Midian Oppresses Israel

6 ^(A)The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of ^(B)Midian seven years. ² And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and ^(C)the caves and the strongholds. ³ For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and ^(D)the Amalekites and ^(E)the people of the East would come up against them. ⁴ They would encamp against them ^(F)and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. ⁵ For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come ^(G)like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. ⁶ And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel ^(H)cried out for help to the Lord.

⁷ When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, ⁸ the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ^(I)I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. ⁹ And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and ^(J)drove them out before you and gave you their land. ¹⁰ And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; ^(K)you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.”

The Call of Gideon

¹¹ Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash ^(L)the Abiezrite, while his son ^(M)Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. ¹² And ^(N)the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, ^(O)“The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: ^(A)The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^{[a] 5} You ^(B)shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And ^(C)these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ^7 (D)You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ^8 (E)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^9 (F)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.