Judges 6

VIN^{(i) 1} The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of the Midianites for seven years. ² And when the hand of the Midianites was sore upon Israel, the children of Israel made them dens in the mountains and caves and strongholds. ³ When the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites along with the desert tribes attacked them. ⁴ and they encamped against them, and destroyed the crops as far as Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. ⁵ They came with their livestock and tents, as thick as locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels. They entered the land and destroyed it. ⁶ Because Israel was deeply impoverished due to the Midianites, they cried out to the LORD. ⁷ When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian ⁸ the LORD sent a prophet to them, and he said to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of slavery, ⁹ I delivered you from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors, and drove them out from before you; and I 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. ¹¹ The angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak that was at Ophrah that belonged to Jehoash the Abiezrite; and Gideon his son was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. ¹² The angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." ¹³ Gideon said to him Oh, my lord, if the LORD is with us why then has all this happened to us? Where are all His wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying 'Didn't the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian. ¹⁴ And the Lord, turning to him, said, Go in the strength you have and be Israel's saviour from Midian: have I not sent you? ¹⁵ He said to him, O Lord, how can I save Israel? My family is the poorest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house. ¹⁶ the LORD said to him Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. ¹⁷ He said to Him, If now I have found grace in Your eyes, then show me a sign that it is really You Who talk with me. ¹⁸ Please do not go away, until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you." He said, "I will wait until you come back." ¹⁹ So Gideon went into his house and cooked a young goat and used a bushel of flour to make bread without any yeast. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them to the LORD's angel under the oak tree, and gave them to him. ²⁰ The 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. ²¹ Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and he touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD went from his sight. ²² Gideon saw that he was the angel of the LORD, and Gideon said, Alas, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face! ²³ the LORD said to him, Peace! Don't be afraid. You will not die. ²⁴ Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it "The LORD is Peace." To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. ²⁵ That same night, the LORD said to him, “Take your father's bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it. ²⁶ "Build a well-constructed altar to the LORD your God on top of this mound. Take the second bull and burn it as a whole offering. Cut down the symbol of Asherah and use it for firewood." ²⁷ So Gideon took ten of his servants and did what the LORD instructed him to do. He was afraid of his family and the people in town, so he did it at night. ²⁸ When the men of the city got up early in the morning, look, the altar of Baal and the Asherah that was beside it were cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. ²⁹ They asked each other: "Who did this?" They investigated and found out that Gideon, son of Joash, did it. ³⁰ And the men of the city said to Jehoash, "Bring out your son so that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah that was beside it." ³¹ Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? He who will contend for him, let him be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because someone has broken down his altar. ³² And on that day they called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal plead with him, because he has broken down his altar. ³³ Then all the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of the east gathered together and crossed the Jordan; and they camped in the valley of Jezreel. ³⁴ But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was called after him. ³⁵ And Gideon sent messengers into all Manasseh, and into Asher, and into Zebulun, and into Nephtali; and he went up to meet them. ³⁶ Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken, ³⁷ I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and all of the ground is dry, I will know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, just as you have said." ³⁸ That is what happened, for he got up early the next day and squeezed the fleece together and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. ³⁹ Then Gideon said to God: "Do not be angry with me. Allow me to speak just once more. Please let me make one more test with the wool. This time let the wool be dry, and the ground wet." ⁴⁰ That night God did it. The next morning the wool was dry, but the ground was wet with dew.