Gideon’s Army of Three Hundred
And Jerubbaal — that is Gideon — rose early, and all the people who were with him, and they camped at the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was north of him, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
And the LORD said to Gideon: “The people with you are too many for me to give Midian into their hand — lest Israel glorify itself over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
And now, call out, please, in the ears of the people, saying: Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him turn back and depart from Mount Gilead.” And twenty-two thousand of the people turned back, and ten thousand were left.
And the LORD said to Gideon: “The people are still too many. Bring them down to the water, and I will refine them for you there. And it shall be, of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; and of everyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
And he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps of the water with his tongue, as the dog laps, you shall set apart — and everyone who kneels on his knees to drink.”
And the number of those who lapped, with their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; and all the rest of the people knelt on their knees to drink water.
And the LORD said to Gideon: “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and I will give Midian into your hand; and let all the people go, each to his place.”
And they took the provisions of the people in their hand, and their trumpets; and every man of Israel he sent away, each to his tents, but the three hundred men he kept. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
The Sword of Gideon
And it was on that night that the LORD said to him: “Rise, go down against the camp — for I have given it into your hand.
But if you are afraid to go down, go down with Purah your servant to the camp,
and hear what they are saying; and afterward your hands will be strong, and you will go down against the camp.” And he went down, he and Purah his servant, to the edge of the armed men who were in the camp.
And Midian and Amalek and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley, like locusts in multitude; and their camels were without number, like the sand that is on the shore of the sea in multitude.
And Gideon came — and look, a man was recounting a dream to his neighbor. And he said: “Look, I dreamed a dream — and look, a round loaf of barley bread was tumbling through the camp of Midian; and it came to the tent and struck it, and it fell — it turned it upside down, and the tent fell flat.”
And his neighbor answered and said, “This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand.”
Gideon Defeats Midian
And it was, when Gideon heard the recounting of the dream and its interpretation, that he bowed down; and he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Rise — for the LORD has given the camp of Midian into your hand.”
And he divided the three hundred men into three companies; and he put trumpets into the hand of all of them, and empty jars, with torches inside the jars.
And he said to them: “Watch me, and do the same. And look — when I come to the edge of the camp, then as I do, so you shall do.
When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you too shall blow the trumpets all around the whole camp, and say, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon!’”
And Gideon came, and the hundred men who were with him, to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch — they had just posted the watchmen — and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hand.
And the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars, and held the torches in their left hand and the trumpets in their right hand for blowing; and they cried, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”
And they stood, each in his place, all around the camp; and the whole camp ran, and they shouted, and fled.
And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set the sword of each man against his neighbor, and against the whole camp; and the camp fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali, and from Asher, and from all Manasseh; and they pursued after Midian.
And Gideon sent messengers through all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down to meet Midian, and capture the waters ahead of them, as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan.” And every man of Ephraim was called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan.
And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb, and they pursued Midian. And the heads of Oreb and Zeeb they brought to Gideon from across the Jordan.