1The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD handed them over to Midian for seven years.
2Midian was too strong for Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made themselves the hiding places that are in the mountains, and caves, and strongholds.
3Whenever Israel had sown their seed, the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the people of the east. They came up against them.
4They camped against them and destroyed the crops of the land, all the way to Gaza. They left no food for Israel, no sheep, no ox, and no donkey.
5For they came up with their cattle and their tents. They came like a swarm of locusts, too many to count, and their camels could not be counted either. They came into the land to ruin it.
6So Israel became very poor because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.
7When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD because of the Midianites,
8the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel. He said to them, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: I brought you up from Egypt. I brought you out of the house of slavery."
9I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of all who crushed you. I drove them out before you and gave you their land.
10"And I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not obeyed my voice."
11Then an angel of the LORD came and sat under an oak tree in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
12The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valour."
13Gideon said to him, "Oh my Lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about, when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has left us, and handed us over to the Midianites."
14The LORD looked at him and said, "Go in this strength of yours, and you will save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"
15And he said to him, "Oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Look, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."
16The LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you will strike down the Midianites as if they were one man."
17And he said to him, "If I have now found grace in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who are talking with me."
18"Please do not go away from here until I come back to you, and bring out my gift, and set it before you." And he said, "I will wait until you come again."
19Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought them out to him under the oak tree and offered them.
20The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so.
21Then the angel of the LORD reached out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. Fire rose up out of the rock and burned up the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD went away out of his sight.
22When Gideon understood that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face."
23And the LORD said to him, "Peace be to you. Do not be afraid. You will not die."
24Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
25That same night the LORD said to him, "Take your father's young bull, the second bull, seven years old. Pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the grove that is beside it."
26"Then build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this rock, in the proper way. Take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove that you cut down."
27So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was afraid of his father's household and the men of the city, he could not do it by day, so he did it by night.
28When the men of the city got up early in the morning, look, the altar of Baal was pulled down, and the grove beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built.
29They said to one another, "Who has done this thing?" And when they searched and asked, they said, "Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing."
30Then the men of the city said to Joash, "Bring out your son, so that he may die. For he has pulled down the altar of Baal, and he has cut down the grove that was beside it."
31Joash said to all who stood against him, "Will you plead for Baal? Will you save him? Whoever pleads for him, let him be put to death while it is still morning. If Baal is a god, let him plead for himself, because someone has pulled down his altar."
32So on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, "Let Baal plead against him, because he has thrown down his altar."
33Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east gathered together. They crossed over and camped in the valley of Jezreel.
34But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and Abiezer was gathered to follow him.
35He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they also were gathered to follow him. He sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali, and they came up to meet them.
36Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said,"
37"look, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If the dew is on the fleece only, and all the ground around it is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said."
38And so it was. He got up early the next morning and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.
39Gideon said to God, "Do not let your anger burn against me, and I will speak just this once. Let me test you, I ask you, just this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry on the fleece only, and let there be dew on all the ground."
40And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.