Judges 7:1-25
7 * And Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him went in the morning and encamped by Panic Spring; and he had the Midianites’ camp on the north, from Moreh Hill, in the vale.
2 And Jehovah said to Gideon “There are too many of the people that are with you for me to give the Midianites into their hands, for fear Israel should brag against me ‘My own hands gave me the victory’;
3 * now proclaim to the people ‘Whoever is afraid and panicky, let him flit back from the highland of Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousand of the people went back, and ten thousand were left.
4 And Jehovah said to Gideon “There are still too many of the people: have them go down to the water and I will weed them out for you there; and what I tell you shall go with you, shall, and all that I tell you shall not go with you, shall not.”
5 And he had the people go down to the water; and Jehovah said to Gideon “Everyone that laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog does, you shall set apart, and everyone that kneels down to drink.”
6 And the number that lapped with hand to mouth was three hundred men; and all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water.
7 And Jehovah said to Gideon “By the three hundred men that lapped I will give you the victory, and give the Midianites into your hands; and let all the people go home to their places.”
8 And they took the people’s provisions in their hands, and their ram-horns; and he sent home all the men of Israel, and kept the three hundred men. And he had the Midianites’ camp under him in the vale.
9 And that night Jehovah said to him “Get up and descend on the camp, because I have given it into your hands.
10 And if you are afraid to descend on it, you and your man Purah go down to the camp
11 and hear what they say, and afterward you will have courage and will descend on the camp.” And he and his man Purah went down to the edge of the men under arms in the camp.
12 And the Midianites and the ʽAmalekites and all the Eastern Beduins had dropped into the vale in numbers like a swarm of locusts: there was no counting their camels, as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore.
13 And when Gideon came, there was a man telling his comrade a dream; and he said “Here I have had a dream that a barley-bread bannock was tumbling over and over in the Midianite camp, and it came to the tent and knocked it upside down.”
14 And his comrade answered “That can be nothing else than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, the men of Israel; God has given into their hands the Midianites and all the camp.”
15 And when Gideon heard the account of the dream, and its explanation, he did reverence, and went back to the camp of Israel and said “Get up: Jehovah has given the Midianite camp into your hands.”
16 And he divided the three hundred men into three columns, and gave them all ram-horns to carry, and empty jars, and torches inside the jars;
17 and he said to them “Take your cue from me, and do the same: when I get to the edge of the camp, do just as I do:
18 I and all who are with me will blow the ram-horn, and you shall blow the horns too all around the camp, and say ‘For Jehovah and for Gideon!’”
19 And Gideon, and a hundred men who were with him, arrived at the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch; the sentries had just been set; and they blew the ram-horns and smashed the jars they carried.
20 * And the three columns blew the ram-horns and broke the jars, and held the torches in their left hands and in their right hands the ram-horns to blow with, and cried “Charge for Jehovah and for Gideon!”
21 And they stood still where they were around the camp; and all the camp went to running and shouting to arms and taking flight,
22 and the three hundred ram-horns blew, and Jehovah set each one’s sword against the next man all through the camp; and the camp fled to Beth-hash-Shittah, toward Seredah, to the bluff of Abel-Meholah by Tabbath.
23 And the men of Israel came out in arms, out of Naphtali and out of Asher and out of all Manasseh, and pursued the Midianites.
24 And Gideon sent messengers through all the highland of Ephraim to say “Come down to head off the Midianites: seize the water against them as far as Beth-Barah, and the Jordan”; and all the men of Ephraim came out in arms and seized the water as far as Beth-Barah, and the Jordan.
25 And they took the two chiefs of the Midianites, Raven and Wolf, and killed Raven at Raven Rock and Wolf at Wolf Winepress, and followed up the Midianites; and they brought the heads of Raven and Wolf to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan,
Footnotes
^ 7:1 Conj. had the Midianites’ camp under him, on the north of Moreh Hill
^ 7:3 (flit) Unc.
^ 7:20 Lit. Swords for Jehovah and for Gideon or War for Jehovah and for Gideon
