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7
Gideon and his men defeated the army from Midian
1 The next morning, Gideon and his men got up early and went as far as Harod spring. The army of Midian was camped north of them, in the valley near Moreh Hill. 2 Yahweh said to Gideon, “You have too many soldiers with you. If I allow all of you to fight the army of Midian, if your army defeats them, they will boast to me that they defeated their enemies by themselves, without my help. 3 So tell the men, ‘Whoever among you is timid or afraid may leave us and go home.’ ” So after Gideon told that to them, 22,000 of them went home. Only 10,000 men were left there.
4 But Yahweh told Gideon, “There are still too many men! Take them down to the spring, and there I will choose from among them, which ones will go with you and which ones will not go.”.
5 When Gideon took the men down to the spring, Yahweh told him, “When they drink, put into one group the ones who scoop the water into their hands and lap it up like dogs do. Put into another group the ones who kneel down and bend over and drink with their mouths in the water.” 6 So when they drank, only 300 men drank from their hands. All the others drank with their mouths down in the water.
7 Then Yahweh told Gideon, “The 300 men who lapped the water from their hands will be your army! I will enable them to defeat the Midian army. Let all the others go home!” 8 So Gideon's 300 men collected the food and rams' horns from all the other men, and then he sent them home.
The men of Midian were camping in the valley below Gideon. 9 During that night, Yahweh said to Gideon, “Get up and go down to their camp, and you will hear something that will convince you that I will enable your men to defeat them. 10 But if you are afraid to go by yourself, take your servant Purah with you. 11 Go down and listen to what some of the Midian soldiers are saying. Then you will be very encouraged, and you will be ready to attack their camp.” So Gideon took Purah with him, and they went down to the edge of the enemy camp. 12 The armies of the people of Midian and Amalek and from the east had set up their tents and looked like a swarm of locusts. It seemed that their camels were as impossible to count as the grains of sand on the seashore.
13 Gideon crept closer and heard one man telling a friend about a dream. He said, “I just had a dream, and in the dream I saw a round loaf of barley bread tumble down into our Midian camp. It struck a tent so hard that the tent turned upside down and collapsed!”
14 His friend said, “Your dream can mean only one thing. It means that God will enable Gideon, the man of Israel, to defeat all of the armies that are here with us men from Midian.”
15 When Gideon heard the man tell about his dream and the meaning of that dream, he thanked God. Then he and Purah returned to the Israeli camp, and he shouted to the men, “Get up! Because God is enabling you to defeat the men from Midian!” 16 He divided his men into three groups. He gave each man a ram's horn and an empty clay jar. He also gave each of them a torch that they lit.
17 Then he said to them, “Watch me. When we come close to the enemy camp, spread out to surround the camp. Then do exactly what I do. 18 As soon as my men blow their ram's horns, you men in the other two groups surrounding the camp blow your horns and shout, ‘ We are doing this for Yahweh and for Gideon!’ ”
19 A while before midnight, just after a new group of guards took the places of the previous group, Gideon and the hundred men with him arrived at the edge of the Midian camp. Suddenly he and his men blew their horns, and broke their jars. 20 Then the men in all three groups blew their horns and smashed their jars. They held the torches high with their left hands, and held up the horns with their right hands and alternatively blew them and shouted, “ We have swords to fight for Yahweh and for Gideon!” 21 Each of Gideon's men stood in his position around the enemy camp. As they watched, all the Midian men started running around and shouting in a panic.
22 While the 300 men Israeli men kept blowing their horns, Yahweh caused their enemies to start fighting each other with their swords/daggers. Some of them killed each other. The rest fled. Some fled south to Beth-Shittah. Some fled to Zerarah village, near Tabbath. 23 Then Gideon sent messages to the soldiers in the areas where the descendants of Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh lived, to tell them to come and pursue the army of Midian. 24 He also sent messengers throughout the hilly area where the descendants of Ephraim lived, saying, “Come down to attack the army of Midian. Come down to the Jordan River, to the place where people can wade across, to prevent enemy troops from crossing it! Station men as far south as Beth-Barah.”
So the men of Ephraim did what Gideon told them to do. 25 They also captured Oreb and Zeeb, the two generals of the Midian army. They killed Oreb at the big rock which is now called the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the place where they crush grapes that is now called the winepress of Zeeb. Afterwards, the Israelis cut off the heads of Oreb and Zeeb and brought them to Gideon, while he was near the Jordan River.

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Note: The Old Testament in this translation is still being worked on, and is in draft form. Updates will be posted at eBible.org/t4t/.

© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.