Judges 7

Revised Geneva Translation

7 Then Jerubbaal (who is Gideon) rose up early, and all the people who were with him, and camped beside the well of Harod, so that the army of the Midianites was on the northern side of them, in the valley, by the hill of Moreh.

² And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too numerous for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel glorifies himself against Me, and says, ‘My hand has saved me!’

³ “Now, therefore, proclaim in the audience of the people, and say, ‘Whoever is afraid or fearful, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousand of the people who were at Mount Gilead returned. So, ten thousand remained.

⁴ And the LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too many people. Bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. And of whomever I say to you, ‘This man shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you. And of whomever I say to you, ‘This man shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.”

⁵ So, he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “As many as lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, separate, likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.”

⁶ And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was three hundred men. But all the remaining people kneeled down upon their knees to drink water.

⁷ Then the LORD said to Gideon, “With these three hundred men who lapped I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand. And let all the other men go, each to his home.”

⁸ So, the people took provisions with them, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained the three hundred men. And the army of Midian was beneath him in a valley.

⁹ And the same night, the LORD said to him, “Arise. Go down against the army. For I have delivered it into your hand.

¹⁰ “But if you fear to go down, you and Purah, your servant, go down to the army.

¹¹ “And you shall hear what they say, and so shall your hands be strong to go down against the army.” Then he and Purah, his servant, went down to an outpost of the soldiers who were in the camp.

¹² And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all those of the East lay in the valley, like grasshoppers in multitude. And their camels were without number, as the sand which is by the seaside in multitude.

¹³ And when Gideon had come, behold, a man told a dream to his neighbor, and said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream. And lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled from above, into the camp of Midian, and came into a tent, and struck it so that it fell. And it overturned it, so that the tent fell down.”

¹⁴ And his friend answered, and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his hand has God delivered Midian and all the army.”

¹⁵ When Gideon heard the dream told, and the interpretation of the same, he worshipped and returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Up! For the LORD has delivered the army of Midian into your hand!”

¹⁶ And he divided the three hundred men into three bands, and gave every man a trumpet in his hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps inside the pitchers.

¹⁷ And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise when I come to the edge of the camp. Just as I do, so do you.

¹⁸ “When I blow with a trumpet, all who are with me also blow with trumpets, on every side of the camp, and say, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon!’”

¹⁹ So, Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outer edge of the camp, in the beginning of the middle watch, and they raised up the watchmen. And they blew with their trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands.

²⁰ And the three companies blew with trumpets and broke the pitchers. And they held the lamps in their left hand and the trumpets in their right hands, to blow them. And they cried, “The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!”

²¹ And they stood, every man in his place, all around the camp. And the whole army ran and cried and fled.

²² And the three hundred blew with trumpets. And the LORD set every man’s sword upon his neighbor, and upon all the camp. So the army fled to Beth Hashittah in Zererah, to the border of Abel Meholah, to Tabbath.

²³ Then the men of Israel being gathered together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, pursued after the Midianites.

²⁴ And Gideon sent messengers to all Mount Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites, and take from them the waters up to Beth Barah and Jordan!” Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and took the waters up to Beth Barah and Jordan.

²⁵ And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb, and killed Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and killed Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued the Midianites, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, beyond Jordan.