Judges 5-8

Contemporary English Version

Deborah and Barak Sing for the Lord

5 After the battle was over that day, Deborah and Barak sang this song:

Midian Steals Everything from Israel

There was peace in Israel for about 40 years. 6 ¹ Then once again the Israelites started disobeying the Lord, so he let the nation of Midian control Israel for seven years. ² The Midianites were so cruel that many Israelites ran to the mountains and hid in caves.

³ Every time the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites invaded Israel together with the Amalekites and other eastern nations. ^4-5 They rode in on their camels, set up their tents, and then let their livestock eat the crops as far as the town of Gaza. The Midianites stole food, sheep, cattle, and donkeys. Like a swarm of locusts,^[n] they could not be counted, and they ruined the land wherever they went.

^6-7 The Midianites took almost everything that belonged to the Israelites, and the Israelites begged the Lord for help. ^8-9 Then the Lord sent a prophet to them with this message:

I am the Lord God of Israel, so listen to what I say. You were slaves in Egypt, but I set you free and led you out of Egypt into this land. And when nations here made life miserable for you, I rescued you and helped you get rid of them and take their land. ¹⁰ I am your God, and I told you not to worship Amorite gods, even though you are living in the land of the Amorites. But you refused to listen.

The Lord Chooses Gideon

¹¹ One day an angel from the Lord went to the town of Ophrah and sat down under the big tree that belonged to Joash, a member of the Abiezer clan. Joash's son Gideon was nearby, threshing grain in a shallow pit, where he could not be seen by the Midianites.

¹² The angel appeared and spoke to Gideon, “The Lord is helping you, and you are a strong warrior.”

¹³ Gideon answered, “Please don't take this wrong, but if the Lord is helping us, then why have all of these awful things happened? We've heard how the Lord performed miracles and rescued our ancestors from Egypt. But those things happened long ago. Now the Lord has abandoned us to the Midianites.”

¹⁴ Then the Lord himself said, “Gideon, you will be strong, because I am giving you the power to rescue Israel from the Midianites.”

¹⁵ Gideon replied, “But how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest one in Manasseh, and everyone else in my family is more important than I am.”

¹⁶ “Gideon,” the Lord answered, “you can rescue Israel because I am going to help you! Defeating the Midianites will be as easy as beating up one man.”

¹⁷ Gideon said, “It's hard to believe that I'm actually talking to the Lord. Please do something so I'll know that you really are the Lord. ¹⁸ And wait here until I bring you an offering.”

“All right, I'll wait,” the Lord answered.

¹⁹ Gideon went home and killed a young goat, then started boiling the meat. Next, he opened a big sack of flour and made it into thin bread.^[o] When the meat was done, he put it in a basket and poured the broth into a clay cooking pot. He took the meat, the broth, and the bread and placed them under the big tree.

²⁰ God's angel said, “Gideon, put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” Gideon did as he was told. ²¹ The angel was holding a walking stick, and he touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick. Flames jumped from the rock and burned up the meat and the bread.

When Gideon looked, the angel was gone. ²² Gideon realized that he had seen one of the Lord's angels. “Oh!” he moaned. “Now I'm going to die.”^[p]

²³ “Calm down!” the Lord told Gideon. “There's nothing to be afraid of. You're not going to die.”

²⁴ Gideon built an altar for worshiping the Lord and called it “The Lord Calms Our Fears.” It still stands there in Ophrah, a town in the territory of the Abiezer clan.

Gideon Tears Down Baal's Altar

²⁵ That night the Lord spoke to Gideon again:

Get your father's second-best bull, the one that's seven years old. Use it to pull down the altar where your father worships Baal and cut down the sacred pole^[q] next to the altar. ²⁶ Then build an altar for worshiping me on the highest part of the hill where your town is built. Use layers of stones for my altar, not just a pile of rocks. Cut up the wood from the pole, make a fire, kill the bull, and burn it as a sacrifice to me.

²⁷ Gideon chose ten of his servants to help him, and they did everything God had said. But since Gideon was afraid of his family and the other people in Ophrah, he did it all at night.

²⁸ When the people of the town got up the next morning, they saw that Baal's altar had been knocked over, and the sacred pole next to it had been cut down. Then they noticed the new altar covered with the remains of the sacrificed bull.

²⁹ “Who could have done such a thing?” they asked. And they kept on asking, until finally someone told them, “Gideon the son of Joash did it.”

³⁰ The men of the town went to Joash and said, “Your son Gideon knocked over Baal's altar and cut down the sacred pole next to it. Hand him over, so we can kill him!”

³¹ The crowd pushed closer and closer, but Joash replied, “Are you trying to take revenge for Baal? Are you trying to rescue Baal? If you are, you will be the ones who are put to death, and it will happen before another day dawns. If Baal really is a god, let him take his own revenge on someone who tears down his altar.”

³² That same day, Joash changed Gideon's name to Jerubbaal, explaining, “He tore down Baal's altar, so let Baal take revenge himself.”^[r]

Gideon Defeats the Midianites

³³ All the Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern nations got together and crossed the Jordan River. Then they invaded the land of Israel and set up camp in Jezreel Valley.

³⁴ The Lord's Spirit took control of Gideon, and Gideon blew a trumpet as a signal for the men in the Abiezer clan to follow him. ³⁵ He also sent messengers to the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, telling the men of these tribes to come and join his army. Then they set out toward the enemy camp.

^36-37 Gideon prayed to God, “I know that you promised to help me rescue Israel, but I need proof. Tonight I'll spread a sheep skin on the stone floor of that threshing-place over there. If you really will help me rescue Israel, then tomorrow morning let there be dew on the skin, but let the stone floor be dry.”

³⁸ And that's just what happened. Early the next morning, Gideon got up and checked the sheep skin. He squeezed out enough water to fill a bowl. ³⁹ But Gideon prayed to God again. “Don't be angry with me,” Gideon said. “Let me try this just one more time, so I'll really be sure you'll help me. Only this time, let the skin be dry and the stone floor be wet.”

⁴⁰ That night, God made the stone floor wet with dew, but he kept the sheep skin dry.

7 Early the next morning, Gideon and his army got up and moved their camp to Fear Spring.^[s] The Midianite camp was to the north, in the valley at the foot of Moreh Hill.^[t]

² The Lord said, “Gideon, your army is too big. I can't let you win with this many soldiers. The Israelites would think that they had won the battle all by themselves and that I didn't have anything to do with it. ^3 (B) So call your troops together and tell them that anyone who is really afraid can leave Mount Gilead^[u] and go home.”

Twenty-two thousand men returned home, leaving Gideon with only 10,000 soldiers.

⁴ “Gideon,” the Lord said, “you still have too many soldiers. Take them down to the spring and I'll test them. I'll tell you which ones can go along with you and which ones must go back home.”

⁵ When Gideon led his army down to the spring, the Lord told him, “Watch how each man gets a drink of water. Then divide them into two groups—those who lap the water like a dog and those who kneel down to drink.”

⁶ Three hundred men scooped up water in their hands and lapped it, and the rest knelt to get a drink. ⁷ The Lord said, “Gideon, your army will be made up of everyone who lapped the water from their hands. Send the others home. I'm going to rescue Israel by helping you and your army of 300 defeat the Midianites.”

⁸ Then Gideon gave these orders, “You 300 men stay here. The rest of you may go home, but leave your food and trumpets with us.”

Gideon's army camp was on top of a hill overlooking the Midianite camp in the valley.

⁹ That night, the Lord said to Gideon. “Get up! Attack the Midianite camp. I am going to let you defeat them, ¹⁰ but if you're still afraid, you and your servant Purah should sneak down to their camp. ¹¹ When you hear what the Midianites are saying, you'll be brave enough to attack.”

Gideon and Purah worked their way to the edge of the enemy camp, where soldiers were on guard duty. ¹² The camp was huge. The Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern nations covered the valley like a swarm of locusts.^[v] And it would be easier to count the grains of sand on a beach than to count their camels. ¹³ Gideon overheard one enemy guard telling another, “I had a dream about a flat^[w] loaf of barley bread that came tumbling into our camp. It hit the headquarters tent,^[x] and the tent flipped over and fell to the ground.”

¹⁴ The other soldier answered, “Your dream must have been about Gideon, the Israelite commander. It means God will let him and his army defeat the Midianite army and everyone else in our camp.”

¹⁵ As soon as Gideon heard about the dream and what it meant, he bowed down to praise God. Then he went back to the Israelite camp and shouted, “Let's go! The Lord is going to let us defeat the Midianite army.”

¹⁶ Gideon divided his little army into three groups of 100 men, and he gave each soldier a trumpet and a large clay jar with a burning torch inside. ^17-18 Gideon said, “When we get to the enemy camp, spread out and surround it. Then wait for me to blow a signal on my trumpet. As soon as you hear it, blow your trumpets and shout, ‘Fight for the Lord! Fight for Gideon!’ ”

¹⁹ Gideon and his group reached the edge of the enemy camp a few hours after dark, just after the new guards had come on duty.^[y] Gideon and his soldiers blew their trumpets and smashed the clay jars that were hiding the torches. ²⁰ The rest of Gideon's soldiers blew the trumpets they were holding in their right hands. Then they smashed the jars and held the burning torches in their left hands. Everyone shouted, “Fight with your swords for the Lord and for Gideon!”

²¹ The enemy soldiers started yelling and tried to run away. Gideon's troops stayed in their positions surrounding the camp ²² and blew their trumpets again. As they did, the Lord made the enemy soldiers pull out their swords and start fighting each other.

The enemy army tried to escape from the camp. They ran to Acacia Tree Town, toward Zeredah,^[z] and as far as the edge of the land that belonged to the town of Abel-Meholah near Tabbath.^[aa]

²³ Gideon sent word for more Israelite soldiers to come from the tribes of Naphtali, Asher, and both halves of Manasseh^[ab] to help fight the Midianites. ²⁴ He also sent messengers to tell all the men who lived in the hill country of Ephraim, “Come and help us fight the Midianites! Put guards at every spring, stream, and well, as far as Beth-Barah before the Midianites can get to them. And guard the Jordan River.”

Troops from Ephraim did exactly what Gideon had asked, ²⁵ and they even helped chase the Midianites on the east side of the Jordan River. These troops captured Raven and Wolf,^[ac] the two Midianite leaders. They killed Raven at a large rock that has come to be known as Raven Rock, and they killed Wolf near a wine-pit that has come to be called Wolf Wine-Pit.^[ad]

The men of Ephraim brought the heads of the two Midianite leaders to Gideon. 8 ¹ But the men were really upset with Gideon and complained, “When you went to war with Midian, you didn't ask us to help! Why did you treat us like that?”

² Gideon answered:

Don't be upset! Even though you came later, you were able to do much more than I did. It's just like the grape harvest: The grapes your tribe doesn't even bother to pick are better than the best grapes my family can grow. ^3 (C) Besides, God chose you to capture Raven and Wolf. I didn't do a thing compared to you.

By the time Gideon had finished talking, the men of Ephraim had calmed down and were no longer angry with him.

Gideon Finishes Destroying the Midianite Army

⁴ After Gideon and his 300 troops had chased the Midianites across the Jordan River, they were exhausted. ⁵ The town of Succoth was nearby, so he went there and asked, “Please give my troops some food. They are worn out, but we have to keep chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the two Midianite kings.”

⁶ The town leaders of Succoth answered, “Why should we feed your army? We don't know if you really will defeat Zebah and Zalmunna.”

⁷ “Just wait!” Gideon said. “After the Lord helps me defeat them, I'm coming back here. I'll make a whip out of thorns and rip the flesh from your bones.”

⁸ After leaving Succoth, Gideon went to Penuel and asked the leaders there for some food. But he got the same answer as he did at Succoth. ⁹ “I'll come back safe and sound,” Gideon said, “but when I do, I'm going to tear down your tower!”^[ae]

¹⁰ Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor^[af] with an army of 15,000 troops. They were all that was left of the army of the eastern nations, because 120,000 of their warriors had been killed in the battle.

¹¹ Gideon reached the enemy camp by going east along Nomad^[ag] Road past Nobah and Jogbehah. He made a surprise attack, ¹² and the enemy panicked. Zebah and Zalmunna tried to escape, but Gideon chased and captured them.

¹³ After the battle, Gideon set out for home. As he was going through Heres Pass, ¹⁴ he caught a young man who lived in Succoth. Gideon asked him who the town officials of Succoth were, and the young man wrote down 77 names.

¹⁵ Gideon went to the town officials and said, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna. Remember how you made fun of me? You said, ‘We don't know if you really will defeat those two Midianite kings. So why should we feed your worn-out army?’ ”

¹⁶ Gideon made a whip from thorn plants and used it to beat the town officials. ¹⁷ Afterwards he went to Penuel, where he tore down the tower and killed all the town officials.^[ah]

¹⁸ Then Gideon said, “Zebah and Zalmunna, tell me about the men you killed at Tabor.”

“They were a lot like you,” the two kings answered. “They were dignified, almost like royalty.”

¹⁹ “They were my very own brothers!” Gideon said. “I swear by the living Lord that if you had let them live, I would let you live.”

²⁰ Gideon turned to Jether, his oldest son. “Kill them!” Gideon said.

But Jether was young,^[ai] and he was too afraid to even pull out his sword.

²¹ “What's the matter, Gideon?” Zebah and Zalmunna asked. “Do it yourself, if you're not too much of a coward!”

Gideon jumped up and killed them both. Then he took the gold ornaments from the necks of their camels.

The Israelites Ask Gideon To Be Their King

²² After the battle with the Midianites, the Israelites said, “Gideon, you rescued us! Now we want you to be our king. Then after your death, your son and then your grandson will rule.”

²³ “No,” Gideon replied, “I won't be your king, and my son won't be king either. Only the Lord is your ruler. ²⁴ But I will ask you to do one thing: Give me all the earrings you took from the enemy.”

The enemy soldiers had been Ishmaelites,^[aj] and they wore gold earrings.

²⁵ The Israelite soldiers replied, “Of course we will give you the earrings.” Then they spread out a robe on the ground and tossed the earrings on it. ²⁶ The total weight of this gold was nearly 20 kilograms. In addition, there was the gold from the camels' ornaments and from the beautiful jewelry worn by the Midianite kings. Gideon also took their purple robes.

^27-29 Gideon returned to his home in Ophrah and had the gold made into a statue, which the Israelites soon started worshiping. They were unfaithful to God, and even Gideon and his family were trapped into worshiping the statue.^[ak]

The Midianites had been defeated so badly that they were no longer strong enough to attack Israel. And so Israel was at peace for the remaining 40 years of Gideon's life.

Gideon Dies

³⁰ Gideon had many wives and 70 sons. ³¹ He even had a wife^[al] who lived at Shechem.^[am] They had a son, and Gideon named him Abimelech.

³² Gideon lived to be an old man. And when he died, he was buried in the family tomb in his hometown of Ophrah, which belonged to the Abiezer clan.

³³ Soon after Gideon's death, the Israelites turned their backs on God again. They set up idols of Baal and worshiped Baal Berith^[an] as their god. ³⁴ The Israelites forgot that the Lord was their God, and that he had rescued them from the enemies who lived around them. ³⁵ Besides all that, the Israelites were unkind to Gideon's family, even though Gideon had done so much for Israel.