Judges 7:5-19

⁵Gideon took the soldiers down to the water. The Lord told Gideon, “Set to one side those who lap the water with their tongues, like a dog does, and on the other side those who kneel down to drink.”

⁶Three hundred lapped water from their hands to their mouths. All the rest knelt down to drink the water.

⁷The Lord told Gideon, “With these three hundred men that lapped I will save you and hand over the Midianites to you. Let all the rest of the soldiers go home.”

⁸The three hundred took over the supplies and trumpets of the others. Gideon sent all the rest home, but held onto the three hundred men. The Midianite camp was below him in the valley.

⁹That night the Lord spoke to Gideon, “Get up, go down and attack the camp, for I have handed it over to you.

¹⁰But if you are afraid to go down, go with your servant Purah to the camp.

¹¹You'll hear what they're talking about and then you'll have the courage to attack the camp.” So he took his servant Purah with him and went to the edge of the camp where armed men were on guard.

¹²The Midianites, Amalekites, and all the peoples of the East filled the valley like a swarm of locusts, and as for their camels, they were as uncountable as the sand on the seashore.

¹³Just as Gideon arrived, a man was telling his friend about a dream he'd had. He was saying, “I had this dream. I dreamed I saw a round loaf of barley bread come rolling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent, knocking it upside-down, flat on the ground!”

¹⁴“This can only represent the victory by the sword of Gideon, son of Joash, a man of Israel,” his friend answered. “God has handed over to him the Midianites and everyone else camped here.”

¹⁵When Gideon heard the dream and what it meant, he bowed in thanks to God. He went back to the Israelite camp and announced, “On your feet! For the Lord has handed over the Midianite camp to you!”

¹⁶He divided the three hundred men into three companies. He handed them all trumpets, and empty jars with torches inside them.

¹⁷“Watch me and follow my example,” he told them. “So when I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly what I do.

¹⁸Immediately I and those with me blow the trumpets, then you blow your trumpets from all around the camp, and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

¹⁹Gideon and the hundred men who with him arrived at the edge of the camp around midnight, after the guards were changed. They blew their trumpets and smashed the jars they were holding.