1Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) rose early, he and all the people who were with him, and they camped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was to the north of him, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
2And Yahweh said to Gideon, ‘The people who are with you are too many for me to give Midian into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, “My own hand has saved me.”’
3Now therefore, call out in the ears of the people, saying, “Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him turn back and depart from Mount Gilead.”’ So twenty-two thousand of the people turned back, and ten thousand remained.
4And Yahweh said to Gideon, ‘The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will refine them for you there. And it shall be that of whom I say to you, “This one shall go with you,” he shall go with you; and everyone of whom I say to you, “This one shall not go with you,” he shall not go.’
5So he took the people down to the water, and Yahweh said to Gideon, ‘Everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, set him apart by himself; likewise everyone who kneels down on his knees to drink.’
6And the number of those who lapped, bringing their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people knelt down on their knees to drink water.
7And Yahweh said to Gideon, ‘With the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and I will give Midian into your hand; and let all the rest of the people go, each to his place.’
8So they took the people’s provisions in their hand, and their trumpets, and he sent away all the men of Israel, each to his tents, but he kept the three hundred men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
9And it happened that same night that Yahweh said to him, ‘Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand.
10But if you are afraid to go down, go down, you and Purah your servant, to the camp,
11and you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands will be strengthened, and you will go down against the camp.’ So he went down, he and Purah his servant, to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp.
12Now Midian and Amalek and all the people of the east lay spread out in the valley like locusts in multitude, and their camels were without number, like the sand on the seashore in multitude.
13When Gideon arrived, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, ‘Behold, I dreamed a dream, and there was a round loaf of barley bread tumbling into the camp of Midian; it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and it turned it upside down, and the tent lay flat.’
14And his companion answered and said, ‘This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand.’
15And when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. Then he returned to the camp of Israel and said, ‘Arise, for Yahweh has given the camp of Midian into your hand.’
16Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put trumpets into the hand of all of them, and empty jars with torches inside the jars.
17And he said to them, ‘Watch me, and do likewise. Behold, when I come to the edge of the camp, then just as I do, so you shall do.
18When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets all around the whole camp, and shout, “For Yahweh and for Gideon!”’
19So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the guards; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands.
20And the 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 them, and they called out, ‘A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!’
21And every man stood in his place around the camp, and the whole camp ran; they cried out and fled.
22When they blew the three hundred trumpets, Yahweh set every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the camp fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
23And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian.
24And Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, ‘Come down to meet Midian, and seize the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan.’ So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they seized the waters as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan.
25And they captured the two commanders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. And they pursued Midian, and they brought the head of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan.
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