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b'JUDGES 6:1-40\\n\\nAgain the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. \\n7 When the Israelites cried to the Lord because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet, who said, \\u201cThis is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, \\u2018I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.\\u2019 But you have not listened to me.\\u201d \\n11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, \\u201cThe Lord is with you, mighty warrior.\\u201d \\n13 \\u201cBut sir,\\u201d Gideon replied, \\u201cif the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, \\u2018Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?\\u2019 But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.\\u201d \\n14 The Lord turned to him and said, \\u201cGo in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian\\u2019s hand. Am I not sending you?\\u201d \\n15 \\u201cBut Lord,\\u201d Gideon asked, \\u201chow can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.\\u201d \\n16 The Lord answered, \\u201cI will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.\\u201d \\n17 Gideon replied, \\u201cIf now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.\\u201d \\nAnd the Lord said, \\u201cI will wait until you return.\\u201d \\n19 Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak. \\n20 The angel of God said to him, \\u201cTake the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.\\u201d And Gideon did so.\\n21 With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, \\u201cAh, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!\\u201d \\n23 But the Lord said to him, \\u201cPeace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.\\u201d \\n24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. \\n25 That same night the Lord said to him, \\u201cTake the second bull from your father\\u2019s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father\\u2019s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.\\u201d \\n27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime. \\n28 In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal\\u2019s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar! \\n29 They asked each other, \\u201cWho did this?\\u201d \\nWhen they carefully investigated, they were told, \\u201cGideon son of Joash did it.\\u201d \\n30 The men of the town demanded of Joash, \\u201cBring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal\\u2019s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.\\u201d \\n31 But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, \\u201cAre you going to plead Baal\\u2019s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.\\u201d 32 So that day they called Gideon \\u201cJerub-Baal,\\u201d saying, \\u201cLet Baal contend with him,\\u201d because he broke down Baal\\u2019s altar. \\n33 Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. 35 He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them. \\n36 Gideon said to God, \\u201cIf you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised\\u2014 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.\\u201d 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew\\u2014a bowlful of water. \\n39 Then Gideon said to God, \\u201cDo not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.\\u201d 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.'