Judges 5:16-6:27

New King James Version

¹⁶Why did you sit among the sheepfolds,
To hear the pipings for the flocks?
The divisions of Reuben have great searchings of heart.
¹⁷^(A)Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan,
And why did Dan remain ^[a]on ships?
^(B)Asher continued at the seashore,
And stayed by his inlets.
¹⁸^(C)Zebulun is a people who jeopardized their lives to the point of death,
Naphtali also, on the heights of the battlefield.

¹⁹“The kings came and fought,
Then the kings of Canaan fought
In ^(D)Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;
They took no spoils of silver.
²⁰They fought from the heavens;
The stars from their courses fought against Sisera.
²¹^(E)The torrent of Kishon swept them away,
That ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon.
O my soul, march on in strength!
²²Then the horses’ hooves pounded,
The galloping, galloping of his steeds.
²³‘Curse Meroz,’ said the ^[b]angel of the Lord,
‘Curse its inhabitants bitterly,
Because they did not come to the help of the Lord,
To the help of the Lord against the mighty.’

²⁴“Most blessed among women is Jael,
The wife of Heber the Kenite;
^(F)Blessed is she among women in tents.
²⁵He asked for water, she gave milk;
She brought out cream in a lordly bowl.
²⁶She stretched her hand to the tent peg,
Her right hand to the workmen’s hammer;
She pounded Sisera, she pierced his head,
She split and struck through his temple.
²⁷At her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still;
At her feet he sank, he fell;
Where he sank, there he fell ^(G)dead.

²⁸“The mother of Sisera looked through the window,
And cried out through the lattice,
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why tarries the clatter of his chariots?’
²⁹Her wisest ^[c]ladies answered her,
Yes, she ^[d]answered herself,
³⁰‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil:
To every man a girl or two;
For Sisera, plunder of dyed garments,
Plunder of garments embroidered and dyed,
Two pieces of dyed embroidery for the neck of the looter?’

³¹“Thus let all Your enemies ^(H)perish, O Lord!
But let those who love Him be ^(I)like the ^(J)sun
When it comes out in full ^(K)strength.”

So the land had rest for forty years.

Midianites Oppress Israel

6 Then the children of Israel did ^(L)evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of ^(M)Midian for seven years, ²and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, ^(N)the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. ³So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the ^(O)people of the East would come up against them. ⁴Then they would encamp against them and ^(P)destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor ^(Q)donkey. ⁵For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were ^[e]without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. ⁶So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel ^(R)cried out to the Lord.

⁷And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, ⁸that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the ^(S)house of ^[f]bondage; ⁹and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and ^(T)drove them out before you and gave you their land. ¹⁰Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; ^(U)do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My ^(V)voice.’ ”

Gideon

¹¹Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash ^(W)the Abiezrite, while his son ^(X)Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. ¹²And the ^(Y)Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is ^(Z)with you, you mighty man of valor!”

¹³Gideon said to Him, “O ^[g]my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And ^(AA)where are all His miracles ^(AB)which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has ^(AC)forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”

¹⁴Then the Lord turned to him and said, ^(AD)“Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. ^(AE)Have I not sent you?”

¹⁵So he said to Him, “O ^[h]my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed ^(AF)my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

¹⁶And the Lord said to him, ^(AG)“Surely I will be with you, and you shall ^[i]defeat the Midianites as one man.”

¹⁷Then he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then ^(AH)show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. ¹⁸^(AI)Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.”

And He said, “I will wait until you come back.”

¹⁹^(AJ)So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. ²⁰The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and ^(AK)lay them on this rock, and ^(AL)pour out the broth.” And he did so.

²¹Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and ^(AM)fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.

²²Now Gideon ^(AN)perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! ^(AO)For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.”

²³Then the Lord said to him, ^(AP)“Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” ²⁴So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it ^[j]The-Lord-Is-Peace. To this day it is still ^(AQ)in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

²⁵Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and ^(AR)tear down the altar of ^(AS)Baal that your father has, and ^(AT)cut down the ^[k]wooden image that is beside it; ²⁶and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this ^[l]rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” ²⁷So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.