Judges 6
The Voice
6 When the people of Israel again did what the Eternal One considered evil, He made them serve the Midianites for seven years. 2 The power of Midian prevailed over Israel so that the Israelites built for themselves hiding places in the mountains, in caves, and in safe strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted seed, the soldiers of Midian, Amalek, and others from the east would rise up against them 4 and destroy their farms and fields as far as Gaza in the west, leaving them nothing to eat and no livestock. 5 They would come up with their tents and their livestock, as thick as a cloud of locusts. They and their camels were so numerous they could not be counted, and they left the land desolate behind them.
6 So the people of Israel were impoverished because of the Midianites, and they cried out to the Eternal One for help. 7 When the people of Israel cried to the Eternal for relief from the Midianites, 8 He sent a prophet to them.
Prophet: Here are the words of the Eternal God of Israel: “I brought you out from slavery in Egypt. 9 I delivered you from the Egyptians, from all who would have oppressed you. I drove the Canaanites out before you and delivered their land into your care. 10 But I said to you, ‘I am the Eternal One, your True God, and you must not worship the gods of the Amorites, those people in whose land you settle.’ And you have not listened to Me.”
This unnamed messenger brings a familiar message, one we find coming from both well-known and unknown prophets in the Scriptures: “I am the Eternal God, and I have done many things for you. You swore to be My people, but you have turned away from Me and turned toward other gods.”
God has brought the patriarch Abraham out of the east and initiated a relationship with him. Later the people of God make a covenant with Him, a sacred contract that both sides are expected to honor. When they are faithful to God and God’s laws, the people of Israel prosper. Whenever the Israelites fall away from true belief and true practice, God withdraws His blessing from them. This messenger is simply reminding them of what they already know—as prophets sometimes must.
11 Now in Ophrah, the Eternal’s messenger sat under an oak tree that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. Gideon, the son of Joash, was beating out wheat in the winepress so that the Midianites could not see what he was doing. 12 The Eternal’s messenger appeared to Gideon.
Times are so bad that even when processing the wheat, one has to be quiet about it so that the Midianites do not notice and seize the food.
Messenger of the Eternal One: The Eternal One is with you, mighty warrior.
Gideon: 13 Sir, if He is with us, then why has all this misfortune come on us? Where are all the miracles that our ancestors told us about? They said, “Didn’t the Eternal deliver us out of Egypt?” But now He has left us. He has made us servants of the Midianites.
14 The Eternal turned to Gideon and addressed him.
Eternal One (speaking through His messenger): Go out with your strength and rescue Israel from the oppression of Midian. Do you understand that I am the one sending you?
Gideon: 15 But, Lord, how am I supposed to deliver Israel? My family is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least of my family.
Eternal One: 16 Go. I will be with you, and you will totally destroy the forces of Midian as one man.
Gideon: 17 If You do look on me with favor, then give me a sign that I’m really hearing from You. 18 Wait here until I return and bring out my offering and place it in front of You.
Eternal One: I will stay here until you return.
19 So Gideon went into his house, cooked a young goat, and made cakes of unleavened bread from half a bushel of flour. He then put the meat into a basket, poured the broth into a pot, and brought the food out to present it to Him under the oak.
Eternal One: 20 Put the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour out the broth.
Gideon did as he was told. 21 Then the Eternal’s messenger touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff he carried. Fire raged out of the rock and consumed the food, and the Eternal’s messenger vanished from sight.
22 Then Gideon realized that he had been speaking to the Eternal’s messenger.
Gideon: Have mercy on me, my Lord, the Eternal, since I have seen Your messenger face-to-face!
Eternal One (speaking after the messenger had departed): 23 Don’t be afraid, Gideon. Be at peace. You will not die.
Gideon expects sure death after conversing and looking on a divine manifestation of the Lord.
24 Afterward Gideon built an altar to the Eternal there and called it “The Eternal One is Peace.” It still stands at Ophrah in the land of the Abiezrites.
25 That night, the Eternal spoke to Gideon.
Eternal One: Take your father’s bull, the second bull, seven years old, and pull down your father’s altar that has been consecrated to Baal. Then cut down the image of Asherah made of wood that is beside the altar. 26 Then build correctly an altar to the Eternal One, your True God, on the top of this stronghold. Build a fire using the wood from the image; then take your father’s bull and offer a burnt offering to Me.
27 So Gideon took 10 of his servants and did as the Eternal had told him; but since he was worried about what his family and the people of the town might think, he did it at night while they all slept. 28 Early the next morning, when the townspeople left their homes and saw the altar of Baal destroyed, the wooden image cut down, and the second bull offered on the new altar, 29 they asked each other, “Who did this?”
After the investigation, it became clear that it was Gideon, the son of Joash, 30 so they went to Joash’s home and called for him.
People: Send out your son Gideon. He has torn down the holy altar of Baal and the Asherah image beside it, and he must die!
31 Joash stood up as the angry crowd lined up against him.
Joash (to the crowd): Will you fight in place of Baal himself? Can you save him? Anyone daring to say such a thing will be put to death by morning! If Baal is indeed a god, then let him stand up for himself, because his is the altar that has been torn down.
32 From that time on, Gideon was also called “Jerubbaal” (“Let Baal fight against him”), because he pulled down Baal’s altar.
33 At that time, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east had come together, crossed the Jordan, and camped in the valley of Jezreel.
34 Then the Spirit of the Eternal touched Gideon; he sounded his trumpet, and the Abiezrites all gathered behind him. 35 Gideon sent messengers to the members of the tribe of Manasseh and called them also to follow him. He also sent messengers to the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they, too, gathered at his call.
36 Then Gideon spoke to the True God.
Gideon: So that I can know if it’s true that You plan to use me to rescue Israel, 37 I am going to lay out a wool fleece on the threshing floor. Tomorrow morning, if it is wet with dew while the floor around it is dry, then I will know You are going to use me to deliver Israel, as You have told me.
38 So the next morning, that was what he found. In fact, Gideon wrung enough water out of the fleece to fill a bowl, while the floor around it remained dry. But Gideon still was not satisfied.
Gideon (to the True God): 39 Please don’t be angry with me, and I will ask this one thing more. Please let me use the fleece again to prove that You are with me. But this time, let me lay out the fleece, and let it remain dry while all the floor around it is wet with dew.
40 God did as he asked that night. The next morning, the fleece was completely dry, while all the floor around it was wet with dew. Gideon knew that God was calling him to deliver Israel.
Judges 7
The Voice
7 So then Jerubbaal (Gideon) and all the troops with him rose early, and they camped beside the spring of Harod. The camp of the Midianites was to their north, in the valley below the hill of Moreh.
Eternal One (to Gideon): 2 You have too many warriors for Me to allow you to defeat the Midianites. As it is now, the people of Israel would just deny Me the credit and claim they had won the victory on their own. 3 So go out and tell your army, “Any of you who are afraid and trembling are free to leave Mount Gilead.”
After this announcement, 22,000 left, so Gideon reduced his army to 10,000.
Eternal One: 4 You still have too many warriors. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you. When I say, “This one will fight for you,” he will go with you; but when I say, “This one will not fight for you,” then he will not go.
5 So Gideon led his army down to the water.
Eternal One: All of those who lap water the way a dog drinks, put them to one side. All of those who go down on their knees to drink, put them on the other side.
6 Three hundred of the men lapped up water by raising a hand to their mouths, and all the rest went down on their knees to drink.
Eternal One: 7 I will use these 300 who lapped from their hands to deliver Israel and to give the Midianites into your hand. Send all the rest home.
8 He kept jars and trumpets from the army and sent them back to their tents, but distributed the jars and trumpets to the 300 who stayed with him. The camp of Midian was in the valley below him.
9 That very night, the Eternal spoke to Gideon.
Eternal One: Get up and attack the camp of the Midianites because I have given you victory over them. 10 But if you should have any fear, take your servant Purah; scout out the camp, 11 and listen to what they are saying, and afterward you will find you are strong enough to attack.
So Gideon and his servant Purah approached the outposts of the army’s encampment. 12 The Midianites and the Amalekites and other people of the east were as thick as locusts in the valley, and their camels were as numberless as the sands of the seashore.
13 When Gideon arrived he overheard a man telling his neighbor about a dream he had.
Man: In my dream, a barley cake rolled into our camp. It came to the tent and hit it so hard the tent fell over. It turned over and collapsed.
Neighbor: 14 That must symbolize the sword of Gideon, son of Joash the Israelite. Their God has given him victory over Midian and all its camp!
15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He went back to the camp of Israel and roused them.
Gideon: Get up! The Eternal has given you victory over the army of Midian! We strike now.
16 He divided the 300 men into three companies, and he gave them all trumpets and empty jars with torches placed inside of them.
Gideon: 17 Watch me. Do what I do. When we come to the outskirts of their camp, do what you see me doing. 18 When I and my company blow the trumpet, I want all of you to blow the trumpets all around the camp and to shout: “For the Eternal and for Gideon!”
19 So Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outskirts of the Midianite camp just after the middle watch had been posted. There they blew their trumpets and smashed the jars they had brought. 20 All three companies of men blew their horns and shattered the jars at about the same time. They held the torches in their left hands, held the trumpets in their right, and together they shouted.
Men: A sword for the Eternal and for Gideon!
21 They encircled the entire camp and woke the Midianite force abruptly, so that the Midianites cried out and fled. 22 When the 300 trumpets sounded, the Eternal set the Midianites fighting against each other with their swords. The Midianites ran away in panic toward Beth-shittah, toward Zererah, to the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath. 23 The men of Israel were summoned out of Naphtali and Asher and from all Manasseh, and they joined in the chase after the Midianite army.
24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim.
Messengers: Come down now and fight against the Midianites, and seize the watering places from them as far as Beth-barah and to the Jordan River.
So the Ephraimites gathered, and they captured the watering places as far away as Beth-barah and the Jordan. 25 They also captured the two leaders of the Midianite army, Oreb and Zeeb; they executed Oreb at the place we know today as Oreb’s Rock, and they executed Zeeb at Zeeb’s Winepress as they chased after the army of Midian. They brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was now beyond the Jordan.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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