The Father Chooses Three Hundred
Because a large army would let Israel boast that its own hand saved it, our Father cuts Gideon's thousands to three hundred by fear and by how men drink. Gideon overhears an enemy's dream, worships, and wins with trumpets and torches as the camp turns its swords on itself.
7 1Jerubbaal (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.
2Our 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.' 3Now announce to the people: 'Whoever is afraid and trembling, turn back and leave Mount Gilead.'" 22,000 turned back; 10,000 remained.
4Our 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." 5He 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."
6300 men lapped, hand to mouth; all the rest knelt to drink water.
7Our Father told Gideon, "With the 300 men who lapped I'll save you and give Midian into your hand. Send everyone else home, each to his place."
8The people took provisions and trumpets; Gideon sent the rest of Israel home, each to his tent, keeping the 300. Midian's camp lay below him in the valley.
9That night our Father told him, "Up, go down to the camp, for I've given it into your hand. 10But 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, and you will go down into the camp." He went down with his servant Purah to the edge of the camp's armed troops.
12Midianites, Amalekites, and all the eastern peoples lay in the valley like locusts; their camels were as countless as sand on the shore. 13When 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."
14His companion answered, "This is only the sword of Gideon son of Joash, an Israelite. God gave Midian and the whole camp into his hand."
15Gideon 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." 16He split the 300 men into three companies, each with a trumpet, an empty jar, and a torch inside.
17He told them, "Watch me; do as I do. When I reach the camp's edge, do as I do."
18When I and all with me blow trumpets, blow yours around the whole camp, and shout: "For our Father and for Gideon!"
19Gideon and his one 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. 20The 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!" 21Each man stayed in place around the camp while the whole army ran, shouted, and fled. 22When the 300 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. 23Israelites from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued Midian. 24Gideon 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. 25They captured Midian's two princes, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at Oreb's rock and Zeeb at Zeeb's winepress. Then they pursued Midian and brought Oreb's and Zeeb's heads to Gideon across the Jordan.
