³ he said: “Sir,^[a] if it please you, do not go on past your servant.

² he said, “Please, my lords,^[a] come aside into your servant’s house for the night, and bathe your feet; you can get up early to continue your journey.” But they replied, “No, we will pass the night in the town square.”^{(A) 3} He urged them so strongly, however, that they turned aside to his place and entered his house. He prepared a banquet for them, baking unleavened bread, and they dined.

¹¹ Then the messenger of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. Joash’s son Gideon^(A) was beating out wheat in the wine press to save it from the Midianites, ¹² and the messenger of the Lord appeared to him and said: The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior! ¹³ “My lord,” Gideon said to him, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are his wondrous deeds about which our ancestors told us when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ For now the Lord has abandoned us and has delivered us into the power of Midian.” ^14 (B)The Lord turned to him and said: Go with the strength you have, and save Israel from the power of Midian. Is it not I who send you? ¹⁵ But he answered him, “Please, my Lord, how can I save Israel? My family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father’s house.”^{(C) 16} The Lord said to him: I will be with you,^[a] and you will cut down Midian to the last man. ¹⁷ He answered him, “If you look on me with favor, give me a sign that you are the one speaking with me. ¹⁸ Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my offering and set it before you.” He answered: I will await your return.

¹⁹ So Gideon went off and prepared a young goat and an ephah^[b] of flour in the form of unleavened cakes. Putting the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out to him under the terebinth and presented them. ^20 (D)The messenger of God said to him: Take the meat and unleavened cakes and lay them on this rock; then pour out the broth. When he had done so, ²¹ the messenger of the Lord stretched out the tip of the staff he held. When he touched the meat and unleavened cakes, a fire came up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened cakes. Then the messenger of the Lord disappeared from sight. ^22 [c]Gideon, now aware that it had been the messenger of the Lord, said, “Alas, Lord God, that I have seen the messenger of the Lord face to face!”^(E)

⁴ Tobiah went out to look for someone who would travel with him to Media, someone who knew the way. He went out and found the angel Raphael standing before him (though he did not know^[a] that this was an angel of God).^(A)