Gideon

¹Once again the people of Israel sinned against the Lord, so he let the people of Midian rule them for seven years.

²The Midianites were stronger than Israel, and the people of Israel hid from them in caves and other safe places in the hills.

³Whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, the Midianites would come with the Amalekites and the desert tribes and attack them.

⁴They would camp on the land and destroy the crops as far south as the area around Gaza. They would take all the sheep, cattle, and donkeys, and leave nothing for the Israelites to live on.

⁵They would come with their livestock and tents, as thick as locusts. They and their camels were too many to count. They came and devastated the land,

⁶and Israel was helpless against them.

⁷Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help against the Midianites,

⁸and he sent them a prophet who brought them this message from the Lord, the God of Israel: “I brought you out of slavery in Egypt.

⁹I rescued you from the Egyptians and from the people who fought you here in this land. I drove them out as you advanced, and I gave you their land.

¹⁰I told you that I am the Lord your God and that you should not worship the gods of the Amorites, whose land you are now living in. But you have not listened to me.”

¹¹Then the Lord's angel came to the village of Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was threshing some wheat secretly in a wine press, so that the Midianites would not see him.

¹²The Lord's angel appeared to him there and said, “The Lord is with you, brave and mighty man!”

¹³Gideon said to him, “If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the Lord is with us? What happened to all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the Lord used to do—how he brought them out of Egypt? The Lord has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites.”

¹⁴Then the Lord ordered him, “Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you.”

¹⁵Gideon replied, “But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family.”

¹⁶The Lord answered, “You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man.”

¹⁷Gideon replied, “If you are pleased with me, give me some proof that you are really the Lord.

¹⁸Please do not leave until I bring you an offering of food.” He said, “I will stay until you come back.”

¹⁹So 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.

²⁰The angel told him, “Put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” Gideon did so.

²¹Then the Lord's angel reached out and touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick he was holding. Fire came out of the rock and burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel disappeared.

²²Gideon then realized that it was the Lord's angel he had seen, and he said in terror, “Sovereign Lord! I have seen your angel face-to-face!”

²³But the Lord told him, “Peace. Don't be afraid. You will not die.”

²⁴Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it “The Lord is Peace.” (It is still standing at Ophrah, which belongs to the clan of Abiezer.)

²⁵That night the Lord told Gideon, “Take your father's bull and another bull seven years old, tear down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the symbol of the goddess Asherah, which is beside it.

²⁶Build a well-constructed altar to the Lord your God on top of this mound. Then take the second bull and burn it whole as an offering, using for firewood the symbol of Asherah you have cut down.”

²⁷So Gideon took ten of his servants and did what the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his family and the people in town to do it by day, so he did it at night.

²⁸When the people in town got up early the next morning, they found that the altar to Baal and the symbol of Asherah had been cut down, and that the second bull had been burned on the altar that had been built there.

²⁹They asked each other, “Who did this?” They investigated and found out that Gideon son of Joash had done it.

³⁰Then they said to Joash, “Bring your son out here, so that we can kill him! He tore down the altar to Baal and cut down the symbol of Asherah beside it.”

³¹But Joash said to all those who confronted him, “Are you arguing for Baal? Are you defending him? Anyone who argues for him will be killed before morning. If Baal is a god, let him defend himself. It is his altar that was torn down.”

³²From then on Gideon was known as Jerubbaal, because Joash said, “Let Baal defend himself; it is his altar that was torn down.”

³³Then all the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the desert tribes assembled, crossed the Jordan River, and camped in Jezreel Valley.

³⁴The spirit of the Lord took control of Gideon, and he blew a trumpet to call the men of the clan of Abiezer to follow him.

³⁵He sent messengers throughout the territory of both parts of Manasseh to call them to follow him. He sent messengers to the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they also came to join him.

³⁶Then Gideon said to God, “You say that you have decided to use me to rescue Israel.

³⁷Well, I am putting some wool on the ground where we thresh the wheat. If in the morning there is dew only on the wool but not on the ground, then I will know that you are going to use me to rescue Israel.”

³⁸That is exactly what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the wool and wrung enough dew out of it to fill a bowl with water.

³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Don't be angry with me; let me speak just once more. Please let me make one more test with the wool. This time let the wool be dry, and the ground be wet.”

⁴⁰That night God did that very thing. The next morning the wool was dry, but the ground was wet with dew.

Gideon Defeats the Midianites

¹One day Gideon and all his men got up early and camped beside Harod Spring. The Midianite camp was in the valley to the north of them by Moreh Hill.

²The Lord said to Gideon, “The men you have are too many for me to give them victory over the Midianites. They might think that they had won by themselves, and so give me no credit.

³Announce to the people, ‘Anyone who is afraid should go back home, and we will stay here at Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand went back, but ten thousand stayed.

⁴Then the Lord said to Gideon, “You still have too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will separate them for you there. If I tell you a man should go with you, he will go. If I tell you a man should not go with you, he will not go.”

⁵Gideon took the men down to the water, and the Lord told him, “Separate everyone who laps up the water with his tongue like a dog, from everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.”

⁶There were three hundred men who scooped up water in their hands and lapped it; all the others got down on their knees to drink.

⁷The Lord said to Gideon, “I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites with the three hundred men who lapped the water. Tell everyone else to go home.”

⁸So Gideon sent all the Israelites home, except the three hundred, who kept all the supplies and trumpets. The Midianite camp was below them in the valley.

⁹That night the Lord commanded Gideon, “Get up and attack the camp; I am giving you victory over it.

¹⁰But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah.

¹¹You will hear what they are saying, and then you will have the courage to attack.” So Gideon and his servant Purah went down to the edge of the enemy camp.

¹²The Midianites, the Amalekites, and the desert tribesmen were spread out in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and they had as many camels as there are grains of sand on the seashore.

¹³When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling a friend about a dream. He was saying, “I dreamed that a loaf of barley bread rolled into our camp and hit a tent. The tent collapsed and lay flat on the ground.”

¹⁴His friend replied, “It's the sword of the Israelite, Gideon son of Joash! It can't mean anything else! God has given him victory over Midian and our whole army!”

¹⁵When Gideon heard about the man's dream and what it meant, he fell to his knees and worshiped the Lord. Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up! The Lord is giving you victory over the Midianite army!”

¹⁶He divided his three hundred men into three groups and gave each man a trumpet and a jar with a torch inside it.

¹⁷He told them, “When I get to the edge of the camp, watch me, and do what I do.

¹⁸When my group and I blow our trumpets, then you blow yours all around the camp and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

¹⁹Gideon and his one hundred men came to the edge of the camp a while before midnight, just after the guard had been changed. Then they blew the trumpets and broke the jars they were holding,

²⁰and the other two groups did the same. They all held the torches in their left hands, the trumpets in their right, and shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”

²¹Every man stood in his place around the camp, and the whole enemy army ran away yelling.

²²While Gideon's men were blowing their trumpets, the Lord made the enemy troops attack each other with their swords. They ran toward Zarethan as far as Beth Shittah, as far as the town of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.

²³Then men from the tribes of Naphtali, Asher, and both parts of Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites.

²⁴Gideon sent messengers through all the hill country of Ephraim to say, “Come down and fight the Midianites. Hold the Jordan River and the streams as far as Bethbarah, to keep the Midianites from crossing them.” The men of Ephraim were called together, and they held the Jordan River and the streams as far as Bethbarah.

²⁵They captured the two Midianite chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb; they killed Oreb at Oreb Rock, and Zeeb at the Winepress of Zeeb. They continued to pursue the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was now east of the Jordan.

The Final Defeat of the Midianites

¹Then the people of Ephraim said to Gideon, “Why didn't you call us when you went to fight the Midianites? Why did you treat us like this?” They complained bitterly about it.

²But he told them, “What I was able to do is nothing compared with what you have done. Even the little that you people of Ephraim did is worth more than what my whole clan has done.

³After all, through the power of God you killed the two Midianite chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I done to compare with that?” When he said this, they were no longer so angry.

⁴By this time Gideon and his three hundred men had come to the Jordan River and had crossed it. They were exhausted, but were still pursuing the enemy.

⁵When they arrived at Sukkoth, he said to the men of the town, “Please give my men some loaves of bread. They are exhausted, and I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the Midianite kings.”

⁶But the leaders of Sukkoth said, “Why should we give your army any food? You haven't captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet.”

⁷So Gideon said, “All right! When the Lord has handed Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will beat you with thorns and briers from the desert!”

⁸Gideon went on to Penuel and made the same request of the people there, but the men of Penuel gave the same answer as the men of Sukkoth.

⁹So he said to them, “I am going to come back safe and sound, and when I do, I will tear this tower down!”

¹⁰Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor with their army. Of the whole army of desert tribesmen, only about 15,000 were left; 120,000 soldiers had been killed.

¹¹Gideon went on the road along the edge of the desert, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the army by surprise.

¹²The two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, ran away, but he pursued them and captured them, and caused their whole army to panic.

¹³When Gideon was returning from the battle by way of Heres Pass,

¹⁴he captured a young man from Sukkoth and questioned him. The young man wrote down for Gideon the names of the seventy-seven leading men of Sukkoth.

¹⁵Then Gideon went to the men of Sukkoth and said, “Remember when you refused to help me? You said that you couldn't give any food to my exhausted army because I hadn't captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet. Well, here they are!”

¹⁶He then took thorns and briers from the desert and used them to punish the leaders of Sukkoth.

¹⁷He also tore down the tower at Penuel and killed the men of that city.

¹⁸Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What about the men you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “They looked like you—every one of them like the son of a king.”

¹⁹Gideon said, “They were my brothers, my own mother's sons. I solemnly swear that if you had not killed them, I would not kill you.”

²⁰Then he said to Jether, his oldest son, “Go ahead, kill them!” But the boy did not draw his sword. He hesitated, because he was still only a boy.

²¹Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, “Come on, kill us yourself. It takes a man to do a man's job.” So Gideon killed them and took the ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.

²²After that, the Israelites said to Gideon, “Be our ruler—you and your descendants after you. You have saved us from the Midianites.”

²³Gideon answered, “I will not be your ruler, nor will my son. The Lord will be your ruler.”

²⁴But he went on to say, “Let me ask one thing of you. Every one of you give me the earrings you took.” (The Midianites, like other desert people, wore gold earrings.)

²⁵The people answered, “We'll be glad to give them to you.” They spread out a cloth, and everyone put on it the earrings that he had taken.

²⁶The gold earrings that Gideon got weighed over forty pounds, and this did not include the ornaments, necklaces, and purple clothes that the kings of Midian wore, nor the collars that were around the necks of their camels.

²⁷Gideon made an idol from the gold and put it in his hometown, Ophrah. All the Israelites abandoned God and went there to worship the idol. It was a trap for Gideon and his family.

²⁸So Midian was defeated by the Israelites and was no longer a threat. The land was at peace for forty years, until Gideon died.

The Death of Gideon

²⁹Gideon went back to his own home and lived there.

³⁰He had seventy sons, because he had many wives.

³¹He also had a concubine in Shechem; she bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.

³²Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, at Ophrah, the town of the clan of Abiezer.

³³After Gideon's death the people of Israel were unfaithful to God again and worshiped the Baals. They made Baal-of-the-Covenant their god,

³⁴and no longer served the Lord their God, who had saved them from all their enemies around them.

³⁵They were not grateful to the family of Gideon for all the good that he had done for Israel.

Ruth Finds a Husband

¹Some time later Naomi said to Ruth, “I must find a husband for you, so that you will have a home of your own.

²Remember that this man Boaz, whose women you have been working with, is our relative. Now listen. This evening he will be threshing the barley.

³So wash yourself, put on some perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go where he is threshing, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.

⁴Be sure to notice where he lies down, and after he falls asleep, go and lift the covers and lie down at his feet. He will tell you what to do.”

⁵Ruth answered, “I will do everything you say.”

⁶So Ruth went to the threshing place and did just what her mother-in-law had told her.

⁷When Boaz had finished eating and drinking, he was in a good mood. He went to the pile of barley and lay down to sleep. Ruth slipped over quietly, lifted the covers and lay down at his feet.

⁸During the night he woke up suddenly, turned over, and was surprised to find a woman lying at his feet.

⁹“Who are you?” he asked. “It's Ruth, sir,” she answered. “Because you are a close relative, you are responsible for taking care of me. So please marry me.”

¹⁰“The Lord bless you,” he said. “You are showing even greater family loyalty in what you are doing now than in what you did for your mother-in-law. You might have gone looking for a young man, either rich or poor, but you haven't.

¹¹Now don't worry, Ruth. I will do everything you ask; as everyone in town knows, you are a fine woman.

¹²It is true that I am a close relative and am responsible for you, but there is a man who is a closer relative than I am.

¹³Stay here the rest of the night, and in the morning we will find out whether or not he will take responsibility for you. If so, well and good; if not, then I swear by the living Lord that I will take the responsibility. Now lie down and stay here till morning.”

¹⁴So she lay there at his feet, but she got up before it was light enough for her to be seen, because Boaz did not want anyone to know that she had been there.

¹⁵Boaz said to her, “Take off your cloak and spread it out here.” She did, and he poured out almost fifty pounds of barley and helped her lift it to her shoulder. Then she returned to town with it.

¹⁶When she arrived home, her mother-in-law asked her, “How did you get along, daughter?” Ruth told her everything that Boaz had done for her.

¹⁷She added, “He told me I must not come back to you empty-handed, so he gave me all this barley.”

¹⁸Naomi said to her, “Now be patient, Ruth, until you see how this all turns out. Boaz will not rest today until he settles the matter.”

A Hymn of Praise

¹Praise the Lord! Praise his name, you servants of the Lord,

²who stand in the Lord's house, in the Temple of our God.

³Praise the Lord, because he is good; sing praises to his name, because he is kind.

⁴He chose Jacob for himself, the people of Israel for his own.

⁵I know that our Lord is great, greater than all the gods.

⁶He does whatever he wishes in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in the depths below.

⁷He brings storm clouds from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for the storms, and he brings out the wind from his storeroom.

⁸In Egypt he killed all the first-born of people and animals alike.

⁹There he performed miracles and wonders to punish the king and all his officials.

¹⁰He destroyed many nations and killed powerful kings:

¹¹Sihon, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, and all the kings in Canaan.

¹²He gave their lands to his people; he gave them to Israel.

¹³Lord, you will always be proclaimed as God; all generations will remember you.

¹⁴The Lord will defend his people; he will take pity on his servants.

¹⁵The gods of the nations are made of silver and gold; they are formed by human hands.

¹⁶They have mouths, but cannot speak, and eyes, but cannot see.

¹⁷They have ears, but cannot hear; they are not even able to breathe.

¹⁸May all who made them and who trust in them become like the idols they have made!

¹⁹Praise the Lord, people of Israel; praise him, you priests of God!

²⁰Praise the Lord, you Levites; praise him, all you that worship him!

²¹Praise the Lord in Zion, in Jerusalem, his home. Praise the Lord!