1 Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all
the people who were with him, rose up
early and encamped beside the spring of
Harod. Midian’s camp was on the north
side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the
valley.

2 Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people
who are with you are too many for me to
give the Midianites into their hand, lest
Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own
hand has saved me.’

3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of
the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and
trembling, let him return and depart from
Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand
remained.

4 Yahweh said to Gideon, “There are still
too many people. Bring them down to the
water, and I will test them for you there. It
shall be, that those whom I tell you, ‘This
shall go with you,’ shall go with you; and
whoever I tell you, ‘This shall not go with
you,’ shall not go.”

5 So he brought down the people to the
water; and Yahweh said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps of the water with his tongue,
like adog laps, youshall sethimbyhimself;
likewise everyone who bows down on his
knees to drink.”

6 The number of those who lapped,
putting their hand to their mouth, was
three hundred men; but all the rest of
the people bowed down on their knees to
drink water.

7Yahweh said to Gideon, “I will save you
by the three hundred men who lapped,
and deliver the Midianites into your hand.
Let all the other people go, each to his own
place.”

8 So the people took food in their hand,
and their trumpets; and he sent all the rest
of the men of Israel to their own tents, but
retained the three hundred men; and the
camp of Midian was beneath him in the
valley.

9 That same night, Yahweh said to him,
“Arise, go down into the camp, for I have
delivered it into your hand.

10 But if you are afraid to go down,
go with Purah your servant down to the
camp.

11 You will hear what they say; and afterward your hands will be strengthened
to go down into the camp.” Then went he
down with Purah his servant to the outermost part of the armed men who were in the camp.

12 The Midianites and the Amalekites
and all the children of the east lay along
in the valley like locusts for multitude; and
their camels were without number, as the
sand which is on the seashore for multitude.

13 When Gideon had come, behold, there
was a man telling a dream to his fellow.
He said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream; and
behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled
into the camp of Midian, came to the tent,
and struck it so that it fell, and turned it
upside down, so that the tent lay flat.”