CHAPTER 6
1 Forsooth the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he betook them into the hand of Midian seven years.
2 And Israel was oppressed of them greatly; and Israel made ditches, and dens to themselves in hills, and most strong places to fight against Midian.
3 And when Israel had sown, Midian ascended [or went up], and Amalek, and others of the nations of the east;
4 and they setted their tents beside the sons of Israel, and they wasted all things that were in herbs, either green corn, unto the entering of Gaza, and utterly they left not in Israel anything pertaining to life, not sheep, not oxen, not asses.
5 For they and all their flocks came with their tabernacles, and at the likeness of locusts they full-filled all things, and a multitude of men and of camels was without number, and they wasted whatever thing they touched.
6 And Israel was made low greatly in the sight of Midian. And Israel cried to the Lord,
7 and asked help against Midianites;
8 and he sent to them a man, a prophet, and he spake to them, The Lord God of Israel saith these things, I made you to go up from Egypt, and I led you out of the house of servage,
9 and I delivered you from the hand of Egyptians, and of all [the] enemies that tormented you; and I casted them out at your entering, and I gave to you the land of them;
10 and I said, I am the Lord your God; dread ye not the gods of Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; and ye would not hear my voice.
11 And an angel of the Lord came, and sat under an oak, that was in Ophrah, and it pertained to Joash, the father of the meine of Abiezrites. And when Gideon, the son of Joash, threshed, and purged wheat in a presser, that he should flee Midian,
12 an angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said, The Lord be with thee, thou strongest of men.
13 And Gideon said to him, My lord, I beseech, if the Lord is with us, why then have all these evils taken us? Where be the marvels of him, which our fathers told, and said, The Lord hath led us out of Egypt? For now he hath forsaken us, and hath betaken us into the hand of Midian.
14 And the Lord beheld to him, and said, Go thou in this strength of thee, and thou shalt deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; know thou, that I have sent thee.
15 And Gideon answered, and said, My lord, I beseech, in what thing shall I deliver Israel? Lo! my meine is the lowest in Manasseh, and I am the least in the house of my father.
16 And the Lord said to him, I shall be with thee, and thou shalt smite Midian as one man.
17 And Gideon said, If I have found grace before thee, give to me a sign, that thou, that speakest to me, art sent of God’s part;
18 go thou not away from hence, till I turn again to thee, and bring sacrifice, and offer to thee. Which answered, I shall abide thy coming.
19 And so Gideon went in, and seethed a kid, and took therf loaves of a bushel of meal, and the flesh in a pannier; and he put the broth of the flesh in a pot, and he bare all these things under the oak, and offered those to him.
20 To whom the angel of the Lord said, Take thou the flesh, and the therf loaves, and put them on that stone, and pour the broth above. And when he had done so,
21 the angel of the Lord held forth the end of the staff, which he held in the hand, and he touched the fleshes, and the therf loaves; and fire ascend-ed [or went up] from the stone, and wasted the fleshes, and [the] therf loaves. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his eyes.
22 And Gideon saw that he was an angel of the Lord, and he said, Lord God, alas to me, for I saw the angel of the Lord face to face.
23 And the Lord said to him, Peace be with thee; dread thou not, thou shalt not die.
24 Then Gideon builded there an altar to the Lord, and he called it the Peace of the Lord, unto this present day. And when he was yet in Ophrah, which is of the meine of Abiezrites,
25 the Lord said to him in that night, Take thou thy father’s bull, and another bull of seven years, and thou shalt destroy the altar of Baal, that is thy father’s, and cut thou down the wood, which is about the altar;
26 and thou shalt build an altar to thy Lord God in the highness of this stone, on which thou puttedest sacrifice before; and thou shalt take the second bull, and thou shalt offer burnt sacrifice on the heap of trees, which thou cuttedest down of the wood.
27 Therefore Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord commanded to him. And Gideon dreaded the house of his father, and the men of that city, and he would not do by day, but he fulfilled all things by night.
28 And when men of that city had risen early, they saw the altar of Baal destroyed, and the wood cut down, and the tother bull put on the altar, that was builded.
29 And they said together, Who hath done this? And when they inquired the doer of the deed, it was said, Gideon, the son of Joash, did all these things.
30 And they said to Joash, Bring forth thy son hither, that he die, for he hath destroyed the altar of Baal, and hath cut down the wood about it.
31 To whom Joash answered, Whether ye be the avengers of Baal, that ye fight for him? he that is adversary of him, die he, before the morrow light come; if he is God, avenge he himself of him that hath cast down his altar.
32 From that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, for-thy that Joash had said, Baal take vengeance of him that hath cast down his altar.
33 Therefore all Midian, and Amalek, and the peoples of the east were gathered together, and they passed over Jordan, and setted tents in the valley of Jezreel.
34 Forsooth the spirit of the Lord clothed, or full-filled, Gideon; and he sounded with a clarion, and called together the house of Abiezer, that it should follow him.
35 And he sent messengers into all Manasseh, and he pursued [or followed] Gideon; and he sent other messengers into Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali, and they came to him.
36 And Gideon said to the Lord, If thou makest safe Israel by mine hand, as thou hast spoken,
37 I shall put this fleece of wool in the cornfloor; if the dew is in the fleece alone, and dryness is in all the earth, I shall know, that thou shalt deliver Israel by mine hand, as thou hast spoken.
38 And it was done so. And he rose by night, and when the fleece was wrung out, he filled a basin with dew;
39 and he said again to the Lord, Thy strong vengeance be not wroth against me, if I assay yet once, and seek a sign in the fleece; I pray, that the fleece alone be dry, and that all the earth be moist with dew.
40 And the Lord did in that night, as Gideon asked; and dryness was in the fleece alone, and dew was in all the earth.