7:1 Then Jerubbaal (who [is] Gideon) and all the people that
[were] with him, rose early, and encamped beside the well of
Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north
side of them by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
7:2 And the LORD said to Gideon, The people that [are] with thee
[are] too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands,
lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand
hath saved me.
7:3 Now therefore, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying,
Whoever [is] fearful and afraid, let him return and depart
early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people
twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.
7:4 And the LORD said to Gideon, The people [are] yet [too]
many; bring them down to the water, and I will try them for
thee there; and it shall be, [that] of whom I say to thee, This
shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of
whomsoever I say to thee, This shall not go with thee, the same
shall not go.
7:5 So he brought down the people to the water: and the LORD
said to Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his
tongue as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself;
likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.
7:6 And the number of them that lapped, [putting] their hand to
their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the
people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.
7:7 And the LORD said to Gideon, By the three hundred men that
lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thy
hand: and let all the [other] people go every man to his place.
7:8 So the people took victuals in their hand, and their
trumpets: and he sent of all [the rest of] Israel every man to
his tent, and retained those three hundred men. And the host of
Midian was beneath him in the valley.
7:9 And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said to
him, Arise, go down to the host; for I have delivered it into
thy hand.
7:10 But if thou fearest to go down, go thou with Phurah thy
servant down to the host:
7:11 And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thy
hands be strengthened to go down to the host. Then went he down
with Phurah his servant to the outside of the armed men that
[were] in the host.
7:12 And the Midianites, and the Amalekites, and all the
children of the east, lay along in the valley like grasshoppers
for multitude; and their camels [were] without number, as the
sand by the sea side for multitude.
7:13 And when Gideon had come, behold, [there was] a man that
told a dream to his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a
dream, and lo, a cake of barley-bread rolled into the host of
Midian, and came to a tent, and smote it that it fell, and
overturned it that the tent lay along.
7:14 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.
7:15 And it was [so], when Gideon heard the telling of the
dream, and its interpretation, that he worshiped, and returned
to the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath
delivered into your hand the host of Midian.
7:16 And he divided the three hundred men [into] three
companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty
pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.
7:17 And he said to them, Look on me, and do likewise: and
behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be
[that] as I do, so shall ye do.
7:18 When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that [are] with me,
then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp,
and say, [The sword] of the LORD, and of Gideon.
7:19 So Gideon, and the hundred men that [were] with him, came
to the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle
watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the
trumpets, and broke the pitchers that [were] in their hands.
7:20 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and broke the
pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the
trumpets in their right hands to blow [with]: and they cried,
The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.
7:21 And they stood every man in his place around the camp; and
all the host ran, and cried, and fled.
7:22 And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set
every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the
host: and the host fled to Beth-shittah in Zereroth, [and] to
the border of Abel-meholah, to Tabbath.
7:23 And the men of Israel assembled out of Naphtali, and out of
Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued the Midianites.
7:24 And Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim,
saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them
the waters to Beth-barah and Jordan. Then all the men of
Ephraim assembled, and took the waters to Beth-barah and
Jordan.
7:25 And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb;
and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at
the wine-press of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the
heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of Jordan.
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