Judges 7:5-19

⁵So Gideon brought the people down to the water, and Yahweh said to him, “Separate everyone who laps up the water, as a dog laps, from those who kneel down to drink.”

⁶Three hundred men lapped. The rest of the men kneeled down to drink water.

⁷Yahweh said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped, I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites. Let every other man go back to his own place.”

⁸So those who were chosen took their supplies and their trumpets. Gideon sent away all the men of Israel, every man to his tent, but he kept the three hundred men. Now the Midian camp was down below him in the valley.

⁹That same night Yahweh said to him, “Get up! Attack the camp, for I am going to give you victory over it.

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

¹¹and listen to what they are saying, and your courage will be strengthened to attack the camp.” So Gideon went with Purah his servant, down to the guard posts of the camp.

¹²The Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the people of the east settled along in the valley, as thick as a cloud of locusts. Their camels were more than could be counted; they were more in number than the grains of the sand on the seashore.

¹³When Gideon arrived there, a man was telling a dream to his companion. The man said, “Look! I had a dream, and I saw a round loaf of barley bread tumbling into the camp of Midian. It came to the tent, and hit it so hard that it fell down and turned it upside down, so that it lay flat.”

¹⁴The other man said, “This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon (the son of Joash), the Israelite. God has given him victory over Midian and all their army.”

¹⁵When Gideon heard the retelling of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down in worship. He went back to the camp of Israel and said, “Get up! Yahweh has given you victory over the Midian army.”

¹⁶He divided the three hundred men into three groups, and he gave them all trumpets and empty jars, with torches inside each jar.

¹⁷He said to them, “Look at me and do what I do. Watch! When I come to the edge of the camp, you must do what I do.

¹⁸When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow your trumpets also on every side of the entire camp and shout, 'For Yahweh and for Gideon!'”

¹⁹So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp, right at the beginning of the middle watch. Just as the Midianites were changing guard, they blew the trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands.