Episode 88: As a dog lappeth: God selects Gideon's army

(Judges 7)

7 ² God said to Gideon,

There are too many people with you.

If you defeat the Midianites, people will say that you did it without my help.

³ So say to the people, "Whoever is afraid should leave."

And 22,000 people left, with 10,000 remaining.

⁴ God said to Gideon,

There are still too many people.

Bring them down to the water and I'll decide which of them will go with you.

⁵ So Gideon brought the people down to the water. And God said to him,

Those who lap water with their tongues like a dog will go with you.

Those who kneel down to drink will stay.

⁶ There were 300 who lapped water like a dog.

All the rest drank water on their knees.

⁷ God said to Gideon,

I'll save you with the 300 that lapped water like a dog.

Send all the others home.

⁸ So the 300 men who lapped water like dogs went with Gideon. Everyone else went home.

A cake of barley bread

⁹ That same night, God said to Gideon,

Get up and fight the Midianites. I've delivered them into your hand.

¹⁰ If you're afraid to go alone, go with Phurah your servant.

¹¹ When you hear what they say, you'll be brave enough to attack them.

¹² But there were more Midianites and Amalekites than could be counted, like the sand on the sea shore.

¹³ When Gideon came back to camp, there was a man who had a dream who told his friend,

I dreamed there was a barley cake that fell into the Midianite camp.

When the cake came to a tent, it knocked the tent over.

¹⁴ His friend said,

This is the sword of Gideon.

God has delivered Midian into his hand.

¹⁵ When Gideon heard about the dream, he said to his soldiers,

Get up, because God has delivered the Midianites into your hand.

The LORD set every man's sword against his fellow

¹⁶ Gideon divided the 300 men into three groups and gave every man a trumpet and some empty pitchers, with lamps inside the pitchers.

¹⁷ He told them,

¹⁸ When I blow my trumpet, blow your trumpets, and say,

The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.

¹⁹ So they all blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, and shouted,

The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.

²¹ All the Midianites screamed and ran away.

And God forced the Midianites to kill each other, while the Israelites chased after them.

The heads of two princes are brought to Gideon

²⁵ The men of Ephraim killed the two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb, and brought their heads to Gideon.