Old/New Testament
7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him, rose up early and camped beside En-harod, while the camp of Midian was north of them, by Gibeath-moreh, in the valley.
2 But Adonai said to Gideon, “Too many are the people who are with you, for Me to give the Midianites into their hand. Otherwise Israel would glorify itself against Me saying, ‘My own hand has delivered me.’ [a] 3 So now, make proclamation in the ears of the people saying, ‘Whoever is afraid or anxious may turn back and leave from Mount Gilead.’” So 22,000 people turned back, while ten thousand remained.
4 But Adonai said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Now it will be that he of whom I say to you, ‘This will go with you,’ he will go with you, but anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one will not go with you,’ he will not go.” 5 So he brought the troops down to the water, and Adonai said to Gideon, “You are to set apart everyone who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, and everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.” 6 Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water. 7 Then Adonai said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will deliver you and give the Midianites into your hand. So let all the other people go, every man to his place.” 8 So the 300 took provisions and their shofarot in their hands. He sent all the other men of Israel each to his tent, but he kept the 300 men.
Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. 9 It came to pass the same night that Adonai said to him, “Arise, get down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, first go down to the camp with your attendant Purah. 11 Then you will hear what they are saying, and after that your hands will be strengthened to attack the camp.” So he went down with his attendant Purah to an outpost of the army that was in camp.
12 Now the Midianites, the Amalekites and all the people of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were countless, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. 13 Yet when Gideon came, behold, there was a man relating a dream to his fellow, saying, “Listen, I just now had a dream: there was a loaf of barley bread that came tumbling into the camp of Midian, came up to a tent and struck it so it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.”
14 His companion answered and said, “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel—God has delivered Midian and all the camp into his hand!”
15 Now 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 Adonai has given into your hand the camp of Midian.” 16 Then he divided the 300 men into three columns, and he put into the hands of all of them shofarot and empty pitchers, with torches inside the pitchers. 17 Then he said to them, “Watch me and do likewise. So behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do just as I do. 18 When I and all that are with me blow the shofar, then you also blow the shofarot all around the camp, and say, ‘For Adonai and for Gideon!’”
19 So Gideon and the 300 men who were with him came up to the outermost part of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch. Then they blew the shofarot and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands. 20 When the three columns blew the shofarot and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the shofarot in their right hands to blow, and they shouted, “A sword for Adonai and for Gideon!” 21 Each one stood in his place around the camp, and then the entire army ran, shouting as they fled. 22 Now when they blew the 300 shofarot, Adonai set every man’s sword against his fellow throughout the entire army. So the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
23 Then men of Israel were summoned from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim saying, “Come down against Midian and seize the waters down to Beth-barah, all along the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were summoned and took control of the waterside as far as Beth-barah by the Jordan. 25 Then they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; they slew Oreb at the Rock of Oreb and they slew Zeeb at the Winepress of Zeeb. They kept pursuing Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from across the Jordan.
Gideon’s Victories, Ephod and Death
8 Now the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this thing you have done to us, not calling us when you went to fight against Midian?” So they criticized him sharply.
2 But he said to them, “What have I now done compared to you? Is not the gleaning of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hand the princes of Midian—Oreb and Zeeb—so what was I able to do compared to you?” Their anger with him subsided after he said this.
4 Then Gideon reached the Jordan and crossed over. He and the 300 men with him were exhausted, yet still pursuing. 5 He said to the men of Succoth, “Please, give loaves of bread to the people on foot with me, for they are exhausted, and I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”
6 But the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand? So why we should give bread to your army?”
7 Gideon replied, “Therefore when Adonai delivers Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will thresh your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and briers.” 8 From there he went up to Penuel and spoke to them similarly, but the men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 So he spoke also to the men of Penuel saying, “When I come back safely, I will tear down this tower.”
10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and with them their armies of about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the east—the fallen were 120,000 swordsmen. 11 Now Gideon went up by the road of the tent dwellers on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and ambushed the camp when it was off guard. 12 When Zebah and Zalmunna fled, he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and routed the whole army.
13 Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle by the Ascent of Heres. 14 He captured a boy from the people of Succoth and questioned him, so he wrote down for him the officials of Succoth and its elders—77 men. 15 When he came to the men of Succoth, he said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna—about whom you mocked me saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’” 16 Then he seized the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he punished the men of Succoth. 17 He also tore down the tower of Penuel and slew the men of the city.
18 Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?”
“As you are, so they were,” they answered. “Each one looked like the children of a king.”
19 “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother,” he said. “As Adonai lives, if only you had let them live, I would not kill you.” 20 Then he said to Jeter his first-born, “Arise, kill them!” But the boy could not draw his sword, for he was afraid, since he was still a youth.
21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise up yourself and fall on us—for as the man is, so is his strength.” So Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescent ornaments that were on their camels’ necks.
22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son, and your grandson as well. For you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.”
23 But Gideon replied to them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. Adonai alone will rule over you.” [b] 24 Yet Gideon said to them, “I would make a request of you, that you would give me every man an earring from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)
25 “We’ll certainly give them!” they replied. So they spread out a robe, and each one of them threw an earring from his spoil. 26 So the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold—besides the crescent ornaments, the pendants and the purple robes that were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were on their camels’ necks. 27 Gideon made it into an ephod, and put it in his town Ophrah. But all Israel prostituted themselves after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.
28 So Midian was subdued before Bnei-Yisrael, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had tranquility for 40 years in the days of Gideon. 29 Jerubbaal son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had 70 sons of his own issue, for he had many wives. 31 Also his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son—he called his name Abimelech.
32 Then Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 But it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that Bnei-Yisrael again prostituted themselves after the Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god. 34 So Bnei-Yisrael did not remember Adonai their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side. 35 Nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal, namely Gideon, in accord with all the goodness which he had done for Israel.
Calling Fishermen at the Kinneret
5 It happened that the crowds were pressing upon Yeshua to hear the word of God as He was standing by the Lake of Kinneret, 2 when He saw two boats standing beside the lake. Now the fishermen had left them and were washing the nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, Simon’s boat, Yeshua asked him to push out a ways from the land. Then sitting down, He taught the crowds from the boat.
4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Go out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 Simon replied, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and caught nothing. But at Your word I will let down the nets.” 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Yeshua’s knees, saying, “Go away from me, Master, for I am a sinful man!” 9 For amazement had gripped him and all who were with him, over the catch of fish they had netted; 10 so also Jacob and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were partners with Simon.
But Yeshua said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching men.” 11 So when they had brought the boats to the landing, they left everything and followed Him.
Yeshua Heals and News Spreads
12 Now while Yeshua was in one of the towns, a man covered with tzara’at appeared. And when he saw Yeshua, he fell on his face and begged Him, saying, “Master, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
13 Yeshua stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be cleansed!” Immediately, the tzara’at left him. 14 Yeshua ordered him to tell no one, but commanded him, “Go and show yourself to the kohen.[a] Then bring an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
15 But the news about Yeshua was spreading all the more, and many crowds were coming together to hear and to be healed of their diseases. 16 Yet He would often slip away into the wilderness and pray.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.