Judges 7

1Early in the morning Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, and all the people who were with him camped beside the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them, near the hill of Moreh, in the valley.

2Yahweh said to Gideon, “You have too many people with you for me to give Midian into their hands. Otherwise Israel would boast against me, ‘My own hand has saved me.’

3Now announce to the people, ‘Whoever is afraid and trembling may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand of the people turned back, and ten thousand remained.

4Yahweh said to Gideon, “There are still too many people. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say to you, ‘This one is to go with you,’ he will go with you; and if I say to you, ‘This one is not to go with you,’ he will not go.”

5So he took the people down to the water, and Yahweh said to Gideon, “Set apart everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, and likewise everyone who kneels down to drink.”

6The number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was three hundred men; all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water.

7Yahweh said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped I will save you and give Midian into your hand. Let all the others go, each to his own place.”

8So they took the people’s provisions and their trumpets into their hands, and Gideon sent all the rest of the men of Israel back to their tents but kept the three hundred men. The camp of Midian lay below him in the valley.

9That same night Yahweh said to him, “Get up, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand.

10But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant.

11You will hear what they are saying, and afterward you will have the courage to go down against the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men in the camp.

12The Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the people of the East lay spread out in the valley as thick as locusts, and their camels were past counting, as many as the sand on the seashore.

13When Gideon arrived, a man was telling his friend a dream. He said, “I had a dream. A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the camp of Midian. It came to the tent and struck it so hard that it fell. It turned it upside down, and the tent collapsed.”

14His friend answered, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the man of Israel. God has given Midian and the whole camp into his hand.”

15When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. Then he went back to the camp of Israel and said, “Get up, for Yahweh has given the camp of Midian into your hand!”

16He divided the three hundred men into three companies and put trumpets and empty jars into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the jars.

17He said to them, “Watch me and do the same. When I come to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do.

18When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow your trumpets all around the camp and shout, ‘For Yahweh and for Gideon!’”

19Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the guards had been posted. They blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands.

20The three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow, and they shouted, “A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!”

21Each man stood in his place around the camp, and the whole camp ran, crying out as they fled.

22When the three hundred blew the trumpets, Yahweh set every man’s sword against his comrade throughout the whole camp. The army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.

23The men of Israel were called out from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian.

24Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against Midian and seize the waters ahead of them as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan as well.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they seized the waters as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan as well.

25They 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 they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.