Gedeon, with three hundred men, by stratagem defeats the Madianites.

¹ And so Jerubbaal, who is also Gideon, rising in the night, and all the people with him, went to the fountain which is called Harod. Now the camp of Midian was in the valley, to the northern region of the high hill.

² And the Lord said to Gideon: “The people with you are many, but Midian shall not be delivered into their hands, for then Israel might glory against me, and say, ‘I was freed by my own power.’¹

1. 7:2Lest Israel, etc: By this we see that God will not choose for his instruments in great achievements, which depend purely on his grace, such as, through pride and self conceit, will take the glory to themselves.(Challoner)

³ Speak to the people, and proclaim in the hearing of all, ‘Whoever has dread or fear, let him return.’ And twenty-two thousand of the men from the people withdrew from Mount Gilead and returned, and only ten thousand remained.

⁴ And the Lord said to Gideon: “The people are still too many. Lead them to the waters, and there I will test them. And those about whom I tell you that he may go with you, let him go; he whom I shall forbid to go, let him return.”

⁵ And when the people had descended to the waters, the Lord said to Gideon: “Whoever will lap the water with the tongue, as dogs usually lap, you shall separate them by themselves. Then those who will drink by bending their knees shall be on the other side.”

⁶ And so the number of those who had lapped the water, by bringing it with the hand to the mouth, was three hundred men. And all the remainder of the multitude drank by bending the knee.

⁷ And the Lord said to Gideon: “By the three hundred men who lapped the water, I will free you, and I will deliver Midian into your hand. But let all the remainder of the multitude return to their place.”¹

1. 7:7That lapped water: These were preferred that took the water up in their hands, and so lapped it, before them who laid themselves quite down to the waters to drink: which argued a more eager and sensual disposition.(Challoner)

⁸ And so, taking food and trumpets in accord with their number, he instructed all the rest of the multitude to go back to their tents. And with the three hundred men, he gave himself to the conflict. Now the camp of Midian was below, in the valley.

⁹ In the same night, the Lord said to him: “Rise up, and descend into the camp. For I have delivered them into your hand.

¹⁰ But if you dread to go alone, let your servant Purah descend with you.

¹¹ And when you will hear what they are saying, then your hands will be strengthened, and you will descend more confidently to the camp of the enemy.” Therefore, he descended with his servant Purah into a portion of the camp, where there was a watch of armed men.

¹² But Midian, and Amalek, and all the eastern peoples lay spread out in the valley, like a multitude of locusts. Their camels, too, were innumerable, like the sand that lies on the shore of the sea.

¹³ And when Gideon had arrived, someone told his neighbor a dream. And he related what he had seen, in this way: “I saw a dream, and it seemed to me as if bread, baked under ashes from rolled barley, descended into the camp of Midian. And whenever it arrived at a tent, it struck it, and overturned it, and utterly leveled it to the ground.”¹

1. 7:13A dream: Observation of dreams is commonly superstitious, and as such is condemned in the word of God: but in some extraordinary cases, as we here see, God is pleased by dreams to foretell what he is about to do.(Challoner)

¹⁴ He to whom he spoke, responded: “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. For the Lord has delivered Midian into his hands, with their entire camp.”

¹⁵ And when Gideon had heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshipped. And he returned to the camp of Israel, and he said: “Rise up! For the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into our hands.”

¹⁶ And he divided the three hundred men into three parts. And he gave trumpets, and empty pitchers, and lamps for the middle of the pitchers, into their hands.

¹⁷ And he said to them: “What you will see me do, do the same. I will enter a portion of the camp, and what I do, you shall follow.

¹⁸ When the trumpet in my hand blares out, you also shall sound the trumpets, on every side of the camp, and shout together to the Lord and to Gideon.”

¹⁹ And Gideon, and the three hundred men who were with him, entered a portion of the camp, at the beginning of the watch in the middle of the night. And when the guards were alerted, they began to sound the trumpets and to clap the pitchers against one another.¹

1. 7:19Their trumpets, etc: In a mystical sense, the preachers of the gospel, in order to spiritual conquests, must not only sound with the trumpet of the word of God, but must also break their earthen pitchers, by the mortification of the flesh and its passions, and carry lamps in their hands by the light of their virtues.(Challoner)

²⁰ And when they had sounded their trumpets in three places around the camp, and had broken their water pitchers, they held the lamps in their left hands, and sounded the trumpets in their right hands. And they cried out, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!”

²¹ And each one was standing in his place throughout the camp of the enemies. And so the entire camp was in confusion; and they fled away, wailing and crying out.

²² And the three hundred men nevertheless continued sounding the trumpets. And the Lord sent the sword into the entire camp, and they maimed and cut down one another,

²³ fleeing as far as Bethshittah, and the base of Abelmeholah in Tabbath. But the men of Israel pursued Midian, shouting from Naphtali and Asher, and from all of Manasseh.

²⁴ And Gideon sent messengers throughout all of Mount Ephraim, saying, “Descend to meet Midian, and occupy the waters ahead of them as far as Bethbarah and the Jordan.” And all of Ephraim cried out, and they occupied the waters ahead of them, from the Jordan even to Bethbarah.

²⁵ And having apprehended two men of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, they put Oreb to death at the Rock of Oreb, and truly, Zeeb, at the Winepress of Zeeb. And they pursued Midian, carrying the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, across the waters of the Jordan.¹

1. 7:25Two men: That is, two of their chiefs.(Challoner)