Judges 7

7 ¹ Jerubbaal (Gideon) and all his people rose early, camping at Harod's spring; Midian's camp lay north of them, at Moreh's hill in the valley.

² Our Father told Gideon, "You have too many people for me to hand Midian to them, or Israel will brag against me, 'My hand saved me.'" ³ Now announce to the people: Whoever is afraid and trembling, turn back and leave Mount Gilead. Twenty-two thousand turned back; ten thousand remained.

⁴ Our Father told Gideon, "The people are still too many. Take them down to the water; I will sift them for you there. Whoever I say goes with you will go; whoever I say won't go with you won't go." ⁵ He brought the people down to the water, and our Father told Gideon, "Separate everyone who laps water with his tongue like a dog; do the same for everyone who kneels to drink."

⁶ Three hundred men lapped, hand to mouth; all the rest knelt to drink water.

⁷ Our Father told Gideon, "With the three hundred men who lapped I'll save you and give Midian into your hand. Send everyone else home, each to his place."

⁸ The people took provisions and trumpets; Gideon sent the rest of Israel home, each to his tent, keeping the three hundred. Midian's camp lay below him in the valley.

⁹ That night our Father told him, 'Up, go down to the camp, for I've given it into your hand.' ¹⁰ "But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, ¹¹ "Hear what they say, then your hands will be strengthened to attack the camp." He went down with his servant Purah to the edge of the camp's armed troops.

¹² Midianites, Amalekites, and all the eastern peoples lay in the valley like locusts; their camels were as countless as sand on the shore. ¹³ When Gideon arrived, a man was telling his companion a dream. He said, "Listen, I had a dream: a round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into Midian's camp, struck the tent, and it fell — flipped upside down and flattened."

¹⁴ His companion answered, "This is only the sword of Gideon son of Joash, an Israelite. God gave Midian and the whole camp into his hand."

¹⁵ Gideon heard the dream and its meaning, worshiped, returned to Israel's camp, and said, "Get up, for our Father has given Midian's camp into your hands." ¹⁶ He split the 300 men into three companies, each with a trumpet, an empty jar, and a torch inside.

¹⁷ He told them, "Watch me; do as I do. When I reach the camp's edge, do as I do." ¹⁸ When I and all with me blow trumpets, blow yours around the whole camp, and shout: 'For our Father and for Gideon!'

¹⁹ Gideon and his hundred men reached the camp's edge as the middle watch began, just after the guards changed. They blew trumpets and smashed the jars in their hands. ²⁰ The three companies blew their trumpets and smashed jars, torches in their left hands, trumpets in their right ready to blow, shouting, "A sword for our Father and for Gideon!" ²¹ Each man stayed in place around the camp while the whole army ran, shouted, and fled. ²² When the three hundred trumpets sounded, our Father set each man's sword against his companion throughout the camp. The camp fled to Beth-shittah, toward Zererah, to Abel-meholah's border near Tabbath. ²³ Israelites from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued Midian. ²⁴ Gideon sent messengers through Ephraim's hill country: "Come down against Midian—seize the waters ahead of them, as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan." So all Ephraim's men gathered and seized the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. ²⁵ They captured Midian's two princes, Oreb and Zeeb, killing Oreb at Oreb's rock, Zeeb at Zeeb's winepress, pursued Midian, and brought Oreb's and Zeeb's heads to Gideon across the Jordan.