Judges 7:1-7 ▼

1 And Jerubbaal (he is Gideon) rose early, and all the people who were with him, and they encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianite was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.

2 And YHWH said to Gideon, “The people are too many who are with you for My giving the Midianite into their hands, lest Israel glorify itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’

3 And now proclaim, please, in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Who is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’” And returned of the people twenty-two thousand; and ten thousand remained.

4 And YHWH said to Gideon, “Still the people are too many; bring them down to the water, and I will refine it for you there. And it will be that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

5 And he brought down the people to the water. And YHWH said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps with his tongue from the water as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself, and likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.”

6 And the number of those lapping with their hand to their mouth was three hundred men; and all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water.

7 And YHWH said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who are lapping I will save you? and deliver the Midianite into your hand; and let all the people go, every man to his place.”