Judges 6

¹And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of our Lord: who delivered them into the hand of Madian seven years,

²and they were sore oppressed of them. And they made themselves dens and caves in the mountains, and very well fenced places to resist.

³And when Israel had sown, Madian came up and Amalec, and the rest of the East nations:

⁴and pitching their tents by them wasted all things as they were in the blade unto the entering of Gaza: & they left nothing at all in Israel that pertained to man's life, not sheep, not oxen, not asses.

⁵For they and all their flocks came with their tabernacles, and like unto locusts filled all places, an innumerable multitude of men, & of camels, wasting whatsoever they touched.

⁶And Israel was sore humbled in the sight of Madian.

⁷And he cried to our Lord desiring help against the Madianites.

⁸Who sent unto them a man that was a Prophet, and he spake: Thus saith our Lord the God of Israel: I made you to come up out of Ægypt, and brought you out of the house of servitude,

⁹& delivered you out of the hands of the Ægyptians, and of all the enemies, that afflicted you: and I cast them out at your entering, and delivered you their Land.

¹⁰And I said: I the Lord your God, fear not the gods of the Ammorrheites, in whose land you dwell. And you would not hear my voice.

¹¹And an Angel of our Lord came, and sat under an oak, that was in Ephra, and pertained to Joas the father of the family of Ezri. And when Gedeon his son did thresh and purge wheat in a winepress, to fly Madian,

¹²the Angel of our Lord appeared to him, and said: Our Lord be with thee, o most valiant of men.

¹³And Gedeon said to him: I beseech thee my Lord, if our Lord be with us, why have these evils apprehended us? Where are his marvelous works, which our fathers have told us, and said: Out of Ægypt did our Lord bring us? But now our Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hand of Madian.

¹⁴And our Lord looked toward him, and said: Go in this thy strength, and thou shalt deliver Israel out of the hand of Madian: know that I have sent thee.

¹⁵Who answering said: I beseech thee, my Lord, wherein shall I deliver Israel? Behold my family is the meanest in Manasses, & I the least in my father's house.

¹⁶And our Lord said to him: I will be with thee: and thou shalt strike Madian as it were one man.

¹⁷And he said: If I have found, quoth he, grace before thee, give me a sign that it is thou which speakest to me.

¹⁸Neither depart thou hence, till I return to thee, bringing a sacrifice, and offering to thee. Who answered: I will tarry thy coming.

¹⁹Gedeon therefore went in, and boiled a kid, and of a bushel of flour baked unleavened loaves: and putting the flesh in a basket, and the broth of the flesh into a pot, he carried all under the oak, and offered to him.

²⁰To whom the Angel of our Lord said: Take the flesh and the unleavened loaves, and put them upon that rock, and pour out the broth thereon. And when he had done,

²¹the Angel of our Lord stretched forth the tip of the rod, which he held in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened loaves: and there arose a fire from the rock, and consumed the flesh, and the unleavened loaves: and the Angel of our Lord vanished from his eyes.

²²And Gedeon seeing that it was the Angel of our Lord, said: Alas my Lord God: that I have seen the Angel of our Lord face to face.

²³And our Lord said to him: Peace be with thee: fear not, thou shalt not die.

²⁴And Gedeon built there an altar to our Lord, & called it, our Lord's peace, until this present day. And when he was yet in Ephra, which is of the family of Ezri,

²⁵that night our Lord said to him: Take a bullock of thy father's, and another bullock of seven years, and thou shalt destroy the altar of Baal, which is thy father's: and cut down the grove, that is about the altar:

²⁶and thou shalt build an altar to the Lord thy God in the top of this rock, whereupon thou didst lay the sacrifice before: and thou shalt take the second bullock, and shalt offer an holocaust upon a pile of the wood, which thou shalt cut down out of the grove.

²⁷Gedeon therefore taking to him ten men of his servants, did as our Lord had commanded him. But fearing his father's house, and the men of that city, he would not do it by day, but accomplished all things by night.

²⁸And when the men of that town were risen in the morning, they saw the altar of Baal destroyed, and the grove cut down, and the other bullock laid upon the altar, which then was built.

²⁹They said one to another: Who hath done this? And when they inquired for the author of the fact, it was said: Gedeon the son of Joas did all these things.

³⁰And they said to Joas: Bring forth thy son hither, that he may die: because he hath destroyed the altar of Baal, and hath cut down his grove.

³¹To whom he answered: Why are you revengers of Baal, that you fight for him? He that is his adversary, let him die before tomorrow light appear: if he be God, revenge he himself, on him that hath razed his altar.

³²From that day Gedeon was called Jerobaal, because Joas had said: Let Baal revenge himself on him, that hath razed his altar.

³³Therefore all Madian, and Amalec, and the east peoples were gathered together, and passing over Jordan, camped in the vale Jezrael.

³⁴But the spirit of our Lord revested Gedeon, who sounding with a trumpet called together the house of Abiezer, to follow him.

³⁵And he sent messengers into all Manasses, which it-self also did follow him: and other messengers into Aser and Zabulon and Nephthali, which met him.

³⁶And Gedeon said to God: If thou save Israel by my hand, as thou hast spoken,

³⁷I will put this fleece of wool on the floor: if there shall be dew in the fleece only, and on all the ground dryness, I shall know that by my hand, as thou hast spoken, thou wilt deliver Israel.

³⁸And it came so to pass. And rising in the night wringing the fleece, he filled a vessel with the dew.

³⁹And he said again to God: Let not thy fury be angry against me if I tempt once again, seeking a sign in the fleece. I desire that the fleece only may be dry, and all the ground wet with dew.

⁴⁰And God did that night as he had requested: and there was dryness in the fleece only, and dew on all the ground.