Gideon defeats the Midianite soldiers
1Gideon and all of his men got up early the next morning and they put up their tents near the town of En-Harod. The camp of the Midianite soldiers was on the hill of Moreh in the valley north of Gideon's camp. 2The Lord said to Gideon: ‘You have too many men with you. If I help them defeat the Midianite men, then the Israelites will boast and say that they have saved themselves. 3That is why you must call the men and tell everyone who feels afraid to go home.’
Gideon called all his men together and he told them what the Lord had said. Then 22 000 men went home, and there were only 10 000 men who stayed behind with Gideon. 4Then the Lord said to Gideon: ‘There are still too many men with you. Take them down to the water, and I will choose who must stay. I will tell you who can go with you and who can not go with you.’
5Gideon took the men down to the water and the Lord told him: ‘You must look how the men drink water. Some men will stand and drink water out of their hands like a dog drinks water with his tongue. You must tell them to stand away from the other men who kneel to drink water.’
6There were 300 men who drank water out of their hands. All the other men went down on their knees to drink water. 7The Lord said to Gideon: ‘I will save you by using these 300 men who stood and drank the water out of their hands. I will help you defeat the Midianite soldiers. Tell all the other men to go back to their homes.’
8Gideon told the other men to go home and he said the 300 men must stay with him. Gideon took the food and the rams'-horns from the other men and he said they must go to their tents. He gave the rams'-horns and food to the 300 men.
The camp of the Midianite soldiers was in the valley lower than the camp of Gideon. 9That night the Lord said to Gideon: ‘You must attack the camp of the Midianite soldiers. I will help you defeat them. 10But if you are afraid to attack them, then take your servant, Purah, with you 11and listen to what the Midianite soldiers say, and then you will no longer be afraid to attack them.’
Gideon and Purah went to the side of the camp. 12The men in the camp were ready to go to war. There were a lot of Midianites, Amalekites and people of the East in the valley. There were as many as locusts. No one could count all their camels, because there were as many as the grains of sand of the sea. 13When Gideon got to the camp, a man was telling his friend what he had dreamed. He said: ‘I dreamed I saw a round loaf of bread rolling into the Midianite camp. It rolled up to our tent and hit our tent so hard that it fell to the ground and the bread rolled over it.’
14The man's friend said: ‘This means that the Israelite Gideon, son of Joash, is coming to fight against us and God will help him win. He will defeat the Midianites and all the soldiers in this camp.’
15When Gideon heard what they said about the dream and what it meant, he bowed and praised the Lord. He went back to the camp of Israel and said: ‘Come, the Lord will help you defeat the army of Midian.’
16Gideon divided his 300 men into 3 groups. He gave each man a ram's-horn and a clay_jar with a torch in it.
17He told them: ‘Look at me, and when we come near the camp, you must do the same as I do. 18When I and all the men with me blow the rams'-horns, you must also blow your rams'-horns around the Midianite camp and you must shout: “Make war for the Lord and for Gideon.” ’
19Gideon and the 100 men with him got to the Midianite camp in the middle of the night when a new group of guards took their places. Gideon and his men blew their rams'-horns and they broke their clay_jars 20and the other 2 groups of men also blew their rams'-horns and broke their clay_jars. They held the torches in their left hands and the rams'-horns in their right hands. They blew their rams'-horns and they shouted: ‘Make war for the Lord and for Gideon.’
21Gideon's men stood still around the camp of the Midianites but the soldiers in the camp were shouting and running away. 22When Gideon's 300 men blew their rams'-horns, the Lord made the Midianite soldiers kill one another. They fled to the town of Beth-Shitta near Zererah and to the border of the land from the town Abel-Meholah near Tabbath. 23Then Gideon called more Israelite men from the Naphtali tribe, the Asher tribe and the Manasseh tribe. They came and they chased the Midianite soldiers and killed them. 24Gideon also sent messengers to the people of the Ephraim tribe in the mountains. He told them to catch the Midianite people before they went over the Jordan River, as far as the town of Beth-Barah. These Israelite men came and they did what Gideon asked. 25They caught the 2 generals of the Midianite soldiers. Their names were Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb and named the place Oreb-Rock and they killed Zeeb and named that place Zeeb Wine-press. After they had chased the soldiers of Midian, they took the heads of Oreb and Zeeb and they gave them to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan River.
