Judges 6:11-18

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Call of Gideon

¹¹ Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.^{(A) 12} The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.”^{(B) 13} Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has cast us off and given us into the hand of Midian.”^{(C) 14} Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.”^{(D) 15} He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”^{(E) 16} The Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.”^{(F) 17} Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.^{(G) 18} Do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.”