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. 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.' read more.
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. 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." 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." 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. 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." 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. And the same night the LORD said unto him, "Up, and go down unto the host, for I have delivered it into thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, then go thou down unto the host, and Phurah thy lad, 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. 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.
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