Judges 6:1-14

1The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. So the Lord handed them over to the Midianites for seven years.

2The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.

3Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel,

4camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys.

5These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare.

6So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.

7When they cried out to the Lord because of Midian,

8the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt.

9I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land.

10I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

11Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.

12The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”

13“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”

14Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”