Study Desk

Then Iael the wife of Heber toke a nale of the tente, and an hammer in hir hande, & wente in preuely vnto him, & smote the nale in thorow the temples of his heade, so yt he sancke to ye earth. As for him, he was fallen on a slomber, and weery, and so he dyed.

His mother loked out at the wyndowe, & cried piteously thorow the trallace: Why tarieth his charet out so loge, that he cometh not? Wherfore do the wheles of his charet make so longe tarienge?

For they came vp with their catell and tentes, as it had bene a greate multitude of greshoppers (so that nether they ner their camels mighte be nombred) and fell in to the londe, that they mighte destroye it.

The LORDE sayde vnto him: I will be wt the, so yt thou shalt smyte the Madianites, euen as though they were but one man.

But the angell of God sayde vnto him: Take the flesh and the vnleuended bred, & set it vpon the stonye rocke that is here, and poure the broth theron. And he dyd so.

Then toke Gedeon ten men of his seruauntes, and dyd as ye LORDE sayde vnto him: but he was afrayed to do this by daye tyme, for his fathers house and the people in ye cite, and so he dyd it by nighte.

And it came so to passe. And whan he rose vp early on the morow, he wrage ye dew out of the flese, and fylled a dyßshe full of water.

And God dyd so the same nighte: so that it was drye onely vpon the flese, and dew vpon all the grounde.

Then Ierubaal (that is Gedeon) gat him vp early, and all the people that was with him, and pitched their tentes besyde the well of Harod, so that he had the hoost of the Madianites on the north side behynde the hyll of More in the valley.

Cause a proclamacion now to be made in the eares of the people, and saye: He that feareth, and is afrayed, let him turne backe, and get him soone fro mount Gilead. Then returned there of the people aboute a two and twenty thousande so that there was left but ten thousande.

Now whan Gedeon came, beholde, one tolde another his dreame, & sayde: Beholde, I haue dreamed a dreame: Me thoughte a bake barlye lofe came rollinge downe to ye hoost of ye Madianites: and whan it came to the tente, it smote it, and ouerthrew it, and turned it vpsyde downe, so that the tente fell.

and sayde vnto them: Loke vnto me, and do ye eue so, and beholde, wha I come to the vttemost parte of the hoost, euen as I do, so do ye also.

So all the thre companies blewe with ye trompettes, and brake the pitchers. But the lampes helde they in their lefte hande, and the trompettes in their righte hade, so that they blewe, and cried: Here the swerde of the LORDE and Gedeon.

And whyle the thre hundreth men blewe the trompettes, ye LORDE broughte it so to passe, that euery mans swerde in all ye hoost was agaynst another, and the hoost fled vnto Bethsitha Zereratha, and vnto the border of the playne of Mehohab besyde Tabath.

And from thence he wente vp vnto Penuel, and spake euen so vnto them. And the me of Penuel gaue him like answere as they of Sucoth.

And he saide vnto his first borne sonne Iether: Stonde vp, & slaye them. Howbeit the lad drue not out his swerde, for he was afrayed, for so moch as he was yet but a lad.

Zebea & Salmana sayde: Stonde thou vp, & slaye vs, for as the man is, soch is also his stregth. So Gedeon arose, and slewe Zebea and Salmana, and toke the ornamentes that were aboute their Camels neckes.

Then sayde certayne in Israel vnto Gedeon: Be thou lorde ouer vs, thou and thy sonne, and thy sonnes sonne, for so moch as thou hast delyuered vs from ye hande of ye Madianites.

Gedeon sayde vnto them: One thinge I desyre of you, Euery man geue me the earinge that he hath spoyled. (For in so moch as ye men were Ismaelites, they had earinges.)

eue you, which are rysen vp this daye agaynst my fathers house, & haue slaine his childre, thre score personnes & ten vpon one stone, and haue made you a kynge (euen Abimelech the sonne of his handmaide) ouer the men at Sichem, for so moch as he is youre brother.