¹Then the sons of Israel did wrong in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years. ²And Midian's grip on Israel tightened. Because of Midian, the sons of Israel made themselves tunnels in the mountains, and caves, and fortresses. ³And it came to pass, when Israel had sown seed, that Midian came up, as did Amalek and the easterners, and they came up against them. ⁴And they encamped against them, and they destroyed the produce of the land as far as when you come to Gaza. And they did not leave any means of livelihood in Israel, neither sheep, nor oxen, nor donkeys. ⁵For they and their cattle would come up, with their tents. They would come like locusts in multitude, they and their camels being innumerable, and they came to the land to destroy it. ⁶And Israel was brought very low on account of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord. ⁷And it came to pass, when the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord because of Midian, ⁸that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I brought you up out of Egypt, and I brought you out of a house of slavery. ⁹And I delivered you from Egypt's grip and from the grip of all who were oppressing you, and I drove them out before you, and I gave you their land. ¹⁰And I said to you, «I am the Lord your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living», but you did not obey me.’ ” ¹¹Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abi-Ezrite, while Gideon his son was threshing wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. ¹²And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you valiant warrior.” ¹³And Gideon said to him, “O my Lord, please, if the Lord is present with us, then why has all this befallen us? And where are all his wonders which our fathers told us about, when they said, ‘Did the Lord not bring us up out of Egypt?’ And now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.” ¹⁴And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this strength of yours, and save Israel from Midian's grip. Have I not sent you?” ¹⁵Then he said to him, “Please, Lord^*, by what means shall I save Israel? Look, my family is the most reduced in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house.” ¹⁶And the Lord said to him, “When I am with you, you will be able to strike Midian as one man.” ¹⁷And he said to him, “If now I have found grace in your sight, do perform a sign for me, to show that it is you talking to me. ¹⁸Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my meal-offering, and I deposit it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.” ¹⁹Then Gideon departed and prepared a kid of the goats and an ephah of flour's worth of unleavened loaves. He put the meat in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and he brought it out to him under the terebinth tree, and he offered it. ²⁰Then the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened loaves, and deposit them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so. ²¹And the angel of the Lord held out the end of the staff which was in his hand, and he touched the meat and the unleavened loaves, and fire went up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened loaves. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. ²²And Gideon saw that it was the angel of the Lord, and Gideon said, “Alas, my Lord the Lord, because I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” ²³And the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you, do not be afraid, you shall not die.” ²⁴Then Gideon built an altar to the Lord there, and he called it Jehovah-Shalom, as it is up to this day, still there in Ophrah of the Abi-Ezrites. ²⁵And it came to pass that night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father's bull of the oxen, and the second bull which is seven years old, and demolish the altar of Baal which your father has, and cut down the phallic park which goes with it. ²⁶And build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this fortress at the pile of material, and take the second bull and make a burnt offering with the wood of the phallic park which you cut down.” ²⁷Then Gideon took ten men from his servants, and he did what the Lord had said to him, and it so happened that as he was afraid of the house of his father and the men of the city – of doing it by day – that he did it by night. ²⁸Then when the men of the city got up early in the morning, what they saw was that the altar of Baal had been demolished, and the phallic park which went with it had been cut down, and the second bull had been offered as a burnt offering on the altar which had been built. ²⁹And they said to each other, “Who has done this thing?” And they looked into it and inquired, and they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” ³⁰And the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring your son out, and he will die, because he has demolished the altar of Baal and because he has cut down the phallic park which went with it.” ³¹But Joash said to everyone who was standing against him, “Will you defend Baal? Or will you save him? Let him who would defend him be put to death while it is morning. If he is a god, let him defend himself, because someone has demolished his altar.” ³²And he called him Jerubbaal on that day, and he said, “Let Baal defend himself, because that man has demolished his altar.” ³³Then all the Midianites and Amalekites and the easterners gathered together, and they went across and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. ³⁴And the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the ramshorn, and Abiezer was called to assembly after him. ³⁵And he sent messengers throughout all the territory of Manasseh, and they too were called to assembly, following him. And he sent messengers to Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. ³⁶Then Gideon said to God, “If you are about to save Israel through my intermediacy, as you have said, ³⁷here I am ready to put the fleece of wool on the threshing floor, to see whether there will be dew on the fleece only and dryness on all the ground, so that I know that it is through my intermediacy that you will save Israel, as you have said.” ³⁸And it was so, and he rose early on the next day, and he wrung the fleece out and extracted dew from the fleece – a full bowl of water. ³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak just once. Please let me do the test just once with the fleece. Let the fleece only be dry, and let there be dew on all the ground.” ⁴⁰And God did so on that night, and there was dryness for the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.