1 Early in the morning Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, and all the troops with him encamped by the spring of Harod. Midian's camp lay north of him, by the hill of Moreh in the valley.
2 The LORD said to Gideon, "There are too many troops with you for me to hand Midian over to them; Israel would glorify itself over me, saying, 'My own hand has rescued me.'
3 So now announce in the hearing of the troops: 'Whoever is fearful and trembling may turn back and hurry away from Mount Gilead.'" Twenty-two thousand of the troops turned back, and ten thousand were left.
4 The LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many troops. Bring them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. Whoever I tell you, 'This one is to go with you,' is to go with you; and whoever I tell you, 'This one is not to go with you,' is not to go."
5 He brought the troops down to the water, and the LORD told Gideon, "Everyone who laps the water with his tongue the way a dog laps, put him on one side, and everyone who gets down on his knees to drink."
6 Those who lapped with their hands to their mouths numbered three hundred men; all the rest of the troops got down on their knees to drink water.
7 The LORD told Gideon, "By the three hundred men who lapped I will rescue you and hand Midian over to you. Let all the rest of the troops go home, each to his place."
8 The troops took provisions and their horns in hand, and he dismissed all the men of Israel, each to his tent, keeping only the three hundred men. Midian's camp lay beneath him in the valley.
9 That night the LORD said to him, "Up, go down into the camp, for I have handed it over to you.
10 If you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant,
11 and listen to what they are saying. After that your hands will be strong and you will go down into the camp." So he went down with Purah his servant to the edge of the armed men who were in the camp.
12 Midian and Amalek and all the sons of the east were spread over the valley as thick as locusts, and their camels were past counting, as many as the sand on the shore of the sea.
13 Gideon arrived, and there was a man recounting a dream to his comrade. "I had a dream," he was saying, "and there was a cake of barley bread rolling over and over into Midian's camp. It came up to the tent and hit it; it fell, it turned it upside down, and the tent collapsed."
14 His comrade replied, "This can only be the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has handed Midian and the whole camp over to him."
15 When Gideon heard the account of the dream and what it meant, he bowed in worship. He went back to Israel's camp and said, "Up! The LORD has handed Midian's camp over to you."
16 He split the three hundred men into three units, and put horns and empty jars into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the jars.
17 He told them, "Look at me and do likewise. When I reach the edge of the camp, do exactly what I do.
18 When I sound the horn, I and everyone with me, you too sound the horns all around the camp and shout, 'For the LORD and for Gideon!'"
19 Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the start of the middle watch, just after the guards had been set. They sounded the horns and smashed the jars they held.
20 All three units sounded the horns and shattered the jars; they gripped the torches in their left hands and the horns for blowing in their right, and they shouted, "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!"
21 Each man stayed where he stood around the camp, and the whole camp ran; they cried out and fled.
22 As the three hundred horns sounded, the LORD turned each man's sword against his comrade throughout the camp. The army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.
23 The men of Israel were called out from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh, and they chased after Midian.
24 Gideon sent messengers all through the hill country of Ephraim with the word: "Come down to meet Midian, and take the waters ahead of them as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan." So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they took the waters as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan.
25 They captured Midian's two princes, Oreb and Zeeb; they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They kept chasing Midian, and they carried the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the far side of the Jordan.