Gideon, Israel’s Fifth Judge

6 Later on, the Israelis practiced what the Lord considered to be evil, so the Lord handed them over to the domination of Midian for seven years. ² Midian’s control predominated throughout Israel, and because of Midian the Israelis went out to find temporary hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and fortified places.

³ Whenever the Israelis sowed their crops,^[a] the Midianites, the Amalekites, and certain groups^[b] from the east would come up and invade them. ⁴ They set up their military encampments to fight them, destroyed the harvest of the land as far as Gaza, and left nothing in Israel, whether harvested grain, sheep, oxen, or donkeys. ⁵ They would invade with their livestock and tents, swooping in as numerous as locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels—and they came into the land to destroy it. ⁶ Because Israel was deeply impoverished due to the Midianites, they^[c] cried out to the Lord.

⁷ When the Israelis cried out to him about Midian, ⁸ the Lord sent a man who was a prophet to the Israelis and told them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I was the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, delivering you from the house of servitude. ⁹ I delivered you from the domination of Egypt and from the domination of all of your oppressors, expelling them right in front of you and giving their land to you. ¹⁰ I told you, “I am the Lord your God. You are not to fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you’ll be living.”’ But you haven’t obeyed what I said.”