Judges 7:2-22

2And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to hand Midian over to them, 1otherwise Israel would 2become boastful, saying, ‘My own 3power has saved me.’ 3Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘4Whoever is afraid and worried, is to return and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand from the people returned, but ten thousand remained.

45Then the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. So it shall be that he of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” 5So he brought the people down to the water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “You shall put everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps 6in one group, and everyone who kneels down to drink in another.” 6Now the number of those who lapped, 7putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people kneeled down to drink water. 7And the Lord said to Gideon, “I will save you 8with the three hundred men who lapped, and will hand the Midianites over to you; so have all the other people go, each man to his 9home.” 8So 10the three hundred men took the people’s provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And 11Gideon dismissed all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the three hundred men; and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

9Now on the same night it came about that the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, 12for I have handed it over to you. 10But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp, 11so that you will hear what they say; and 13afterward 14you will have the courage to go down against the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to the 15outposts of the army that was in the camp. 12Now the Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the 16people of the east were lying in the valley 17as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, 18as numerous as the sand on the seashore. 13When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating a dream to his friend. And he said, “Behold, I 19had a dream; 20a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it 21upside down so that the tent collapsed.” 14And his friend replied, “This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has 22handed over to him Midian and all the camp.”

15When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. Then he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the Lord has handed over to you the camp of Midian!” 16And he divided the three hundred men into three 23units, and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers. 17Then he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, 24do as I do. 18When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets around the entire camp and say, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

19So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle night watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands. 20When the three 25units blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21And each stood in his place around the camp; and 26all the 27army ran, crying out as they fled. 22And when they blew the three hundred trumpets, the 28Lord set the sword of one against another even throughout the entire 29army; and the 30army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of 31Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.