Divine Incursions (In the Life of Jacob)

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 <div class="chapter ch24" data-usfm="JOS.24">
 <div class="label">24</div><div class="s1">The Covenant Renewed at Shechem</div><div class="p"> 1Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.</div><div class="p"> 2Joshua said to all the people, &#8220;This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: &#8216;Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. 3But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, 4and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.</div><div class="p"> 5&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. 6When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen#24:6 Or charioteers as far as the Red Sea.#24:6 Or the Sea of Reeds 7But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.</div><div class="p"> 8&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. 9When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. 10But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.</div><div class="p"> 11&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. 12I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you&#8212;also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. 13So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 14&#8220;Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 16Then the people answered, &#8220;Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! 17It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 19Joshua said to the people, &#8220;You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 21But the people said to Joshua, &#8220;No! We will serve the Lord.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 22Then Joshua said, &#8220;You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Yes, we are witnesses,&#8221; they replied.</div><div class="p"> 23&#8220;Now then,&#8221; said Joshua, &#8220;throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 24And the people said to Joshua, &#8220;We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 25On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. 26And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord.</div><div class="p"> 27&#8220;See!&#8221; he said to all the people. &#8220;This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 28Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance.</div><div class="s1">Buried in the Promised Land</div><div class="p"> 29After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 30And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah#24:30 Also known as Timnath Heres (see Judges 2:9) in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.</div><div class="p"> 31Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.</div><div class="p"> 32And Joseph&#8217;s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver#24:32 Hebrew hundred kesitahs; a kesitah was a unit of money of unknown weight and value. from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph&#8217;s descendants.</div><div class="p"> 33And Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.</div>
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 <div class="chapter ch1" data-usfm="JDG.1">
 <div class="label">1</div><div class="s1">Israel Fights the Remaining Canaanites</div><div class="p"> 1After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, &#8220;Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Canaanites?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 2The Lord answered, &#8220;Judah shall go up; I have given the land into their hands.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 3The men of Judah then said to the Simeonites their fellow Israelites, &#8220;Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours.&#8221; So the Simeonites went with them.</div><div class="p"> 4When Judah attacked, the Lord gave the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands, and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek. 5It was there that they found Adoni-Bezek and fought against him, putting to rout the Canaanites and Perizzites. 6Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.</div><div class="p"> 7Then Adoni-Bezek said, &#8220;Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them.&#8221; They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.</div><div class="p"> 8The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire.</div><div class="p"> 9After that, Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country, the Negev and the western foothills. 10They advanced against the Canaanites living in Hebron (formerly called Kiriath Arba) and defeated Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai. 11From there they advanced against the people living in Debir (formerly called Kiriath Sepher).</div><div class="p"> 12And Caleb said, &#8220;I will give my daughter Aksah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher.&#8221; 13Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb&#8217;s younger brother, took it; so Caleb gave his daughter Aksah to him in marriage.</div><div class="p"> 14One day when she came to Othniel, she urged him#1:14 Hebrew; Septuagint and Vulgate Othniel, he urged her to ask her father for a field. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, &#8220;What can I do for you?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 15She replied, &#8220;Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water.&#8221; So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.</div><div class="p"> 16The descendants of Moses&#8217; father-in-law, the Kenite, went up from the City of Palms#1:16 That is, Jericho with the people of Judah to live among the inhabitants of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad.</div><div class="p"> 17Then the men of Judah went with the Simeonites their fellow Israelites and attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and they totally destroyed#1:17 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them. the city. Therefore it was called Hormah.#1:17 Hormah means destruction. 18Judah also took#1:18 Hebrew; Septuagint Judah did not take Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron&#8212;each city with its territory.</div><div class="p"> 19The Lord was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had chariots fitted with iron. 20As Moses had promised, Hebron was given to Caleb, who drove from it the three sons of Anak. 21The Benjamites, however, did not drive out the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites.</div><div class="p"> 22Now the tribes of Joseph attacked Bethel, and the Lord was with them. 23When they sent men to spy out Bethel (formerly called Luz), 24the spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, &#8220;Show us how to get into the city and we will see that you are treated well.&#8221; 25So he showed them, and they put the city to the sword but spared the man and his whole family. 26He then went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.</div><div class="p"> 27But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. 28When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely. 29Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them. 30Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, so these Canaanites lived among them, but Zebulun did subject them to forced labor. 31Nor did Asher drive out those living in Akko or Sidon or Ahlab or Akzib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob. 32The Asherites lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land because they did not drive them out. 33Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and those living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath became forced laborers for them. 34The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain. 35And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the tribes of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor. 36The boundary of the Amorites was from Scorpion Pass to Sela and beyond.</div>
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 <div class="book bkJDG">
 <div class="chapter ch2" data-usfm="JDG.2">
 <div class="label">2</div><div class="s1">The Angel of the Lord at Bokim</div><div class="p"> 1The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, &#8220;I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, &#8216;I will never break my covenant with you, 2and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.&#8217; Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? 3And I have also said, &#8216;I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4When the angel of the Lord had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud, 5and they called that place Bokim.#2:5 Bokim means weepers. There they offered sacrifices to the Lord.</div><div class="s1">Disobedience and Defeat</div><div class="p"> 6After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. 7The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.</div><div class="p"> 8Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres#2:9 Also known as Timnath Serah (see Joshua 19:50 and 24:30) in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.</div><div class="p"> 10After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord&#8217;s anger 13because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.</div><div class="p"> 16Then the Lord raised up judges,#2:16 Or leaders; similarly in verses 17-19 who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. 17Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord&#8217;s commands. 18Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.</div><div class="p"> 20Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, &#8220;Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, 21I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.&#8221; 23The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.</div>
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 <div class="book bkJDG">
 <div class="chapter ch3" data-usfm="JDG.3">
 <div class="label">3</div><div class="p"> 1These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2(he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. 4They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord&#8217;s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses.</div><div class="p"> 5The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.</div><div class="s1">Othniel</div><div class="p"> 7The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. 8The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim,#3:8 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. 9But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb&#8217;s younger brother, who saved them. 10The Spirit of the Lord came on him, so that he became Israel&#8217;s judge#3:10 Or leader and went to war. The Lord gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. 11So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.</div><div class="s1">Ehud</div><div class="p"> 12Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. 13Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms.#3:13 That is, Jericho 14The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.</div><div class="p"> 15Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer&#8212;Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. 16Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a cubit#3:16 That is, about 18 inches or about 45 centimeters long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. 17He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. 18After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way those who had carried it. 19But on reaching the stone images near Gilgal he himself went back to Eglon and said, &#8220;Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.&#8221;</div><div class="p">The king said to his attendants, &#8220;Leave us!&#8221; And they all left.</div><div class="p"> 20Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace#3:20 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain; also in verse 24. and said, &#8220;I have a message from God for you.&#8221; As the king rose from his seat, 21Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king&#8217;s belly. 22Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. 23Then Ehud went out to the porch#3:23 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.</div><div class="p"> 24After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, &#8220;He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the palace.&#8221; 25They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead.</div><div class="p"> 26While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the stone images and escaped to Seirah. 27When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them.</div><div class="p"> 28&#8220;Follow me,&#8221; he ordered, &#8220;for the Lord has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.&#8221; So they followed him down and took possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab; they allowed no one to cross over. 29At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not one escaped. 30That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.</div><div class="s1">Shamgar</div><div class="p"> 31After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.</div>
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 <div class="book bkJDG">
 <div class="chapter ch4" data-usfm="JDG.4">
 <div class="label">4</div><div class="s1">Deborah</div><div class="p"> 1Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. 2So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.</div><div class="p"> 4Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading#4:4 Traditionally judging Israel at that time. 5She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. 6She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, &#8220;The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: &#8216;Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. 7I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin&#8217;s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 8Barak said to her, &#8220;If you go with me, I will go; but if you don&#8217;t go with me, I won&#8217;t go.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9&#8220;Certainly I will go with you,&#8221; said Deborah. &#8220;But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.&#8221; So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. 10There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.</div><div class="p"> 11Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses&#8217; brother-in-law,#4:11 Or father-in-law and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.</div><div class="p"> 12When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13Sisera summoned from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.</div><div class="p"> 14Then Deborah said to Barak, &#8220;Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?&#8221; So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. 15At Barak&#8217;s advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.</div><div class="p"> 16Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera&#8217;s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left. 17Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.</div><div class="p"> 18Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, &#8220;Come, my lord, come right in. Don&#8217;t be afraid.&#8221; So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.</div><div class="p"> 19&#8220;I&#8217;m thirsty,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Please give me some water.&#8221; She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.</div><div class="p"> 20&#8220;Stand in the doorway of the tent,&#8221; he told her. &#8220;If someone comes by and asks you, &#8216;Is anyone in there?&#8217; say &#8216;No.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 21But Jael, Heber&#8217;s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.</div><div class="p"> 22Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. &#8220;Come,&#8221; she said, &#8220;I will show you the man you&#8217;re looking for.&#8221; So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple&#8212;dead.</div><div class="p"> 23On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. 24And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="label">6</div><div class="s1">Gideon</div><div class="p"> 1The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4They 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. 5They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.</div><div class="p"> 7When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8he sent them a prophet, who said, &#8220;This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10I said to you, &#8216;I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.&#8217; But you have not listened to me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11The 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. 12When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, &#8220;The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13&#8220;Pardon me, my lord,&#8221; Gideon replied, &#8220;but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, &#8216;Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?&#8217; But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14The Lord turned to him and said, &#8220;Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian&#8217;s hand. Am I not sending you?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 15&#8220;Pardon me, my lord,&#8221; Gideon replied, &#8220;but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 16The Lord answered, &#8220;I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 17Gideon replied, &#8220;If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.&#8221;</div><div class="p">And the Lord said, &#8220;I will wait until you return.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 19Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah#6:19 That is, probably about 36 pounds or about 16 kilograms 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.</div><div class="p"> 20The angel of God said to him, &#8220;Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.&#8221; And Gideon did so. 21Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, &#8220;Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 23But the Lord said to him, &#8220;Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 24So 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.</div><div class="p"> 25That same night the Lord said to him, &#8220;Take the second bull from your father&#8217;s herd, the one seven years old.#6:25 Or Take a full-grown, mature bull from your father&#8217;s herd Tear down your father&#8217;s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole#6:25 That is, a wooden symbol of the goddess Asherah; also in verses 26, 28 and 30 beside it. 26Then build a proper kind of#6:26 Or build with layers of stone an 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#6:26 Or full-grown; also in verse 28 bull as a burnt offering.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 27So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.</div><div class="p"> 28In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal&#8217;s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!</div><div class="p"> 29They asked each other, &#8220;Who did this?&#8221;</div><div class="p">When they carefully investigated, they were told, &#8220;Gideon son of Joash did it.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 30The people of the town demanded of Joash, &#8220;Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal&#8217;s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 31But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, &#8220;Are you going to plead Baal&#8217;s 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.&#8221; 32So because Gideon broke down Baal&#8217;s altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Baal#6:32 Jerub-Baal probably means let Baal contend. that day, saying, &#8220;Let Baal contend with him.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 33Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. 35He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.</div><div class="p"> 36Gideon said to God, &#8220;If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised&#8212; 37look, 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.&#8221; 38And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew&#8212;a bowlful of water.</div><div class="p"> 39Then Gideon said to God, &#8220;Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.&#8221; 40That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.</div>
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