Study Desk

Through the window she looked forth, and cried, The mother of Sisera [cried] through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the wheels of his chariots wait?

So let all your enemies perish, LORD: But let those who love him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might. The land had rest forty years.

So it was, when Yisra'el had sown, that the Midyanim came up, and the `Amaleki, and the children of the east; they came up against them;

The angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth. He did so.

Then Gid`on took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had spoken to him: and it happened, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

It was so; for he rose up early on the next day, and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

God did so that night: for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

So he brought down the people to the water: and the LORD said to Gid`on, Everyone who laps of the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, him shall you set by himself; likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.

So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets; and he sent all the men of Yisra'el every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men: and the camp of Midyan was beneath him in the valley.

When Gid`on had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his fellow; and he said, Behold, I dreamed a dream; and, behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midyan, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.

It was so, when Gid`on heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation of it, that he worshiped; and he returned into the camp of Yisra'el, and said, Arise; for the LORD has delivered into your hand the host of Midyan.

He said to them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outermost part of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do.

So Gid`on, and the hundred men who were with him, came to the outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands.

Gid`on sent messengers throughout all the hill-country of Efrayim, saying, Come down against Midyan, and take before them the waters, as far as Beit-Barah, even the Yarden. So all the men of Efrayim were gathered together, and took the waters as far as Beit-Barah, even the Yarden.

Then said he to Zevach and Tzalmunnah, What manner of men were they whom you killed at Tavor? They answered, As you are, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king.

Then Zevach and Tzalmunnah said, Rise you, and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength. Gid`on arose, and killed Zevach and Tzalmunnah, and took the crescents that were on their camels' necks.

So Midyan was subdued before the children of Yisra'el, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gid`on.

All the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Avimelekh, and put them to the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire on them; so that all the men of the tower of Shekhem died also, about a thousand men and women.

The children of `Ammon passed over the Yarden to fight also against Yehudah, and against Binyamin, and against the house of Efrayim; so that Yisra'el was sore distressed.

It was so, that when the children of `Ammon made war against Yisra'el, the Zakenim of Gil`ad went to get Yiftach out of the land of Tov;