1
And Jerubba‘al (he [is] Gideon) rises early, and all the people who [are] with him, and they encamp by the well of Harod, and the camp of Midian has been on the south of him, on the height of Moreh, in the valley.
2
And YHWH says to Gideon, “The people who [are] with you [are] too many for My giving Midian into their hand, lest Israel beautify itself against Me, saying, My hand has given salvation to me;
3
and now, please call in the ears of the people, saying, Whoever [is] afraid and trembling, let him turn back and go early from Mount Gilead”; and there return twenty-two thousand of the people, and ten thousand have been left.
4
And YHWH says to Gideon, “The people [are] yet too many; bring them down to the water, and I refine him for you there; and it has been, he of whom I say to you, This goes with you—he goes with you; and any of whom I say to you, This does not go with you—he does not go.”
5
And he brings the people down to the water, and YHWH says to Gideon, “Everyone who laps of the water with his tongue as the dog laps—you set him apart; also everyone who bows on his knees to drink.”
6
And the number of those lapping with their hand to their mouth is three hundred men, and all the rest of the people have bowed down on their knees to drink water.
7
And YHWH says to Gideon, “I save you by the three hundred men who are lapping, and have given Midian into your hand, and all the people go, each to his place.”
8
And the people take the provision in their hand, and their horns, and he has sent every man of Israel away, each to his tents; and he has kept hold on the three hundred men, and the camp of Midian has been by him at the lower part of the valley.
The Sword of Gideon
9
And it comes to pass, on that night, that YHWH says to him, “Rise, go down into the camp, for I have given it into your hand;
10
and if you are afraid to go down—go down, you and your young man Phurah, to the camp,
11
and you have heard what they speak, and afterward your hands are strengthened, and you have gone down against the camp.” And he goes down, he and his young man Phurah, to the extremity of the fifties who [are] in the camp;
12
and Midian, and Amalek, and all the sons of the east are lying in the valley, as the locust for multitude, and of their camels there is no number, as sand which [is] on the seashore for multitude.
13
And Gideon comes in, and behold, a man is recounting a dream to his companion, and says, “Behold, I have dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley-bread is turning itself over into the camp of Midian, and it comes to the tent, and strikes it, and it falls, and turns it upwards, and the tent has fallen.”
14
And his companion answers and says, “This is nothing except the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand.”
Gideon Defeats Midian
15
And it comes to pass, when Gideon hears the narration of the dream and its interpretation, that he bows himself, and turns back to the camp of Israel, and says, “Rise, for YHWH has given the camp of Midian into your hand.”
16
And he divides the three hundred men [into] three detachments, and puts horns into the hand of all of them, and empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.
17
And he says to them, “Look at me, and thus do; and behold, I am coming into the extremity of the camp—and it has been—as I do so you do;
18
and I have blown with a horn—I and all who [are] with me, and you have blown with horns, even you, around all the camp, and have said, For YHWH and for Gideon!”
19
And Gideon comes—and the hundred men who [are] with him—into the extremity of the camp, [at] the beginning of the middle watch (they had just posted watchmen), and they blow with horns—also dashing in pieces the pitchers which [are] in their hand;
20
and the three detachments blow with horns, and break the pitchers, and keep hold with their left hand on the lamps, and with their right hand on the horns to blow, and they cry, “The sword of YHWH and of Gideon!”
21
And they each stand in his place, around the camp, and all the camp runs, and they shout, and flee;
22
and the three hundred blow the horns, and YHWH sets the sword of each against his companion, even through all the camp; and the camp flees to Beth-Shittah, at Zererath, to the border of Abel-Meholah, by Tabbath.
23
And the men of Israel are called from Naphtali, and from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and pursue after Midian.
24
And Gideon has sent messengers into all the hill-country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down to meet Midian, and capture the waters from them as far as Beth-Barah, and the Jordan”; and every man of Ephraim is called, and they capture the waters as far as Beth-Barah, and the Jordan,
25
and they capture two of the heads of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and slay Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they have slain Zeeb at the wine-vat of Zeeb, and they pursue into Midian; and they have brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.
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