Study Desk

Let them tell the righteous acts of the Lord,the righteous deeds of his warriors in Israel,with the voices of the singers at the watering places.Then the Lord’s people went down to the city gates.

The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;Issachar was with Barak;they were under his leadership in the valley.There was great searching of heartamong the clans of Reuben.

Gilead remained beyond the Jordan.Dan, why did you linger at the ships?Asher remained at the seashoreand stayed in his harbors.

The horses’ hooves then hammered—the galloping, galloping of his stallions.

She reached for a tent peg,her right hand, for a workman’s hammer.Then she hammered Sisera—she crushed his head;she shattered and pierced his temple.

Sisera’s mother looked through the window;she peered through the lattice, crying out:“Why is his chariot so long in coming?Why don’t I hear the hoofbeats of his horses?”

The angel of the Lord came, and he sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites.

Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened? And where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about? They said, ‘Hasn’t the Lord brought us out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

The angel of the Lord extended the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire came up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

So Gideon took ten of his male servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his father’s family and the men of the city to do it in the daytime, he did it at night.

But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead Baal’s case for him? Would you save him? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead his own case because someone tore down his altar.”

That day he was called Jerubbaal, since Joash said, “Let Baal contend with him,” because he tore down his altar.

So he brought the troops down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, “Separate everyone who laps water with his tongue like a dog. Do the same with everyone who kneels to drink.”

Listen to what they say, and then you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the troops who were in the camp.

When Gideon arrived, there was a man telling his friend about a dream. He said, “Listen, I had a dream: a loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp, struck a tent, and it fell. The loaf turned the tent upside down so that it collapsed.”

His friend answered: “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has handed the entire Midianite camp over to him.”

Each Israelite took his position around the camp, and the entire Midianite army began to run, and they cried out as they fled.

Then he said to Jether, his firstborn, “Get up and kill them.” The youth did not draw his sword, for he was afraid because he was still a youth.

Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Get up and strike us down yourself, for a man is judged by his strength.” So Gideon got up, killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.

Then he said to them, “Let me make a request of you: Everyone give me an earring from his plunder.” Now the enemy had gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites.