1 Then Jerubbaal, otherwise called Gideon, rose early, and all the people that were with him, and pitched beside the well of Harod, so that the host of the Midianites were in a valley on the north side of the hill Moreh.
2 And the LORD said unto Gideon, "The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel make her vaunt to my dishonour and say, 'Our own hand hath saved us.'
3 Now therefore make a proclamation in the ears of the people and say, 'If any man dread or be afraid, let him return and get him soon from mount Gilead.'" And there departed and returned of the people twenty two thousand, and there abode ten thousand.
4 And the LORD said unto Gideon, "The people are yet too many, bring them down unto the water, and I will try them unto thee there. And of whom I say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee. And whosoever I say unto thee, this shall not go with thee, the same shall not go."
5 And when he had brought down the people unto the water, the LORD said unto Gideon, "As many as lap the water with their tongues, as dogs do, them put by themselves; and so do them that kneel down upon their knees to drink."
6 And the number of them that put their hands to their mouths and lapped, were three hundred men. And all the remnant of the people knelt down upon their knees to drink water.
7 And the LORD said unto Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand. And all the other people shall go every man unto his own home."
8 And they took victuals with them for the folk, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel, every man unto his tent, and kept the three hundred with him. And the host of Midian was beneath him in a valley.
9 And the same night the LORD said unto him, "Up, and go down unto the host, for I have delivered it into thine hand.
10 But if thou fear to go down, then go thou down unto the host, and Phurah thy lad,
11 and hearken what they say, and so shall thine hands be strong, and then thou shalt go down unto the host." Then he went down with Phurah his lad, even hard unto the men of arms that were in the host.
12 And the Midianites, the Amalekites, and all they of the east, lay along in the valley, like unto grasshoppers in multitude, and their camels were without number, even as the sand by the seaside in multitude.
13 And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow and said, "Behold, I dreamed a dream and me thought that a broiled loaf of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along."
14 And his fellow answered and said, this is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel, into whose hand God hath delivered Midian and all the host."
15 When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation of the same, he bowed himself to the earth and returned unto the host of Israel, and said, "Up, for the LORD hath delivered into your hands the host of the Midianites."
16 And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and gave every man a trumpet in his hand, with an empty pitcher and lamps therein,
17 and said unto them, "Look on me and do likewise: and behold, when I come to the side of the host, even as I do, so do you.
18 And when I blow with a trumpet, and all that are with me, blow ye with trumpets also on every side the host and say, 'Here be the LORD and Gideon.'"
19 And so Gideon, and the three hundred men that were with him, came unto the side of the host in the beginning of the middle watch, and raised up the watchmen. And they blew with their trumpets and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.
20 And all three companies blew with trumpets and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right, to blow with all. And they cried, "The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!"
21 And they stood still, every man in his place round about the host. And all the host ran and cried and fled.
22 And as the three hundred blew with trumpets, the LORD set every man's sword upon his neighbour, throughout all the host. And the host fled until they came to Bethshittah, to Zererah, and to the edge of Abelmeholah beside Tabbath.
23 And the men of Israel gathered together of the tribe of Naphtali, of Asher, and of all Manasseh, and followed after the Midianites.
24 For Gideon had sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim saying, "Come down against the Midianites and take from them the waters both of Bethabara and also of Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and came down and took the waters, both of Bethabara and also of Jordan.
25 And they took two captains of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb, and slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb at the press Zeeb and followed after Midian. And brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan.