Judges 7-8

EasyEnglish Bible

Gideon attacks the Midianites

7 Gideon and his army got up the next morning. They marched to the spring of water at Harod. They made their camp near there. The Midianite army made their camp in the valley near the hill of Moreh. They were north of the Israelite army. ² The Lord said to Gideon, ‘You have too many men in your army. When I put the Midianites under your power, your soldiers may boast about their own strength. They may say that they have won the battle themselves. ³ So say to the men, “If you are very afraid of the battle and you are shaking with fear, you may go.” ’ So 22,000 men left that place and they went home. But 10,000 soldiers remained with Gideon.

⁴ Then the Lord said to Gideon, ‘There are still too many men. Take them to the spring of water to drink. I will test them for you there. If I say, “This man should go with you,” then take him. But if I say, “This man should not go with you,” then do not take him.’ ⁵ So Gideon took the men to the spring of water. The Lord said to Gideon, ‘Put the men who use their tongues to drink like a dog in one group. Put the men who go down on their knees to drink in another group.’

⁶ 300 men used their tongues to drink the water. The other men all went down on their knees to drink. ⁷ The Lord said to Gideon, ‘I will use those 300 men to rescue you and put the Midianites under your power. Let all the other men return to their homes.’

⁸ Gideon kept the 300 men with him. He took the food and trumpets from the other men and he gave it to the 300 men. Then Gideon sent the other men home.

The camp of the Midianite army was in the valley below the Israelites. ⁹ That night the Lord said to Gideon, ‘Get up now. Go down and attack the camp of the Midianites. I have put them under your power. ¹⁰ But if you are afraid to attack them now, take your servant Purah down to their camp. ¹¹ Listen to what the Midianites are saying to each other. That will make you brave enough to attack them.’ So Gideon took Purah with him to the edge of the Midianite army's camp, where they had guards. ¹² The valley was full of Midianites, Amalekites and all the people from the east. They covered the ground like locusts. There were too many men to count. Their camels also were more than the sand on the shore of the sea.

¹³ When Gideon came nearer, he heard a Midianite soldier tell his friend about a dream. The soldier said, ‘In my dream, I saw a loaf of bread that was rolling into our camp. It hit one of our tents and it knocked the tent down to the ground!’

¹⁴ The other soldier replied, ‘This dream is telling us about Joash's son Gideon, the leader of the Israelites. It shows us that he has the power to kill us. God has put Midian and all our army under his power!’

¹⁵ When Gideon heard this news about the dream and its meaning, he praised God. He returned to the Israelites' camp. He shouted to his men, ‘Get up now! The Lord has put Midian's army under your power!’ ¹⁶ He divided his 300 men into three separate groups. He gave a trumpet and an empty pot to each soldier. Each man put a burning branch into his pot.

¹⁷ Gideon said to his men, ‘Watch me carefully. When we get near to the enemy's camp, you must do the same thing that I do. ¹⁸ You will be all around the camp. I and my group of men will make a noise with our trumpets. Then you must also make a noise with your trumpets. Then shout, “We are fighting for the Lord and for Gideon!” ’

¹⁹ Gideon took 100 men with him to the edge of the Midianites' camp. It was the middle of the night. A new group of Midianite guards had just started their work. Gideon's men made a loud noise with their trumpets. They also broke the pots that they were holding. ²⁰ Then all three groups of Israelite soldiers made a noise with their trumpets that they held in the right hands. They broke their pots and they held their burning branches in their left hands. Then they shouted, ‘Fight for the Lord and for Gideon!’ ²¹ They all stood in their places around the Midianites' camp. Then the whole Midianite army ran away! They were shouting as they ran as fast as they could run.

²² When Gideon's 300 men made a noise with their trumpets, it confused the Midianites everywhere in their camp. The Lord caused them to attack one another with their swords. Their army ran away to Beth Shittah, on the road towards Zererah. They ran as far as the border of Abel Meholah, near Tabbath. ²³ Then Gideon told men from the tribes of Naphtali, Asher and Manasseh to chase the Midianites.

²⁴ Then Gideon sent men to the hill country of Ephraim with this message: ‘Come down to the valleys and stop the Midianites from escaping. Put guards on all the places where people go across the streams and rivers. Do that on the Jordan River as far as Beth Barah.’ So all the men of Ephraim's tribe came together. They put guards on the Jordan River and the streams, as far as Beth Barah. ²⁵ They caught the two leaders of the Midianite army, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb. They killed Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They continued to chase the Midianites. They took the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was now on the east side of the Jordan River.

8 The men of Ephraim's tribe asked Gideon, ‘Why have you insulted us? You should have called us to join with you to fight against the Midianites.’ They were very angry and they argued with Gideon. ² Gideon said to them, ‘What you did in the fight was more important than what I was able to do. My family started the battle, but your tribe finished the job! ³ God chose you to take power over the leaders of Midian's army. You killed Oreb and Zeeb! Nothing that I did was as great as that!’

When Gideon said that, the men of Ephraim stopped being angry.

Zebah and Zalmunna

⁴ Gideon and his 300 men were weak and tired. But they went across the Jordan and they continued to chase the Midianites. ⁵ Gideon said to the men of Succoth, ‘Please give my soldiers some food to eat. They are very tired. We are chasing the kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, to catch them.’ ⁶ The city leaders of Succoth said, ‘You have not yet caught Zebah and Zalmunna. We will not give you any food until you have done that.’ ⁷ Gideon replied, ‘Because you say that, I will return here. When the Lord has put Zebah and Zalmunna under my power, I will come back to punish you. I will beat you with thorn branches that will tear your skin to pieces!’

⁸ Gideon continued his journey to Peniel. He asked their people for food too. But they gave him the same answer as the men of Succoth. ⁹ Gideon also warned the men of Peniel, ‘When I have won the fight against my enemies, I will return. Then I will destroy your strong tower.’

¹⁰ Zebah and Zalmunna had 15,000 men with them in Karkor. They were the only men left of their great army from the east. 120,000 of their soldiers had died in the battle. ¹¹ Gideon went along a road near the desert. It was east of Nobah and Jogbehah. He attacked the enemy's army by surprise. ¹² The two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, ran away. Gideon chased after them and he caught them. The whole Midianite army ran away in fear.

¹³ Then Gideon left the place of the battle to return home. He went along the road across Heres hills. ¹⁴ He caught a young man who came from Succoth. He asked him about the leaders of Succoth. The young man wrote down the names of 77 leaders and officers of the city. ¹⁵ Gideon went to Succoth with Zebah and Zalmunna. He said to the leaders, ‘Now I have brought these kings to you! You insulted me! You said, “We will not give your tired men any food until you have caught Zebah and Zalmunna.” ’

¹⁶ Then Gideon took hold of Succoth's leaders. He beat them with thorn branches to punish them. ¹⁷ He also went to Peniel and he destroyed their tower. He killed the men of that city.

¹⁸ Then Gideon said to Zebah and Zalmunna, ‘Tell me about the men that you killed at Tabor. What kind of men were they?’ The kings answered, ‘They were like you. They looked like the sons of kings.’ ¹⁹ Gideon said, ‘Those were my brothers, my own mother's sons. If you had not killed my brothers, I would not kill you. I promise you that, as surely as the Lord lives.’

²⁰ Gideon said to his oldest son, Jether, ‘Kill them now!’ But Jether was only a boy. He was too afraid to do anything. ²¹ Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, ‘Kill us yourself! Let us see if you are brave enough to do that!’

So Gideon did kill them. He took away the silver images from the necks of their camels.

Gideon makes a gold ephod

²² After that, the Israelites said to Gideon, ‘Rule over us as our king! You, your son and your grandson should rule us. You have rescued us from Midian's power.’

²³ But Gideon said to them, ‘I will not agree to rule over you. Nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.’

²⁴ Gideon also said, ‘I will ask you only to do one thing for me. Each of you should give me one ear-ring from the things that you took from our enemies.’ (The Midianites wore gold ear-rings because they were descendants of Ishmael.)

²⁵ The people replied, ‘We are happy to give them to you.’

So they put a coat on the ground. Each man threw a ring onto it. ²⁶ The weight of all the rings was 20 kilograms. They also had valuable silver images and jewels. They had valuable clothes that the kings of Midian wore and necklaces from the camels. ²⁷ Gideon used the gold to make an image of an ephod. He put it in Ophrah, where he lived. All the Israelites came there and they worshipped the image.^[a] It caused them to turn away from the true God. It became like a trap that caught Gideon and his family.

Gideon dies

²⁸ The Israelites now had complete power over the Midianites. The Midianites were too ashamed to fight against them. While Gideon was alive, the land of Israel had peace for 40 years.

²⁹ Then Gideon went back home to live. ³⁰ He had many wives. They gave birth to 70 sons for him. ³¹ Gideon also had a slave wife who lived in Shechem. She gave birth to a son for him. Gideon called him Abimelech.

³² Joash's son Gideon died when he was very old. People buried him in the grave of his father, Joash. That was in Ophrah, on the land of Abiezer's clan.

³³ Soon after Gideon died, the Israelites stopped being faithful to the Lord. They started to worship the idols of Baal again. They chose Baal-Berith to be their new god. ³⁴ They no longer served the Lord their God. They forgot that he had saved them from all the enemies who lived around them. ³⁵ The Israelites did not remain faithful to Gideon's family either. They did not remember all the good things that he had done to help Israel.