² And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to hand Midian over to them, ^(A)otherwise Israel would ^[a]become boastful, saying, ‘My own ^[b]power has saved me.’ ³ Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘^(B)Whoever is afraid and worried, is to return and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand from the people returned, but ten thousand remained.

^4 (C)Then the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. So it shall 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. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “You shall put everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps ^[c]in one group, and everyone who kneels down to drink in another.” ⁶ Now the number of those who lapped, ^[d]putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people kneeled down to drink water. ⁷ And the Lord said to Gideon, “I will save you ^(D)with the three hundred men who lapped, and will hand the Midianites over to you; so have all the other people go, each man to his ^[e]home.” ⁸ So ^[f]the three hundred men took the people’s provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And ^[g]Gideon dismissed all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the three hundred men; and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

¹⁵ 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 the Lord has handed over to you the camp of Midian!” ¹⁶ And he divided the three hundred men into three ^[a]units, 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, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, ^[b]do as I do. ¹⁸ When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets around the entire camp and say, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

Confusion of the Enemy

¹⁹ So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle night watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands. ²⁰ When the three ^[c]units blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” ²¹ And each stood in his place around the camp; and ^(A)all the ^[d]army ran, crying out as they fled. ²² And when they blew the three hundred trumpets, the ^(B)Lord set the sword of one against another even throughout the entire ^[e]army; and the ^[f]army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of ^(C)Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.