Jueces 6

Midian oppresses Israel

¹The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the power of Midian for seven years. ²Midian’s power weighed heavily on Israel. Because of Midian, the Israelites made themselves the hiding places in the mountains, and the caves and the strongholds. ³Whenever Israel had sown its crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the peoples of the east would come up and attack them. ⁴They would camp on their land and ruin the crops all the way to Gaza. They left nothing in Israel to live on, not a sheep, an ox or a donkey. ⁵They came up with their livestock and their tents, as thick as a swarm of locusts. There was no counting them or their camels, and they came into the land to lay it waste. ⁶Israel was reduced to great poverty because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the LORD.

⁷When the Israelites cried out to the LORD because of Midian, ⁸the LORD sent a prophet to the Israelites, and he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt and led you out of the house of slavery. ⁹I rescued you from the power of Egypt and from the power of everyone who oppressed you. I drove them out ahead of you and gave you their land. ¹⁰I said to you, “I am the LORD your God. You are not to fear the gods of the Amorites, though you live in their land.” But you have not listened to me.’”

The angel of the LORD calls Gideon

¹¹Then the angel of the LORD came to Ophrah and sat down under the terebinth there, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. Gideon, Joash’s son, was beating out wheat in the winepress so that the Midianites would not see it.^{a 12}The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” ¹³Gideon answered him, “Pardon me, my lord, but if the LORD is with us, why has all this come upon us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ Now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.” ¹⁴The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this strength of yours, and you will save Israel from Midian’s power. Am I not the one sending you?” ¹⁵Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, my Lord, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”^{b 16}The LORD answered him, “I will be with you, and you will strike down the Midianites as if they were one man.” ¹⁷Gideon said to him, “If I have found favor with you, give me a sign that it is really you who are speaking to me. ¹⁸Please do not leave here until I come back to you and bring out my offering and set it before you.” He said, “I will stay until you come back.” ¹⁹Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from about 20 quarts of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them out to him under the terebinth, and set them before him.

²⁰The angel of God told him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, and place them on this rock. Then pour the broth out.” And he did so. ²¹Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared up from the rock and burned up the meat and the bread, and the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. ²²When Gideon saw that it was the angel of the LORD, he cried out, “How terrible, Lord GOD! I have looked on the angel of the LORD face to face!” ²³But the LORD said to him, “Peace to you! Do not be afraid; you will not die.” ²⁴So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it “The LORD Is Peace.” To this day it still stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Gideon tears down Baal’s altar

²⁵That same night the LORD said to him, “Take the young bull from your father’s herd, the second bull, the one seven years old. Tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah pole next to it.^{c 26}Then build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this stronghold, laid out in the proper way. Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering, using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down.” ²⁷So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did what the LORD had told him. But he was too afraid of his father’s family and the men of the town to do it by day, so he did it at night. ²⁸When the men of the town got up early in the morning, they saw that Baal’s altar had been torn down and the Asherah pole beside it cut down, and that the second bull had been offered on the altar that had been built. ²⁹They asked one another, “Who has done this?” After they had asked around and looked into it, they said, “Gideon son of Joash did it.” ³⁰The men of the town said to Joash, “Bring your son out. He must die, for he has torn down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah pole that stood beside it.” ³¹But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Are you going to plead Baal’s case? Are you going to rescue him? By morning, anyone who pleads his case will be put to death! If Baal is a god, he should plead his own case, since it is his altar that has been torn down.” ³²So on that day Gideon was given the name Jerubbaal, for it was said, “Let Baal contend against him, because he tore down his altar.”^d

Gideon calls out the tribes

³³Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the peoples of the east joined forces, crossed the Jordan, and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. ³⁴Then the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon. He blew the ram’s horn, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. ³⁵He sent messengers all through Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, and they came up to join them. ³⁶Then Gideon said to God, “If you really mean to save Israel through me, as you have said, ³⁷look, I am going to lay a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If dew falls on the fleece alone while all the ground stays dry, then I will be sure that you will save Israel through me, as you said.” ³⁸And that is what happened. When he got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung enough dew out of it to fill a bowl with water. ³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more. Please let me make one more test with the fleece. This time let the fleece alone be dry, and let there be dew on all the ground.” ⁴⁰That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry, and all the ground was covered with dew.