| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | International Standard Version |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1Later on, the Israelis practiced what the LORD considered to be evil, so the LORD handed them over to the domination of Midian for seven years. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2Midian's control predominated throughout Israel, and because of Midian the Israelis went out to find temporary hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and fortified places. |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3Whenever the Israelis sowed their crops, the Midianites, the Amalekites, and certain groups from the east would come up and invade them. |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4They set up their military encampments to fight them, destroyed the harvest of the land as far as Gaza, and left nothing in Israel, whether harvested grain, sheep, oxen, or donkeys. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5They would invade with their livestock and tents, swooping in as numerous as locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels—and they came into the land to destroy it. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6Because Israel was deeply impoverished due to the Midianites, they cried out to the LORD. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7When the Israelis cried out to him about Midian, |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8the LORD sent a man who was a prophet to the Israelis and told them, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: 'I was the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, delivering you from the house of servitude. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9I delivered you from the domination of Egypt and from the domination of all of your oppressors, expelling them right in front of you and giving their land to you. |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10I told you, "I am the LORD your God. You are not to fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you'll be living."' But you haven't obeyed what I said." |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11After this, the angel of the LORD arrived and sat down in the shade of the oak tree in Ophrah that belonged to Joash, a descendant of Abiezer, while his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press in order to safeguard it from the Midianites. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12The angel of the LORD appeared to him and told him, "The LORD is with you, you valiant warrior!" |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13But Gideon replied, "Right… Sir, if the LORD is with us, then why has all of this happened to us? And where are all of his miraculous works that our ancestors recounted to us when they said, 'The LORD brought us up from Egypt, didn't he?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us over to Midian!" |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14The LORD looked straight at him and replied, "Go with this determination of yours and deliver Israel from Midian's domination. I've directed you, haven't I?" |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15"Right…," Gideon responded. "Sir, how will I deliver Israel? Look—my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I'm the youngest in my father's household." |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16The LORD told him, "Because I'll be with you, and you'll defeat Midian—every single one of them!" |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17So Gideon asked him, "Please, if I have received favor from you, then do a miracle for me that shows that you're making this promise to me. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18And please don't leave here until I've come back to you, brought my offering, and set it down in front of you." The LORD replied, "I'll stay until you return." |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19Then Gideon went and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and poured the broth into a pot, and brought them to the angel right under the oak tree. Then he made his offering. |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20The angel, who was God, replied, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this boulder. Then pour out the broth." So he did that. |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21The angel of the LORD extended the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and unleavened bread. Fire broke out from inside the boulder, consuming the meat and unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished in front of him. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22When Gideon realized that he had seen the angel of the LORD himself, he cried out, "Oh no! Lord GOD! I've been looking right at the angel of the LORD—and face-to-face at that!" |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23"Calm down! Don't be afraid." the LORD replied. "You're not going to die!" |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24So Gideon built an altar right there to the LORD and called it "The LORD is peace." (To this very day it still stands in Ophrah, which belongs to the descendants of Abiezer.) |
| 25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25Later that very night, the LORD told Gideon, "Take the bull that belongs to your father, along with a second bull that's seven years old. Then tear down the altar to Baal that your father owns, cut down the Asherah that's beside it, |
| 26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this stronghold in an orderly manner. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering using the wood from the Asherah that you'll be cutting down." |
| 27[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 27So Gideon went with ten men who were his servants and did just what the LORD had told him to do, though he did it at night because he was too afraid of his father's family and the leading men of the city to do it during the day. |
| 28[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 28When the leading men of the city got up early the next morning, the altar to Baal had been torn down, along with the Asherah that had stood beside it, and the second bull had been offered on the altar that had been erected. |
| 29[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 29They asked each other, "Who did this thing?" When they looked into it and asked around, they concluded, "Joash's son Gideon did it." |
| 30[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 30So the leading men of the city ordered Joash, "Bring us that son of yours. He's going to die, because he tore down the altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah that stood beside it!" |
| 31[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 31But Joash responded to everyone who was opposing him, "Do you really intend to fight on Baal's behalf? Do you really intend to rescue him by ordering that whoever fights him will be executed by morning? If Baal is a god, let him fight for himself. After all, it was his altar that was torn down." |
| 32[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 32So that very day he named Gideon Jerubbaal, that is, "Let Baal fight," since he had torn down his altar. |
| 33[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 33Then all the Midianites, Amalekites, and certain groups from the east gathered together, crossed the Jordan River, and set up camp in the Jezreel Valley. |
| 34[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 34So the Spirit of the LORD took control of Gideon, who blew a trumpet, mustering the descendants of Abiezer to follow him into battle. |
| 35[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 35He sent messengers to the entire tribe of Manasseh, calling them to follow him, and he also sent word to the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, calling them to meet him. |
| 36[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 36Then Gideon told God, "If you intend to deliver Israel by my efforts as you've said, |
| 37[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 37then take a look at this wool fleece that I'm placing on the threshing floor. If dew appears only on the fleece—and it's dry on the ground all around it—then I'll know that you'll deliver Israel by my efforts like you've said." |
| 38[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 38And that is what happened: When he got up early the next morning, he wrung out the fleece to drain the dew from it and extracted a bowl full of water. |
| 39[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 39Then Gideon told God, "Don't let yourself be angry with me! I want to ask you once again: please let me make a test with the fleece just once more. Cause it to be dry only on the fleece, but let there be dew all around on the ground." |
| 40[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 40And God did it just like that later that night. It was dry only on the fleece, but dew was all around on the ground. |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. |
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