Study Desk

So he brought the people down to the water, and the LORD said to Gideon, "You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels down to drink."

And the LORD told Gideon, "With the three hundred men who lapped I will rescue you, and will hand over the Midianites to you. Let all the other people go, each man to his home."

So the three hundred men took people's provisions [for the journey] and their trumpets [made of rams' horns] in their hands. And Gideon sent [away] all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but kept the three hundred men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

and you will hear what they say; and afterward you will have the courage to go down against the camp." Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the army that was in the camp.

When Gideon arrived, there was a man telling a dream to his friend. And he said, "Listen carefully, I had a dream: there was a loaf of barley bread tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat."

And his friend replied, "This [dream] is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has given Midian and the entire camp into his hand."

Then each stood in his place around the camp; and the entire [Midianite] army ran, crying out as they fled.

So [to humiliate them] Gideon said to Jether his firstborn, "Stand up, and kill them!" But the youth did not draw his sword, because he was afraid, for he was still [just] a boy.

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, "Rise up yourself and strike us; for as the man is, so is his strength." So Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescent amulets that were on their camels' necks.

And Gideon said to them, "I would make a request of you, that each one of you give me an earring from his spoil." For the Midianites had gold earrings, because they were Ishmaelites [who customarily wore them].

They answered, "We will certainly give them to you." And they spread out a garment, and every one of them threw an earring there from his spoil.

Gideon made [all the golden earrings into] an ephod [a sacred, high priest's garment], and put it in his city of Ophrah, and all Israel worshiped it as an idol there, and it became a trap for Gideon and his household.

Jerubbaal (Gideon) the son of Joash went and lived in his own house.

And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelech.

Gideon the son of Joash died at a good advanced age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal (Gideon) went to Shechem to his mother's relatives, and said to them and to the whole clan of the household of his mother's father,

So his mother's relatives spoke all these words concerning him so that all the leaders of Shechem could hear; and their hearts were inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, "He is our relative."

Then he went to his father's house at Ophrah and murdered his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, [in a public execution] on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left alive, because he had hidden himself.

"Now then, if you acted in truth and integrity when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have dealt with him as he deserved—

for my father fought for you and risked his life and rescued you from the hand of Midian;