Judges 7
Legacy Standard Bible
Gideon’s 300 Men
7 Then (A)Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and camped beside [a]the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was on the north side of [b]them by the hill of (B)Moreh in the valley.
2 And Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, (C)lest Israel honor themselves, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 So now, [c]come, call out in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘(D)Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’” So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained.
4 (E)Then Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. And it will be that he of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And Yahweh said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set him aside by himself, and so also everyone who kneels to drink.” 6 Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water. 7 And Yahweh said to Gideon, “I will save you (F)with the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his place.” 8 So [d]the 300 men took the people’s provisions and their trumpets into their hands. And [e]Gideon sent all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the 300 men; and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
9 Now it happened the same night that Yahweh said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, (G)for I have given it into your hands. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, then both you and Purah your young man, go down to the camp, 11 and you will hear what they say; and (H)afterward your hands will be strengthened, that you may go down against the camp.” So he went with Purah his young man down to the [f]outskirts of the armed men that were in the camp. 12 Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley (I)as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, (J)as numerous as the sand on the seashore. 13 Then Gideon came, and behold, a man was recounting a dream to his friend. And he said, “Behold, I [g]had a dream; [h]a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it [i]upside down so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his friend answered and said, “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp (K)into his hand.”
15 Now it happened that when Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. Then he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for Yahweh has given the camp of Midian into your hands.” 16 And he divided the 300 men into three [j]companies, and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers. 17 Then he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise. And behold, I will come to the outskirts of the camp, and it will be that just as I do so you do likewise. 18 And I and all who are with me will blow the trumpet. Then you also shall blow the trumpets all around the camp and say, ‘For Yahweh and for Gideon.’”
Gideon Kills the Princes of Midian
19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set up the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands. 20 Then the three [k]companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, and they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing and called out, “A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!” 21 And each stood in his place around the camp. Then (L)all of the camp ran, and they made a loud shout and fled. 22 So they blew 300 trumpets. And (M)Yahweh set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole camp. And the camp fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of (N)Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were summoned from (O)Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian.
24 Now Gideon had sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down to meet Midian and (P)capture the waters before them, as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. 25 Then they captured the two princes of Midian, (Q)Oreb and Zeeb, and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon (R)from across the Jordan.
Footnotes
- Judges 7:1 Or En-Harod
- Judges 7:1 Lit him
- Judges 7:3 Or please
- Judges 7:8 Lit they
- Judges 7:8 Lit he
- Judges 7:11 Lit extremity of the battle array
- Judges 7:13 Lit dreamed
- Judges 7:13 Lit and behold, a loaf
- Judges 7:13 Lit upwards
- Judges 7:16 Lit heads
- Judges 7:20 Lit heads
Judges 7
Common English Bible
Battle with Midian
7 Then Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, and all of the people with him rose early and set up camp beside the Harod spring; Midian’s camp was north of theirs, in the valley by the Moreh hill. 2 The Lord said to Gideon: “You have too many people on your side. If I were to hand Midian over to them, the Israelites might claim credit for themselves rather than for me, thinking, We saved ourselves. 3 So now, announce in the people’s hearing, ‘Anyone who is afraid or unsteady may return home from Gideon’s mountain.’”[a] At this, twenty-two thousand people went home, and ten thousand were left.
4 The Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many people. Take them down to the water, and I will weed them out for you there. Whenever I tell you, ‘This one will go with you,’ he should go with you; but whenever I tell you, ‘This one won’t go with you,’ he should not go.” 5 So he took the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Set aside those who lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, from those who bend down on their knees to drink.” 6 The number of men who lapped was three hundred, and all the rest of the people bent down on their knees to drink water, with their hands to their mouths.[b] 7 Then the Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped I will rescue you and hand over the Midianites to you. Let everyone else go home.” 8 So the people gathered their supplies and trumpets,[c] and Gideon sent all the Israelites home, but kept the three hundred.
Now Midian’s camp was below Gideon in the valley. 9 That night the Lord said to him, “Get up and attack the camp, because I’ve handed it over to you. 10 But if you’re afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah, 11 and you’ll hear what they are saying. May you then get the courage to attack the camp.” So he went down with his servant Purah to the outpost of the armies that were in the camp. 12 The Midianites, Amalekites, and other easterners were spread across the valley like a swarm of locusts; their camels were too many to count, like the grains of sand on the seashore.
13 Just when Gideon arrived, there was a man telling his friend about a dream. He said, “Get this! I had a dream that a loaf of barley bread was rolling into the Midianite camp. It came to a tent and hit it, and the tent collapsed. In fact, it rolled the tent over upside down, so it fell flat.”
14 His friend replied, “Can this be anything other than the sword of the Israelite Gideon, Joash’s son? God has handed over Midian and its entire camp to him!”
15 When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its meaning, he worshipped. Then he returned to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up! The Lord has handed over the Midianite camp to you.” 16 He divided the three hundred men into three units and equipped every man with a trumpet and an empty jar, with a torch inside each jar. 17 “Now watch me,” he ordered them, “and do what I do. When I get to the outpost of the camp, do just what I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, along with all who are with me, then you blow the trumpets, all of you surrounding the whole camp. And then shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”
19 Gideon and one hundred of his men moved to the outpost of the camp at the middle watch of the night, when they had just changed the guards. Then they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 So the three units blew their trumpets and broke their jars, holding the torches with their left hands and blowing the trumpets in their right hands. And they called out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 Each man stood fast in his position around the camp, and the entire camp took off running, shouting, and fleeing. 22 When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord turned the swords of fellow soldiers against each other throughout the whole camp. The camp fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, to the border of Abel-meholah, beside Tabbath.
23 The Israelites from Naphtali, Asher, and all of Manasseh were called out, and they chased after the Midianites. 24 Then Gideon sent messengers into all of the Ephraim highlands, saying, “Go down to meet the Midianites and take control of the Jordan’s waters as far as Beth-barah.” So all the Ephraimite men were called out, and they took control of the Jordan’s waters as far as Beth-barah. 25 They also captured two Midianite officers, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at Oreb’s Rock, and killed Zeeb at Zeeb’s Winepress. Then they went on chasing the Midianites, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.
Footnotes
- Judges 7:3 Or Mount Gilead
- Judges 7:6 MT places the words with their hands to their mouths after the word lapped.
- Judges 7:8 Or the ones who lapped took the people’s supplies and trumpets for themselves.
Legacy Standard Bible Copyright ©2021 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org For Permission to Quote Information visit https://www.LSBible.org.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible