Study Desk

and his soldiers were swept away by the ancient Kishon River. I will march on and be brave.

The Lord 's angel said, "Put a curse on Meroz Town! Its people refused to help the Lord fight his powerful enemies."

She reached for a tent-peg and held a hammer in her right hand. And with a blow to the head, she crushed his skull.

Sisera sank to his knees and fell dead at her feet.

Sisera's mother looked out through her window. "Why is he taking so long?" she asked. "Why haven't we heard his chariots coming?"

"Sisera and his troops are finding treasures to bring back— a woman, or maybe two, for each man, and beautiful dresses for those women to wear."

Gideon chose ten of his servants to help him, and they did everything God had said. But since Gideon was afraid of his family and the other people in town, he did it all at night.

The crowd pushed closer and closer, but Joash replied, "Are you trying to take revenge for Baal? Are you trying to rescue Baal? If you are, you will be the ones who are put to death, and it will happen before another day dawns. If Baal really is a god, let him take his own revenge on someone who tears down his altar."

He also sent messengers to the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, telling the men of these tribes to come and join his army. Then they set out toward the enemy camp.

Early the next morning, Gideon and his army got up and moved their camp to Fear Spring. The Midianite camp was to the north, in the valley at the foot of Moreh Hill.

When Gideon led his army down to the spring, the Lord told him, "Watch how each man gets a drink of water. Then divide them into two groups—those who lap the water like a dog and those who kneel down to drink."

The other soldier answered, "Your dream must have been about Gideon, the Israelite commander. It means God will let him and his army defeat the Midianite army and everyone else in our camp."

Gideon divided his little army into three groups of one hundred men, and he gave each soldier a trumpet and a large clay jar with a burning torch inside.

Gideon and his group reached the edge of the enemy camp a few hours after dark, just after the new guards had come on duty. Gideon and his soldiers blew their trumpets and smashed the clay jars that were hiding the torches.

After Gideon and his three hundred troops had chased the Midianites as far as the Jordan River, they were exhausted.

Gideon turned to Jether, his oldest son. "Kill them!" Gideon said. But Jether was young, and he was too afraid to even pull out his sword.

Gideon returned to his home in Ophrah and had the gold made into a statue, which the Israelites soon started worshiping. They became unfaithful to God, and even Gideon and his family were trapped into worshiping the statue. The Midianites had been defeated so badly that they were no longer strong enough to attack Israel. And so Israel was at peace for the remaining forty years of Gideon's life.

Gideon lived to be an old man. And when he died, he was buried in the family tomb in his hometown of Ophrah, which belonged to the Abiezer clan.

Abimelech the son of Gideon went to Shechem. While there, he met with his mother's relatives

Abimelech and his soldiers went to his father's home in Ophrah and brought out Gideon's other sons to a large rock, where they murdered all seventy. Gideon's youngest son Jotham hid from the soldiers, but he was the only one who escaped.