Jael went out to greet Sisera. "Turn aside, sir!" she told him. "Turn aside to me! Don't be afraid." So he turned aside to her and entered her tent, where she concealed him behind a curtain.

"Calm down! Don't be afraid." the LORD replied. "You're not going to die!"

So Gideon went with ten men who were his servants and did just what the LORD had told him to do, though he did it at night because he was too afraid of his father's family and the leading men of the city to do it during the day.

That's why you're to ask in full view of the soldiers, "Whoever is afraid or is trembling may go back from Mount Gilead and return home." So 22,000 soldiers left and 10,000 remained.

But if you're afraid to go down there, you may take your servant Purah with you to their encampment,

Then he told his firstborn son Jether, "Get up and kill them!" But he was afraid, since he was still only a youngster.