⁸ But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”^(A)

¹⁸ Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I know that this will happen? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.”^(A)

¹¹ “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”^(A)

⁸ Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?”

The Sign of the Fleece

³⁶ Then Gideon said to God, “In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, ³⁷ I am going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.”^{(A) 38} And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. ³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, but let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.”^{(B) 40} And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

³⁴ Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”^[a]

⁹ If they say to us, ‘Wait until we come to you,’ then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. ¹⁰ But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand. That will be the sign for us.”^(A)

¹⁷ Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.^{(A) 18} Do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.”

¹⁹ So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot and brought them to him under the oak and presented them.^{(B) 20} The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock and pour out the broth.” And he did so.^{(C) 21} Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes, and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes, and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.^{(D) 22} Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the Lord, and Gideon said, “Help me, Lord God! For I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.”^{(E) 23} But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear; you shall not die.” ²⁴ Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, “The Lord is peace.” To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.

¹³ I am standing here by the spring of water, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water.^{(A) 14} Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please offer your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.”^(B)