7:1 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him got up early, and camped beside ①the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was on the north side of ②them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.
▷ ①Or En-Harod ②Lit him
7:2 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to hand Midian over to them, otherwise Israel would ①become boastful, saying, ‘My own ②power has saved me.’
▷ ①Lit boast against me ②Lit hand
7:3 Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is afraid and worried, is to return and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand from the people returned, but ten thousand remained.
7:4 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. So 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.”
7:5 So he brought the people down to the water. Then the LORD said to Gideon, “You shall put everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps ①in one group, and everyone who kneels down to drink in another.”
▷ ①Lit by himself
7:6 Now the number of those who lapped, ①putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people kneeled down to drink water.
▷ ①Lit with their
7:7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “I will save you with the three hundred men who lapped, and will hand the Midianites over to you; so have all the other people go, each man to his ①home.”
▷ ①Lit place
7:8 So ①the three hundred men took the people’s provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And ②Gideon dismissed all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the three hundred men; and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
▷ ①Lit they took ②Lit he
7:9 Now on the same night it came about that the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have handed it over to you.
7:10 But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp,
7:11 so that you will hear what they say; and afterward ①you will have the courage to go down against the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to the ②outposts of the army that was in the camp.
▷ ①Lit your hand will be strengthened ②Lit extremity of the battle formation
7:12 Now the Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the ①people 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.
▷ ①Lit sons
7:13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating a dream to his friend. And he said, “Behold, I ①had a dream; ②a 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 ③upside down so that the tent collapsed.”
▷ ①Lit dreamed ②Lit and behold, a loaf ③Lit upward
7:14 And his friend replied, “This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has handed over to him Midian and all the camp.”
7:15 When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. Then he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has handed over to you the camp of Midian!”
7:16 And he divided the three hundred men into three ①units, and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers.
▷ ①Lit heads
7:17 Then he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, ①do as I do.
▷ ①Lit it shall come about that just as I do, so you shall do
7:18 When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets around the entire camp and say, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon!’ ”
7:19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle night watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.
7:20 When the three ①units 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 shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”
▷ ①Lit heads
7:21 And each stood in his place around the camp; and all the ①army ran, crying out as they fled.
▷ ①Or camp
7:22 And when they blew the three hundred trumpets, the LORD set the sword of one against another even throughout the entire ①army; and the ②army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
▷ ①Or camp ②Or camp
7:23 And the men of Israel were summoned from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian.
7:24 Then Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down ①against Midian and take control of the waters ahead of them, as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they took control of the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.
▷ ①Lit to meet
7:25 And 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.