Judges 6:3-11

3Whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of the east came and attacked them.

4They encamped against them and destroyed the produce of the land, even as far as Gaza. They left nothing for Israel to eat, as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.

5For the Midianites came with their cattle and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were without number, and they entered the land to lay waste to it.

6So Israel became poverty-stricken because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the Lord.

7When the Israelites cried out to him because of Midian,

8the Lord sent a prophet to them. He said to them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I brought you out of Egypt and out of the place of slavery.

9I rescued you from the power of Egypt and the power of all who oppressed you. I drove them out before you and gave you their land.

10I said to you: I am the Lord your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites whose land you live in. But you did not obey me.’”

11The angel of the Lord came, and he sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites.