Judges 7-8

New Catholic Bible

Chapter 7

Midian’s Defeat. ¹ Early in the morning Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all of the people who were with him camped at the well of Harod. The Midianite army was to the north of them, in the valley by the hill of Moreh.

² The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many people with you for me to deliver over the Midianites into your hands. Otherwise, Israel might vaunt themselves against me saying, ‘We have saved ourselves by our own efforts.’ ³ Announce to the people, ‘Whoever is afraid and panicking, let him go back and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” Twenty-two thousand of the men left, and there were ten thousand left.

⁴ Then the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you. Of whomever I say to you, ‘This one will go with you,’ that is the one who will go with you. Of whomever I say to you, ‘This one will not go with you,’ that one will not go with you.” ⁵ He brought the men down to the water. The Lord said to Gideon, “You will set apart everyone who laps up water like a dog from anyone who kneels down to drink.” ⁶ There were three hundred men who lapped up water by holding their hands to their face. The rest of the men knelt down to drink their water. ⁷ The Lord said to Gideon, “I will save you through the three hundred men who lapped up their water. I will deliver the Midianites into your hands. Let everyone else go back home.”^{[a] 8} So they took the other people’s provisions, and they placed their trumpets in their hands. Gideon sent all the other Israelite men back to their homes, but he kept three hundred men with him.

The army of Midian was camped in the valley below them. ⁹ That same night the Lord said to him, “Rise up, go down against the army, for I have delivered them into your hands. ¹⁰ Draw near them until you can hear what they are saying, ¹¹ and then your hands will be strengthened so that you can descend upon the camp.” So he and his servant Purah went down to the outskirts of the camp. ¹² The Midianites, the Amalekites, and all of the other easterners were lying in the valley, as thick as locusts. There were so many camels that they could not be counted; there were as many of them as there is sand on the seashore.

¹³ Gideon arrived just as a man was telling his friend about a dream. He said, “I dreamed that a barley cake^[b] came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent so hard that it overturned and collapsed.” ¹⁴ His friend said, “This can only be the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the Israelite. God has delivered Midian and its entire army into his hands.”

¹⁵ When Gideon heard the content of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. He returned to the army of Israel and said, “Rise up, for the Lord has delivered the army of Midian into your hands.”

¹⁶ He divided the three hundred men into three groups, and he placed trumpets and empty jars with torches inside them into each man’s hands. ¹⁷ He said to them, “Watch me. Do whatever I do. When we reach the edge of the camp, do whatever I do. ¹⁸ When I and all those who are with me blow our trumpets, then blow your trumpets all around the camp and shout out, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’ ”

¹⁹ Gideon and the three hundred men who were with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. ²⁰ The three groups blew their trumpets and broke their jars, holding the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands. They blew their trumpets and cried out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.”

²¹ While each man stood in his place around the camp, the army ran away crying. ²² When the three hundred men blew their trumpets, the Lord caused each man to attack his fellow soldiers with his sword. The army fled to Beth-shittah, toward Zeredah, coming to the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.^[c]

²³ The men of Israel from out of Naphtali, from out of Asher, and from out of Manasseh gathered together and pursued the Midianites. ²⁴ Gideon sent messengers all throughout the hill country of Ephraim who said, “Come down against the Midianites, and capture the fords of the Jordan at Beth-barah before they reach them.” So all the men from Ephraim gathered together and captured the fords of the Jordan at Beth-barah. ²⁵ They also captured Oreb and Zeeb, two of the princes of the Midianites. They killed Oreb upon the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon who was alongside of the Jordan.

Chapter 8

Gideon’s Second Campaign. ¹ The Ephraimites said to him, “Why have you treated us this way? Why did you not summon us when you went out to fight against the Midianites?” And they rebuked him severely. ² He answered them, “What have I ever done that could be compared to what you have done? Are not the gleanings of the grapes in Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? ³ God delivered Oreb and Zeeb, the princes of Midian, into your hands. What was I able to do compared with what you did?” Their anger against him calmed down when he said that.

⁴ Gideon and the three hundred men with him came to and crossed over the Jordan, exhausted, but still in pursuit. ⁵ He said to the men of Succoth, “Give some bread to the men who are with me, for they are weary, and I am chasing after Zebah and Zal-munna, the kings of Midian.” ⁶ The princes of Succoth asked, “Do you already have the hands^[d] of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your soldiers?” ⁷ Gideon answered, “For this, when the Lord has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I will tear at your flesh with desert thorns and briars.”

⁸ He went up to Penuel and said the same thing to them. The men of Penuel answered him the same way that the men of Succoth had, ⁹ so he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come back again in peace, I will tear down this tower.”

¹⁰ Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and they had their armies with them, fifteen thousand men. These were all that were left from the armies of the easterners, for some one hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen. ¹¹ Gideon went up by the nomad route to the east of Nobah and Jogbehah and he fell upon the unsuspecting army. ¹² Zebah and Zalmunna fled away, and he chased after the two kings of Midian and captured them. Zebah, Zalmunna and their entire army were routed.

¹³ Gideon, the son of Joash, then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres. ¹⁴ He captured a young man from Succoth and questioned him. He wrote down the names of the seventy-seven princes and elders of Succoth for him. ¹⁵ He came to the men of Succoth and said, “Look at Zebah and Zalmunna, the ones about whom you taunted me when you said, ‘Are Zebah and Zalmunna in your hands now that we should give bread to your weary men?’ ” ¹⁶ He picked out the elders of the city, and he taught the men of Succoth a lesson with desert thorns and briars. ¹⁷ He also smashed down the tower of Penuel and he killed the men of the city.

¹⁸ Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They replied, “Each one of them looked like you, like the son of a king.” ¹⁹ He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. I swear to God, if you had spared them, I would not kill you.”

²⁰ Then he said to Jether,^[e] his firstborn, “Stand up, kill them.” But the young man did not draw his sword because he was afraid; he was still quite young. ²¹ Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Get up yourself and fall upon us! It takes the courage of a man.” So Gideon stood up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the ornaments off the necks of their camels.

²² The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you, and your son, and your grandson, for you have delivered us out of the hands of Midian.” ²³ But Gideon said to them, “Neither I nor my son will rule over you. The Lord will rule over you!”

²⁴ Gideon continued, “I do have one request to make of you. Let each man give me an earring from his share of the plunder.” (They had gold earrings, for they were Ishmaelites.)^{[f] 25} They answered, “We would be glad to give them to you.” They spread out a garment, and each man threw his earrings from the plunder onto it. ²⁶ The weight of the golden earnings he had asked for was one thousand, seven hundred golden shekels, not counting the ornaments, the necklaces, the purple garments that had been worn by the kings of Midian, and the chains that had been on the necks of their camels.

²⁷ Gideon had the gold made into an ephod^[g] which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. All of Israel prostituted itself by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household. ²⁸ This is how Midian was subjected to the Israelites, so that they did not lift up their heads again. During Gideon’s lifetime there was peace in the land, for forty years.

²⁹ Abimelech, Son of Gideon. Jerubbaal went to his home and lived there. ³⁰ Gideon had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives. ³¹ His concubine^[h] who lived in Shechem also had a son who was called Abimelech. ³² Gideon, the son of Joash, lived to a good old age, and he was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³ As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites turned again and prostituted themselves after the Baals. They set up Baal-berith^[i] as their god ³⁴ and the Israelites forgot that the Lord, their God, had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies who surrounded them. ³⁵ They also failed to respect the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) for all of the good things that he had done for Israel.