1Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people with him got up early and camped by the spring of Harod. The Midianite camp was on their north side, near the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
2Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to hand the Midianites over to them. Otherwise, Israel might boast against me, saying, ‘My own strength saved me.’
3Now, announce to the people: ‘Whoever is afraid and trembling, let them turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
4Yahweh said to Gideon, “There are still too many people. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. I will tell you, ‘This one will go with you,’ and that person will go. And anyone I tell you, ‘This one will not go with you,’ that person will not go.”
5So Gideon brought the people down to the water. Yahweh said to Gideon, “Separate everyone who laps water with their tongue like a dog. Also separate everyone who kneels to drink.”
6The number of those who cupped water in their hands and lapped it was three hundred men. All the rest of the people knelt to drink water.
7Yahweh said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped the water, I will save you and hand the Midianites over to you. Let all the other people go, each to their own home.”
8So the people took food and their trumpets with them. Gideon sent all the other Israelite men back to their tents, but kept the three hundred men. The Midianite camp was below him in the valley.
9That same night, Yahweh said to Gideon, "Get up, go down into the camp, because I have given it into your hands.
10But if you are afraid to go down, go with your servant Purah to the camp.
11You will hear what they are saying, and afterward you will be bolder to go down into the camp." So Gideon and his servant Purah went down to the edge of the armed men in the camp.
12The Midianites, Amalekites, and all the people from the east were spread out in the valley, as numerous as locusts. Their camels were countless, like the sand on the seashore.
13When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling a dream to his friend. The man said, "Listen, I had a dream. In it, a round loaf of barley bread tumbled into the Midianite camp. It came to a tent, struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, and the tent lay flat."
14His friend replied, "This can only mean the sword of Gideon son of Joash, an Israelite. God has given Midian and their entire army into his hands."
15When Gideon heard the dream and its meaning, he worshiped God. Then he returned to the Israelite camp and said, "Get up! Yahweh has given the Midianite army into your hands!"
16He divided the three hundred men into three groups. He gave each man a trumpet, an empty jar, and a torch inside each jar.
17He told them, "Watch me and do exactly as I do. When I reach the edge of the camp, do what I do.
18When I and everyone with me blow our trumpets, then you also blow your trumpets all around the camp and shout, 'For Yahweh and for Gideon!'"
19So Gideon and the hundred men with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the guards had been posted. Then they blew their trumpets and smashed the jars they were holding.
20The three groups blew their trumpets, broke their jars, held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow, and shouted, "A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!"
21Each man stayed in his place around the camp, and the entire enemy army ran, shouting as they fled.
22They blew the three hundred trumpets, and Yahweh made every man in the army turn his sword against his fellow man. The army fled as far as Beth Shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, near Tabbath.
23The men of Israel were called together from Naphtali, Asher, and all of Manasseh, and they pursued Midian.
24Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, "Come down and cut off Midian's escape to the Jordan River at Beth Barah!" So all the men of Ephraim gathered and blocked the crossings as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan River.
25They captured the two Midianite princes, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at Oreb's rock and Zeeb at Zeeb's winepress. They continued to pursue Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan River.