Judges 6:11-24

Evangelical Heritage Version

¹¹ The Angel of the Lord^[a] came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. ¹² The Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

¹³ Gideon said to him, “Please tell me this, my lord: If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the wonderful acts our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Is it not the Lord who brought us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us, and he has given us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴ The Lord turned to him and said, “Go forward in this strength that is now yours, and you will deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”

¹⁵ He said to the Angel, “Pardon me, my lord,^[b] but how can I deliver Israel? Look! My clan is the lowliest in Manasseh, and I—I am the least in my father’s house.”

¹⁶ But the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you will strike down Midian as one man.”

¹⁷ Gideon said to him, “If I have now found grace in your eyes, offer me a sign that it is you who are speaking with me. ¹⁸ Please do not leave this spot until I come back to you. I will bring my gift and set it before you.”

He said, “I will sit here until you return.”

¹⁹ So Gideon went and prepared a young goat, and he made unleavened bread from a half bushel^[c] of flour. He put the meat into a basket and the broth into a pot. He then brought them out to the Angel under the oak, where he presented them.

²⁰ The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and set them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” So that is what he did. ²¹ The Angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread, and fire came up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the Angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

²² Gideon realized that this was the Angel of the Lord, and he said, “Oh, no! It is the Lord God! Yes, I have seen the Angel of the Lord face-to-face!”

²³ But the Lord said to him, “Peace be with you. Do not be afraid. You will not die.”

²⁴ So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there, and he named it “The Lord Is Peace.” To this day it stands at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.