.

3 And whenever the children of Israel sowed, Midian and Amalek came up, and the children of the east came up along with them. 4 And they camped against them and ruined their crops as far as Gaza; and they left nothing to live on in the land of Israel, and among the flocks not an ox or a donkey. 5 For they came up with everything they owned, and their tents arrived like locusts in number; there was no counting them or their camels; and they came into the land of Israel and destroyed it. 6 And Israel was brought very low before Midian, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord 7 because of Midian.

8 And the Lord sent a man, a prophet, to the children of Israel, and he said to them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I am the one who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and brought you out of the house of your slavery; 9 and I rescued you out of the hand of Egypt and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and I drove them out from before you, and I gave you their land. 10 And I said to you: I am the Lord your God; you are not to fear the gods of the Amorite, among whom you are settling in their land. But you did not listen to my voice.”

11 And a messenger of the Lord came and sat down under the terebinth that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the father of Ezri; and Gideon his son was beating out wheat in a winepress, to get away from Midian. [a] 12 And the messenger of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, mighty man of the armies.”

13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord — if the Lord is with us, why have these evils found us? And where are all his wonders that our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Did the Lord not bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now he has thrown us away and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the messenger of the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this strength of yours, and you will save Israel out of the hand of Midian. Look, I have sent you.”

15 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord — with what am I to save Israel? Look, my thousand has grown weak in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” 16 And the messenger of the Lord said to him, “The Lord will be with you, and you will strike Midian down as one man.”

17 And Gideon said to him, “If I have found mercy in your eyes, and you will do for me today everything you have spoken with me about, 18 do not go away from here until I come to you, and I will bring out the sacrifice and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay here until you come back.”

19 And Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and about six gallons of flour as bread without yeast; and he put the meat in a basket and poured the broth into a pot, and brought them out to him under the terebinth, and came near. [b] 20 And the messenger of God said to him, “Take the meat and the bread without yeast and put them on that rock, and pour out the broth beside it.” And he did so. 21 And the messenger of the Lord stretched out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the bread without yeast; and fire came up out of the rock and ate up the meat and the bread without yeast; and the messenger of the Lord was gone from his eyes.

22 And Gideon saw that this was a messenger of the Lord, and Gideon said, “Ah! Ah! My Lord, Lord — I have seen a messenger of the Lord face to face!” 23 And the Lord said to him, “Peace to you. Do not be afraid; you will not die.” 24 And Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it The Peace of the Lord; to this day it is still in Ophrah of the father of Ezri.

25 And that night the Lord said to him, “Take the young bull, the bull that belongs to your father, and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and destroy the sacred grove beside it; 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this Maouek, where the battle line stands, and take the second bull and bring up a whole burnt offering with the wood of the sacred grove that you destroy.” [c] 27 And Gideon took ten men from among his own slaves and did as the Lord had told him; and because he was afraid of his father's household and of the men of the city, he did not do it by day but did it by night.

28 And the men of the city got up early in the morning, and there was the altar of Baal pulled down, and the sacred grove beside it destroyed; and they saw the second bull that he had brought up on the altar that had been built. 29 And a man said to his neighbor, “Who has done this thing?” And they asked and searched, and learned that Gideon son of Joash had done this thing. 30 And the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, and let him die, because he has pulled down the altar of Baal and because he has destroyed the sacred grove beside it.”

31 And Joash said to all the men who had risen up against him, “Are you the ones to plead Baal's case now? Or will you save him? Whoever pleads his case is to be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him plead his own case, because someone has pulled down his altar.” [d] 32 And that day he named it Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal plead his case against it, because his altar has been pulled down.”

33 And all Midian and Amalek and the children of the east gathered together in one place and camped in the valley of Jezreel. 34 And the Spirit of the Lord gave strength to Gideon, and he blew the horn, and Abiezer was afraid behind him. [e] 35 And Gideon sent messengers through all Manasseh, and into Asher and into Zebulun and Naphtali; and he went up to meet them.

36 And Gideon said to God, “If you are going to save Israel by my hand, as you have said — 37 look, I am putting the fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone and dryness on all the ground, I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. He got up early the next morning and wrung out the fleece, and dew dripped from the fleece — a bowl full of water.

39 And Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, and I will speak just once more. Let me make one more test with the fleece: let the dryness be on the fleece alone, and let there be dew on all the ground.” 40 And God did so that night: there was dryness on the fleece alone, and on all the ground there was dew.