Study Desk

When Barak came looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, "Come here! I'll show you the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there was Sisera on the ground, dead, with the tent peg through his head.

Sisera's mother looked out of the window; she gazed from behind the lattice. "Why is his chariot so late in coming?" she asked. "Why are his horses so slow to return?"

So may all your enemies die like that, O Lord , but may your friends shine like the rising sun! And there was peace in the land for forty years.

Once again the people of Israel sinned against the Lord , so he let the people of Midian rule them for seven years.

Then the Lord 's angel came to the village of Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was threshing some wheat secretly in a wine press, so that the Midianites would not see him.

So Gideon went into his house and cooked a young goat and used a bushel of flour to make bread without any yeast. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them to the Lord 's angel under the oak tree, and gave them to him.

The angel told him, "Put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them." Gideon did so.

So Gideon took ten of his servants and did what the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his family and the people in town to do it by day, so he did it at night.

Then they said to Joash, "Bring your son out here, so that we can kill him! He tore down the altar to Baal and cut down the symbol of Asherah beside it."

The Lord said to Gideon, "The men you have are too many for me to give them victory over the Midianites. They might think that they had won by themselves, and so give me no credit.

Announce to the people, ‘Anyone who is afraid should go back home, and we will stay here at Mount Gilead.'" So twenty-two thousand went back, but ten thousand stayed.

So Gideon sent all the Israelites home, except the three hundred, who kept all the supplies and trumpets. The Midianite camp was below them in the valley.

You will hear what they are saying, and then you will have the courage to attack." So Gideon and his servant Purah went down to the edge of the enemy camp.

After all, through the power of God you killed the two Midianite chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I done to compare with that?" When he said this, they were no longer so angry.

So Gideon said, "All right! When the Lord has handed Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will beat you with thorns and briers from the desert!"

So he said to them, "I am going to come back safe and sound, and when I do, I will tear this tower down!"

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, "Come on, kill us yourself. It takes a man to do a man's job." So Gideon killed them and took the ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.

So Midian was defeated by the Israelites and was no longer a threat. The land was at peace for forty years, until Gideon died.

So the trees then said to the grapevine, ‘You come and be our king.'

So then all the trees said to the thorn bush, ‘You come and be our king.'