Coverdale(i)
2 But the LORDE sayde vnto Gedeon: The people that be with ye are to many for me to delyuer Madian into their hande, lest Israel boost them selues agaynst me, and saye: My hande hath delyuered me.
3 Cause a proclamacion now to be made in the eares of the people, and saye: He that feareth, and is afrayed, let him turne backe, and get him soone fro mount Gilead. Then returned there of the people aboute a two and twenty thousande so that there was left but ten thousande.
4 And the LORDE sayde vnto Gedeon. The people are yet to many: brynge them downe to the water, there wyl I proue them for ye: and of whom I saye that he shal go wt the, the same shal go with the: but of who I saie that he shal not go with the, the same shall not go.
5 And he broughte the people vnto ye water. And the LORDE sayde vnto Gedeon: Whosoeuer licketh of the water with his tuge, as a dogg licketh, make him stonde asyde and lykewyse who soeuer falleth downe vpo his knees to drynke.
6 Then was the nombre of them that had licked out of the hande to the mouth, thre hundreth men.
7 And the LORDE sayde vnto Gedeon: Thorow the thre hudreth which haue licked, wyl I delyuer you, and geue ouer the Madianites in to thy hade: As for the other people, let them go euery one vnto his place.
8 And they toke vytayles with them for ye people, and their trompettes: but the other Israelites let he go, euery one vnto his tente. And he strengthed himselfe with the thre hundreth men, and the Madianites hoost laye before him beneth in the valley.