1Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, rose early with all the people who were with him, and they encamped beside the spring of Harod; the camp of Midian lay to the north of him from Gibeath Moreh in the valley.2The LORD said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are many; I will not give Midian into their hand, lest Israel glorify itself over me by saying, 'My own hand has delivered me.'"3Now therefore proclaim in the hearing of the people, Whoever is afraid and trembling may turn back and leave Mount Gilead. So twenty-two thousand of the people turned back, and ten thousand remained.4The LORD said to Gideon, "The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and there I will refine them for you. Whoever I say to you, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go with you; but whoever I say to you, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go."5He brought the people down to the water. The LORD said to Gideon, Set apart by himself everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps; set apart everyone who kneels on his knees to drink.6The number of those who lapped with their hands to their mouths was three hundred men; all the rest of the people knelt on their knees to drink water.7The LORD said to Gideon, With these three hundred men who lapped I will deliver you and give Midian into your hand; let all the rest of the people go, each man to his place.8The people took provisions in their hands together with their trumpets. Gideon sent every other man of Israel, each man to his tents, but he kept the three hundred men; the camp of Midian remained below him in the valley.9That night the LORD said to him, Rise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand.10If you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with your servant Purah.11Listen to what they say; afterward your hands will be strengthened and you may go down against the camp. So he went down, he and his servant Purah, to the edge of the armed men who were in the camp.12Midian, Amalek, and all the sons of the East lay in the valley like locusts for abundance; their camels had no number, like the sand that is upon the lip of the sea for abundance.13Gideon came, and behold, a man was recounting a dream to his neighbor. He said, Behold, I dreamed a dream: a bun of barley bread came tumbling into the camp of Midian, came to the tent, struck it, overturned it, and the tent fell.14His neighbor answered and said, This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand.15When Gideon heard the number of the dream and its breaking, he bowed down, returned to the camp of Israel, and said, Rise, for the LORD has given the camp of Midian into your hand.16He divided the three hundred men into three companies and put trumpets in the hand of all of them, and empty jars with torches inside the jars.17Watch me, he told them, and do the same. When I come to the edge of the camp, whatever I do, so you shall do.18I and all who are with me will blow the trumpet; then you also shall blow the trumpets around all the camp and say, For the LORD and for Gideon.19Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch; they had only just roused the guards, blew the trumpets, and shattered the jars that were in their hands.20The three companies blew the trumpets, broke the jars, held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and called, A sword for the LORD and for Gideon.21Each man stood in his place around the camp, and the whole camp ran about, shouted, and fled.22While the three hundred trumpets sounded, the LORD set the sword of each man against his neighbor and against all the camp; the camp fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah and as far as the lip of Abel-meholah at Tabbath.23A man of Israel cried out from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian.24Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, "Go down to meet Midian and capture the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan." All the men of Ephraim cried out and captured the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.25They captured the two rulers of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and killed Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb, pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from beyond the Jordan.