Gideon's 300 Chosen Men
7:1 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the
people who were with him, rose early and camped beside the spring
of Harod; and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them by the
hill of Moreh in the valley.
2 The LORD said to Gideon, "The people who are
with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel
would become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.'
3 "Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing
of the people, saying, 'Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return
and depart from Mount Gilead.' " So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000
remained.
4 Then the LORD said to Gideon, "The people
are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for
you there. Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to you, 'This one
shall go with you,' he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to
you, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go."
5 So he brought the people down to the water.
And the LORD said to Gideon, "You shall separate everyone who laps the
water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to
drink."
6 Now the number of those who lapped, putting
their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people
kneeled to drink water.
7 The LORD said to Gideon, "I will deliver you
with the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands;
so let all the other people go, each man to his home."
8 So the 300 men took the people's provisions
and their trumpets into their hands. And Gideon sent all the other men
of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the 300 men; and the camp of
Midian was below him in the valley.
9 Now the same night it came about that the
LORD said to him, "Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it
into your hands.
10 "But if you are afraid to go down, go with
Purah your servant down to the camp,
11 and you will hear what they say; and afterward
your hands will be strengthened that you may go down against the camp."
So he went with Purah his servant down to the outposts of the army that
was in the camp.
12 Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and
all the sons of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts;
and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore.
13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating
a dream to his friend. And he said, "Behold, I had a dream; a loaf of barley
bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and
struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay
flat."
14 His friend replied, "This is nothing less
than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given
Midian and all the camp into his hand."
15 When Gideon heard the account of the dream
and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of
Israel and said, "Arise, for the LORD has given the camp of Midian into
your hands."
16 He divided the 300 men into three companies,
and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with
torches inside the pitchers.
17 He said to them, "Look at me and do likewise.
And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do.
18 "When I and all who are with me blow the
trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets all around the camp and say, 'For
the LORD and for Gideon.'"
Confusion of the Enemy
19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with
him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch,
when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed
the pitchers that were in their hands.
20 When the three companies blew the trumpets
and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the
trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, "A sword for the
LORD and for Gideon!"
21 Each stood in his place around the camp;
and all the army ran, crying out as they fled.
22 When they blew 300 trumpets, the LORD set
the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the
army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of
Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
23 The men of Israel were summoned from Naphtali
and Asher and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian.
24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the
hill country of Ephraim, saying, "Come down against Midian and take the
waters before them, as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan." So all the men
of Ephraim were summoned and they took the waters as far as Beth-barah
and the Jordan.
25 They captured the two leaders of Midian,
Oreb and Zeeb, and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they killed
Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb, while they pursued Midian; and they brought
the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from across the Jordan.