Judges 6:6-20

⁶And Israel was in great need because of Midian; and the cry of the children of Israel went up to the Lord.

⁷And when the cry of the children of Israel, because of Midian, came before the Lord,

⁸The Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, The Lord the God of Israel, has said, I took you up from Egypt, out of the prison-house;

⁹And I took you out of the hands of the Egyptians and out of the hands of all who were cruel to you, and I sent them out by force from before you and gave you their land;

¹⁰And I said to you, I am the Lord your God; you are not to give worship to the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but you did not give ear to my voice.

¹¹Now the angel of the Lord came and took his seat under the oak-tree in Ophrah, in the field of Joash the Abiezrite; and his son Gideon was crushing grain in the place where the grapes were crushed, so that the Midianites might not see it.

¹²And the angel of the Lord came before his eyes, and said to him, The Lord is with you, O man of war.

¹³Then Gideon said to him, O my lord, if the Lord is with us why has all this come on us? And where are all his works of power, of which our fathers have given us word, saying, Did not the Lord take us out of Egypt? But now he has given us up, handing us over to the power of Midian.

¹⁴And the Lord, turning to him, said, Go in the strength you have and be Israel's saviour from Midian: have I not sent you?

¹⁵And he said to him, O Lord, how may I be the saviour of Israel? See, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

¹⁶Then the Lord said to him, Truly, I will be with you, and you will overcome the Midianites as if they were one man.

¹⁷So he said to him, If now I have grace in your eyes, then give me a sign that it is you who are talking to me.

¹⁸Do not go away till I come with my offering and put it before you. And he said, I will not go away before you come back.

¹⁹Then Gideon went in and made ready a young goat, and with an ephah of meal he made unleavened cakes: he put the meat in a basket and the soup in which it had been cooked he put in a pot, and he took it out to him under the oak-tree and gave it to him there.

²⁰And the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them down on the rock over there, draining out the soup over them. And he did so.