Daily Text and Bible Reading: Tuesday, March 18 [Press play below]

6.1 But the Israelites again did what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah, so Jehovah gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years.
6.2 The hand of Midian dominated over Israel. Because of Midian, the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, in the caves, and in the places difficult to approach.
6.3 If Israel sowed seed, Midian and Amalek and the Easterners would attack them.
6.4 They would camp against them and ruin the produce of the land all the way to Gaza, and they left nothing for Israel to eat and no sheep or bull or donkey.
6.5 For they would come up with their livestock and tents as numerous as the locusts, and they and their camels could not be numbered, and they would come into the land to destroy it.
6.6 So Israel became greatly impoverished on account of Midian; and the Israelites called to Jehovah for help.
6.7 When the Israelites called to Jehovah for help because of Midian,
6.8 Jehovah sent to the Israelites a prophet who said to them: “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says, ‘I brought you up from Egypt and thus brought you out of the house of slavery.
6.9 So I rescued you from the hand of Egypt and from all your oppressors and drove them out from before you and gave you their land.
6.10 And I said to you: “I am Jehovah your God. You must not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are dwelling.” But you did not obey me.’”
6.11 Later Jehovah’s angel came and sat under the big tree that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abi-ezrite. His son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from Midian.
6.12 Jehovah’s angel appeared to him and said: “Jehovah is with you, you mighty warrior.”
6.13 At this Gideon said to him: “Pardon me, my lord, but if Jehovah is with us, why has all of this come upon us? Where are all his wonderful acts that our fathers related to us, saying, ‘Did Jehovah not bring us up out of Egypt?’ Now Jehovah has deserted us and given us into Midian’s hand.”
6.14 Jehovah faced him and said: “Go with the strength you have, and you will save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Is it not I who send you?”
6.15 Gideon answered him: “Pardon me, Jehovah. How can I save Israel? Look! My clan is the least in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father’s house.”
6.16 But Jehovah said to him: “Because I will be with you, you will strike down Midian as if they were one man.”
6.17 Then he said to him: “If, now, I have found favor in your eyes, show me a sign that you are the one speaking with me.
6.18 Please do not depart from here until I return with my gift and set it before you.” So he said: “I will stay here until you return.”
6.19 And Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and made unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in the basket and the broth in the cooking pot; then he brought them out to him and served them under the big tree.
6.20 The angel of the true God now said to him: “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and place them on the big rock there, and pour out the broth.” And he did so.
6.21 Then Jehovah’s angel stretched out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread, and fire flared up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Jehovah’s angel then vanished from his sight.
6.22 Gideon now realized that it was Jehovah’s angel. At once Gideon said: “Alas, Sovereign Lord Jehovah, for I have seen Jehovah’s angel face-to-face!”
6.23 But Jehovah said to him: “Peace be with you. Have no fear; you will not die.”
6.24 So Gideon built an altar there to Jehovah, and it is called Jehovah-shalom down to this day. It is still in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.
6.25 That night Jehovah said to him: “Take the young bull that belongs to your father, the second young bull that is seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the sacred pole next to it.
6.26 After you build an altar to Jehovah your God on top of this stronghold with the row of stones, take the second young bull and offer it as a burnt offering on the pieces of wood from the sacred pole that you cut down.”
6.27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did just as Jehovah told him. But he feared the household of his father and the men of the city too much to do it by day, so he did it at night.
6.28 When the men of the city got up early the next morning, they saw that the altar of Baal had been pulled down and the sacred pole beside it had been cut down and the second young bull had been offered up on the altar that had been built.
6.29 They asked one another: “Who did this?” After they investigated, they said: “Gideon the son of Joash did this.”
6.30 So the men of the city said to Joash: “Bring your son out that he may die, because he pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the sacred pole next to it.”
6.31 Joash then said to all those who confronted him: “Do you have to defend Baal? Do you have to save him? Whoever defends him should be put to death this morning. If he is a god, let him defend himself, since someone pulled down his altar.”
6.32 And he called Gideon Jerubbaal on that day, saying: “Let Baal defend himself, for someone has pulled down his altar.”
6.33 All Midian and Amalek and the Easterners joined forces; and they crossed over into the Valley of Jezreel and camped.
6.34 Then Jehovah’s spirit came upon Gideon and he sounded the horn, and the Abi-ezrites rallied behind him.
6.35 He sent out messengers through all of Manasseh, and they too rallied behind him. He also sent out messengers through Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet him.
6.36 Then Gideon said to the true God: “If you are saving Israel by means of me, just as you have promised,
6.37 here I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only but all the ground around it is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by means of me, just as you have promised.”
6.38 And that is how it happened. When he rose up early the next day and wrung the fleece, he squeezed off enough dew from the fleece to fill a large banquet bowl with water.
6.39 However, Gideon said to the true God: “Do not let your anger burn against me, but let me ask just once more. Let me, please, make just one more test with the fleece. Please let the fleece alone be dry while there is dew all over the ground.”
6.40 So that is what God did that night; only the fleece was dry, and there was dew all over the ground.
7.1 Then Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, and all the people with him rose early and encamped at the Spring of Harod, while the camp of Midian was north of him at the hill of Moreh in the valley plain.
7.2 Jehovah now said to Gideon: “There are too many people with you for me to give Midian into their hand. Otherwise, Israel might brag about itself against me and say, ‘My own hand saved me.’
7.3 Now, please, announce in the presence of the people: ‘Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return home.’” So Gideon put them to the test. With that, 22,000 of the people returned home, and 10,000 remained.
7.4 Still Jehovah said to Gideon: “There are yet too many people. Have them go down to the water so that I may test them for you there. When I say to you, ‘This one will go with you,’ he will go with you, but when I say to you, ‘This one will not go along with you,’ he will not go along.”
7.5 So he took the people down to the water. Then Jehovah said to Gideon: “Separate everyone who laps up the water with his tongue just as a dog laps, from those who bend down on their knees to drink.”
7.6 The number of those lapping up the water, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men. The rest of the people bent down on their knees to drink.
7.7 Jehovah now said to Gideon: “I will save you with the 300 men who lapped the water, and I will give Midian into your hand. But let all the other people go back home.”
7.8 So after they took the provisions and the horns from the people, he sent all the other men of Israel back home, and he kept only the 300 men. The camp of Midian was below him in the valley plain.
7.9 During that night, Jehovah said to him: “Get up, attack the camp, for I have given it into your hand.
7.10 But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with Purah your attendant.
7.11 Listen to what they say, and afterward you will have the courage to attack the camp.” At that he and Purah his attendant went down to the edge of the encamped army.
7.12 Now Midian and Amalek and all the Easterners covered the valley plain like a swarm of locusts, and their camels were without number, as many as the grains of sand on the seashore.
7.13 Gideon now came, and there was a man relating a dream to his companion, and he said: “This is the dream I had. There was a round loaf of barley bread rolling into the camp of Midian. It came to a tent and struck it so hard that it collapsed. Yes, it turned the tent upside down, and the tent fell flat.”
7.14 At this his companion said: “This can only be the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand.”
7.15 As soon as Gideon heard him relate the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down to worship. After that he returned to the camp of Israel and said: “Get up, for Jehovah has given the camp of Midian into your hand.”
7.16 Then he divided the 300 men into three bands and gave all of them horns and large empty jars with torches inside the jars.
7.17 Then he said to them: “Watch me and do exactly what I do. When I come to the edge of the camp, you should do just as I do.
7.18 When I blow the horn, I and all who are with me, you also must blow the horns all around the camp and shout, ‘For Jehovah and for Gideon!’”
7.19 Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the start of the middle night watch, just after the sentries were posted. They blew the horns and smashed the large water jars that were in their hands.
7.20 So the three bands blew the horns and shattered the large jars. They held the torches in their left hands and blew the horns in their right hands and they called out: “The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon!”
7.21 All the while each man stood in his place all around the camp, and the whole army ran away, shouting as they fled.
7.22 The 300 continued to blow the horns, and Jehovah turned the sword of each one against the other throughout the camp; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah, on to Zererah, as far as the outskirts of Abel-meholah by Tabbath.
7.23 And the men of Israel were called together from Naphtali, Asher, and all of Manasseh, and they chased after Midian.
7.24 Gideon sent messengers into all the mountainous region of Ephraim, saying: “Go down to attack Midian, and capture the access to the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were gathered together, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.
7.25 They also captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; they killed Oreb on the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They kept on pursuing Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon in the region of the Jordan.