Judges 6:1-14

1Then the sons of Israel 1did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of 2Midian seven years. 2The 3power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves 4the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and 5go against them. 4So they would camp against them and 6destroy the produce of the earth 7as far as Gaza, and 8leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey. 5For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in 9like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it. 6So Israel was brought 10very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.

7Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian, 8that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and 11he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of 12slavery. 9I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land, 10and I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; you 13shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not 14obeyed Me.”’”

11Then 15the angel of the Lord came and sat under the 16oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the 17Abiezrite as his son 18Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. 12The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.” 13Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But 19now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14The Lord 20looked at him and said, “21Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”