Gideon Sneaks Down to the Midianite Encampment

⁹ Later that same night, the Lord directed Gideon,^[a] “Get up and go down to the Midianite^[b] encampment, because I’ve given it into your control. ¹⁰ But if you’re afraid to go down there, you may take your servant Purah with you to their encampment, ¹¹ where you will hear what they’re talking about. That way, you’ll be encouraged to attack the encampment.” So he and his servant Purah went down to the perimeter outposts of the encamped army.

¹² The Midianites, the Amalekites, and certain groups^[c] from the east lay encamped in the valley, as thick as locusts. The number of their camels couldn’t be calculated—they seemed as numerous as the sand on the seashore. ¹³ Gideon arrived just as a soldier was talking to a friend about a dream. “Look!” he was saying. “I had a dream that went like this: A loaf of barley bread rolled into the Midianite encampment, came to a tent, and collided with it. The loaf of bread fell down, turned upside down, and the tent collapsed!”

¹⁴ Then his friend replied, “Can this be anything else than the sword of Joash’s son Gideon, that man from Israel? God must have given Midian and the entire encampment into his control!”