Judges 7
1599 Geneva Bible
7 The Lord commandeth Gideon to send away a great part of his company. 22 The Midianites are discomfitted by a wondrous sort. 25 Oreb and Zeeb are slain.
1 Then (A)Jerubbaal (who is Gideon) rose up early, and all the people that were with him, and pitched beside [a]the well of Harod, so that the host of the Midianites was on the North side of them, in the valley by the hill of [b]Moreh.
2 And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee, are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel make their vaunt [c]against me, and say, Mine hand hath saved me.
3 Now therefore proclaim in the audience of the people, and say, (B)Who so is timorous or fearful, let him return, and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people which were at mount Gilead, two and twenty thousand: so ten thousand remained.
4 And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many: bring them down unto the water, and I will [d]try them for thee there: and of whom I say unto thee, This man shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee: and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This man shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.
5 So he brought down the people unto the water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, As many as lap the water with their tongues, as a dog lappeth, them put by themselves, and everyone that shall bow down his knees to drink, [e]put apart.
6 And the number of them that lapped by putting their hands to their mouths, were three hundred men: but all the remnant of the people kneeled down upon their knees to drink water.
7 ¶ Then the Lord said unto Gideon, By these three hundred men that lapped, will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other [f]people go every man unto his place.
8 ¶ So the people took victuals [g]with them, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man unto his tent, and [h]retained the three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in a valley.
9 ¶ And the same night the Lord said unto him, Arise, [i]get thee down unto the host: for I have delivered it into thine hand.
10 But if thou fear to go down, then go thou, and Purah thy servant down to the host,
11 And thou shalt hearken what they say, and so shall thine hands be strong to go down unto the host. Then went he down and Purah his servant unto the outside of the soldiers that were in the host.
12 ¶ And the Midianites, and the Amalekites and all (C)they of the East, lay in the valley like grasshoppers in multitude, and their camels were without number, as the sand which is by the seaside for multitude.
13 And when Gideon was come, behold, a man told a dream unto his neighbor, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream and lo, a [j]cake of barley bread tumbled from above into the host of Midian, and came into a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent fell down.
14 And his fellow answered, and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian and all the host.
15 ¶ When Gideon heard the dream told, and the interpretation of the same, he [k]worshipped, and returned unto the host of Israel, and said, Up: for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.
16 And he divided the three hundred men into three bands, and gave every man a trumpet in his hand with empty pitchers, and [l]lamps [m]within the pitchers.
17 And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise, when I come to the side of the host: even as I do, so do you.
18 When I blow with a trumpet and all that are with me, blow ye with trumpets also on every side of the host, and say, [n]For the Lord, and for Gideon.
19 ¶ So Gideon and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the host, in the beginning of the middle watch, and they raised up the watchmen, and they blew with their trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.
20 And the three companies blew with trumpets and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The [o]sword of the Lord and of Gideon.
21 And they stood, every man in his place round about the host: and all the host [p]ran, and cried, and fled.
22 And the three hundred blew with trumpets, and (D)the Lord set every man’s sword upon his [q]neighbor, and upon all the host: so the host fled to Beth Hashittah in Zererah, and to the border of Abel Meholah, unto Tabbath.
23 Then the men of Israel being gathered together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, pursued after the Midianites.
24 And Gideon sent messengers unto all mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the [r]waters unto Beth Barah and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and took the waters unto Beth Barah, and Jordan.
25 And they took two (E)princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb, and slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and slew Zeeb at [s]the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued the Midianites, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond Jordan.
Footnotes
- Judges 7:1 Hebrew, En-harod.
- Judges 7:1 Hebrew, Hammoreh.
- Judges 7:2 God will not that any creature deprive him of his glory.
- Judges 7:4 I will give thee a proof to know them that shall go with thee.
- Judges 7:5 Let them depart as unmeet for this enterprise.
- Judges 7:7 That is, the one and thirty thousand, and 700. See verses 3 and 6.
- Judges 7:8 Hebrew, in their hands.
- Judges 7:8 Or, encouraged.
- Judges 7:9 Thus the Lord by divers means doth strengthen him, that he faint not in so great an enterprise.
- Judges 7:13 Some read, a trembling noise of barley bread: meaning, that one of no reputation should make their great army to tremble.
- Judges 7:15 Or, gave God thanks, as it is in the Chaldea text.
- Judges 7:16 Or, firebrands.
- Judges 7:16 These weak means God used to signify that the whole victory came of him.
- Judges 7:18 That is, the victory shall be the Lord’s and Gideon’s his servant.
- Judges 7:20 Shall destroy the enemies.
- Judges 7:21 Or, broke their array.
- Judges 7:22 The Lord caused the Midianites to kill one another.
- Judges 7:24 Meaning, the passages or the fords, that they should not escape.
- Judges 7:25 These places had their names of the acts that were done there.
Judges 7
Evangelical Heritage Version
7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him set out and camped by the Spring of Harod. The Midianite camp was north of him, in the valley below the Hill of Moreh.
2 The Lord said to Gideon, “There are too many people with you for me to give Midian into your hands. If I did that, Israel would glorify itself at my expense and say, ‘My own hand has delivered me.’ 3 So then, make an announcement for the people to hear: ‘Whoever is trembling with fear can return home and fly away from Mount Gilead.’”[a] Twenty-two thousand people turned and left. Only ten thousand remained.
4 The Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many people. Lead them down to the water, and there I will refine them further for you. If I tell you, ‘This one will go with you,’ he may go with you, but if I say to you, ‘This one will not go with you,’ he must not go.”
5 So Gideon led the people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, “Place everyone who laps water with his tongue, as a dog would lap, to one side. Place everyone who kneels down to drink on the other side.” 6 The number of those who lapped—those who put their hands to their mouths[b]—was three hundred men, while all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water.
7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped, I will deliver you, and I will give Midian into your hand. As for all the other people, let each man go back to his place.”
8 The men who had been chosen took provisions in hand, along with their ram’s horns, but Gideon sent every other Israelite man back to his own tent. He kept only the three hundred men. The camp of Midian lay below him in the valley.
9 That night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up and go down against the Midianite camp, for I have given them into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down to attack them, then go down to the camp with your young attendant Purah. 11 Listen to what they say. After that your hands will be strengthened to go down to attack the camp.”
So Gideon and his young attendant Purah went down to the sentry posts at the edge of the camp.
12 Meanwhile, the Midianites and Amalekites and the whole army of the eastern peoples were spread out in the valley, thick as locusts, and their camels were more than could be counted, as many as the grains of sand on the seashore.
13 When Gideon went down, he arrived just as a man was telling his fellow soldier about a dream. He said, “Listen! I had a dream. I dreamed that a round loaf of barley bread came tumbling over and over into the Midianite camp. It crashed into a tent and struck it so that the tent fell down. It overturned the tent, and the tent collapsed!”
14 His companion responded, “What can that be but the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the man of Israel. God has given Midian and the whole camp into his hand.”
15 So when Gideon heard the retelling of the dream and its meaning, he bowed down in worship and returned to the camp of Israel. He said, “Get up, because the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hand.” 16 He divided the three hundred men into three groups. He placed a ram’s horn into the hand of each one of them, as well as empty jars with torches inside them. 17 Then he said to them, “Watch me and do whatever I do. When you see me arrive at the edge of the camp, do whatever I do. 18 When I and all the men who are with me blow our ram’s horns, the rest of you, who are around the whole camp, also blow your ram’s horns and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”
19 Gideon and the one hundred men with him went to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the Midianites had posted the guards. Gideon and his men blew their ram’s horns and shattered the jars that were in their hands. 20 All three groups blew their ram’s horns and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hands, and in their right hands they held the ram’s horns that they were to blow. They shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 Each man stood at his station around the camp. The whole Midianite camp started running, raised the alarm, and fled.[c]
22 When the Israelites blew the three hundred ram’s horns,[d] the Lord turned the sword of each Midianite against the person next to him throughout the whole camp.
The Midianite army fled up to Beth Shittah, toward Zererah, up to the border of Abel Meholah, as far as Tabbath.
23 Then all the men of Israel were summoned, from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the entire hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Go down to confront Midian. Seize the waters[e] before them, all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan.” So all the Ephraimites who were called out seized the waters as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan. 25 They also captured Oreb and Ze’eb,[f] the two generals of Midian. They killed Oreb at the Rock of Oreb and Ze’eb at the Winepress of Ze’eb. Then they pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Ze’eb to Gideon by the crossing of the Jordan.
Footnotes
- Judges 7:3 The reference to Mount Gilead is puzzling since the name Gilead usually refers to locations east of the Jordan, but Gideon was camped at Mount Gilboa west of the Jordan. Perhaps Gilead or a similar word was another name for the location of the spring.
- Judges 7:6 The Greek Old Testament does not have the words those who put their hands to their mouths.
- Judges 7:21 Or, following a variant of the Hebrew, Gideon’s men shouted a war cry and put them to flight.
- Judges 7:22 The name of the instrument is ram’s horn. The apostrophe does not move no matter how many horns or rams there may be.
- Judges 7:24 Or fords or water holes
- Judges 7:25 The stop mark ′ is inserted into some names as a pronunciation guide. Zeeb should not be read as one syllable, Zeeb, but as two syllables, Ze-eb.
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