Judges 7

1Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, and all the people with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod. The camp of Midian lay north of them, by the hill of Moreh in the valley.

2Yahweh said to Gideon, "The people with you are too many for me to give Midian into their hands, lest Israel boast against me, saying, 'My hand has saved me.'"

3Now please announce to the people in their hearing, saying, “Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him turn back and leave Mount Gilead early.” Twenty-two thousand turned back from the people, but ten thousand were left.

4Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the waters, and I will test them for you there. It will be that whoever I say to you, ‘This one will go with you,’ he will go with you; and everyone I say to you, ‘This one will not go with you,’ he will not go.”

5He brought the people down to the water, and Yahweh said to Gideon, "Whoever laps from the water with his tongue as the dog laps, set him apart by himself; likewise whoever kneels on his knees to drink."

6The number of those who lapped with their hand to their mouth was three hundred men, but all the rest of the people knelt on their knees to drink water.

7Yahweh said to Gideon, "By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you and give Midian into your hand; let all the people go, every man to his place."

8The people took provisions in their hands and their trumpets, and he sent every man of Israel to his tent, but kept the three hundred men, while Midian's camp lay beneath him in the valley.

9That night Yahweh said to him, "Arise, go down to the camp, for I have given it into your hand."

10But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp—you and Purah your servant.

11You will hear what they are saying, and afterward your hands will be strengthened to go down into the camp. Then he went down with Purah his servant to the edge of the armed men who were in the camp.

12Midianites and Amalekites, along with all the sons of the east, lay spread across the valley like locusts in vast number, and their camels were beyond counting, like the sand on the seashore in vast number.

13Gideon arrived, and there a man was telling his companion a dream; he said, "Look, I dreamed a dream, and look, a barley bread cake came rolling into the Midian camp until it reached the tent, struck it so it fell, overturned it upward, and the tent collapsed."

14His fellow answered and said, "Nothing else than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has delivered Midian and all the camp into his hand."

15When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped, returned to Israel's camp, and said, "Arise, for Yahweh has delivered Midian's camp into your hands."

16He divided the three hundred men into three companies and put trumpets in all their hands, with empty pitchers and torches inside the pitchers.

17He said to them, "Watch me and do thus. Behold, I come to the edge of the camp, and it will be that as I do, so you do."

18When I sound the trumpet—I and everyone with me—then you too sound the trumpets all around the camp and shout, "For Yahweh and for Gideon."

19Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the camp's edge at the start of the middle watch, just after they had posted the guards; they sounded the trumpets and shattered the jars in their hands.

20The three companies blew trumpets, broke the pitchers, held torches in their left hands and trumpets in their right hands to sound them, and cried out, "Sword of Yahweh and of Gideon!"

21While each man stood in his place around the camp, the whole camp ran, crying out and fleeing.

22The three hundred sounded the trumpets, and Yahweh directed each man's sword against his companion throughout the entire army, so the army fled to Beth-shittah toward Zererah, to the border of Abel-meholah, as far as Tabbath.

23The men of Israel were called together from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and pursued after Midian.

24Gideon sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim, saying, “Come down to meet Midian and seize the waters from them as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.” All the men of Ephraim cried out and seized the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.

25They captured two Midian captains, Oreb and Zeeb, killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb, pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.