1 Then the children of Israel did evil in the LORD's sight, and the LORD handed them over to Midian for seven years.
2 Midian's hand bore down hard on Israel. Because of Midian the children of Israel made the hollows that are in the mountains for themselves, and the caves and the strongholds.
3 And whenever Israel sowed, Midian would come up, with Amalek and the sons of the east; they would come up against them.
4 They would encamp against them and ruin the crops of the land all the way to Gaza, leaving nothing to live on in Israel, no sheep, no ox, no donkey.
5 For they would come up with their herds and their tents, as thick as locusts; there was no counting them or their camels, and they entered the land to lay it waste.
6 Israel was reduced to great poverty by Midian, and the children of Israel cried to the LORD.
7 And when the children of Israel cried to the LORD because of Midian,
8 the LORD sent a man, a prophet, to the children of Israel, who said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'It was I who brought you up out of Egypt and led you out of the house of slaves.
9 I rescued you from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out ahead of you and gave you their land.
10 I told you, "I am the LORD your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living." Yet you have not obeyed my voice.'"
11 The angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to keep it hidden from Midian.
12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!"
13 Gideon answered him, "Pardon me, my lord, but if the LORD is with us, why has all this come upon us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Was it not the LORD who brought us up from Egypt?' Now the LORD has cast us off and handed us over to Midian."
14 The LORD turned toward him and said, "Go in this strength you have and rescue Israel from the hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?"
15 He answered him, "Pardon me, Lord, with what shall I rescue Israel? My clan is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."
16 The LORD said to him, "I will indeed be with you, and you will strike Midian down as though it were one man."
17 He said to him, "If I have found favor in your sight, then give me a sign that you are the one speaking with me.
18 Please do not go away from here until I come back to you, bring my offering, and set it before you." He said, "I will stay until you come back."
19 Gideon went in and got ready a young goat and unleavened loaves from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them out to him beneath the oak, and offered them.
20 The angel of God told him, "Take the meat and the unleavened loaves, put them on this rock, and pour out the broth." He did so.
21 The angel of the LORD stretched out the end of the staff he held and touched the meat and the unleavened loaves. Fire flared up from the rock and devoured the meat and the loaves, and the angel of the LORD went from his sight.
22 Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, and Gideon said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"
23 The LORD said to him, "Peace to you. Do not be afraid; you will not die."
24 Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it The LORD Is Peace. It is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites to this day.
25 That very night the LORD said to him, "Take the young bull of your father's, the second bull seven years old. Pull down your father's altar of Baal, and cut down the Asherah that stands by it.
26 Build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this stronghold, in the proper arrangement. Take the second bull and offer a burnt offering on the wood of the Asherah you cut down."
27 Gideon took ten of his servants and did what the LORD had told him. Since he was too afraid of his father's household and of the men of the town to do it in the daytime, he did it at night.
28 Early in the morning the men of the town got up, and there was Baal's altar pulled down, the Asherah beside it cut down, and the second bull offered on the newly built altar.
29 They asked each other, "Who did this?" They investigated and asked around, and were told, "Gideon son of Joash did this."
30 The men of the town said to Joash, "Bring your son out; he must die, because he pulled down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah beside it."
31 Joash said to all those standing against him, "Is it you who will plead Baal's case? Will you rescue him? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death before morning. If he is a god, let him plead his own case, since his altar has been pulled down."
32 So that day he was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, "Let Baal plead against him," because he had pulled down his altar.
33 Now all Midian and Amalek and the sons of the east gathered together; they crossed over and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.
34 The Spirit of the LORD put on Gideon like a garment; he sounded the horn, and Abiezer was summoned behind him.
35 He sent messengers through all of Manasseh, and it too was summoned behind him; and he sent messengers into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, and they came up to join them.
36 Gideon said to God, "If you are going to rescue Israel by my hand, as you have spoken,
37 see, I am putting a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If dew is on the fleece only and the whole ground is dry, I will know that you will rescue Israel by my hand, as you have spoken."
38 That is what happened. He got up early the next day, pressed the fleece, and squeezed dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.
39 Gideon said to God, "Do not let your anger flare against me, and let me speak only this once more. Let me test just once more with the fleece, please: let the fleece alone be dry, and let there be dew on all the ground."
40 That night God did so: the fleece alone was dry, and on all the ground there was dew.