¹The children of Israel made the evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and Yahweh set them in the hand of Midian seven years.

²The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel; from the face of Midian the children of Israel made for themselves the caves which are in the mountains, and the caverns, and the strongholds.

³It will happen, when Israel bore, Midian and Amalek came up, and the children of the east came up over it.

⁴They camped against them and ruined the produce of the land as far as the approach to Gaza, and they left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey.

⁵For they and their livestock will come up, and their tents came, as the more of the locusts in multitude; and there is no number to them and to their camels; they came into the land to corrupt it.

⁶Israel was brought low exceedingly from the face of Midian, and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh.

⁷It happened, when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh over the causes of Midian,

⁸that Yahweh sent a man, a prophet, to the children of Israel, who said to them: Like this Yahweh said, the God of Israel: I brought you up from Egypt, I brought you forth from the house of the slaves.

⁹I delivered you from the hand of Egypt, and from the hand of all those who oppressed you; I drove them from your face, and I set their land to you.

¹⁰I said to you: I am Yahweh your God; you will not fear the gods of the Amorite, in which land you dwelled. And you did not hear in my voice.

¹¹Yahweh came the messenger and sat under the terebinth which is in Ophrah, which belongs to Joash the Ezrite, and Gideon his son was beating out wheat in the winepress to flee from the face of Midian.

¹²The messenger of Yahweh appeared to him and said to him: Yahweh is with you, O mighty man of the valor.

¹³And Gideon said to him: My lord, and is Yahweh with us? And why has all this found us? And where are all his wonders which our fathers recounted to us, saying: Did not Yahweh brought us up from Egypt? And now Yahweh has let us fall and set us in the palm of Midian.

¹⁴And Yahweh turned to him and said: Go in this your strength, you will save Israel from the palm of Midian; did I not send you out?

¹⁵And he said to him: My lord, in what will I save Israel? my thousand is the poor in Manasseh, and I am the little in the house of my father.

¹⁶And Yahweh said to him: I will be with you, and you will strike Midian as one man.

¹⁷And he said to him: If I have found favor in your eyes, you will make to me a sign that it is you who spoke with me.

¹⁸Do not take yourself away from here until I bring to you and bring forth my grain offering and settle it to your face. And he said: I will dwell until you return.

¹⁹And Gideon went and made a young goat of the she-goats and an ephah of flour into unleavened bread; the flesh he put in the basket, and the broth he put in the pot; and he brought forth to him under the terebinth, and he was there.

²⁰And the messenger of God said to him: Take the flesh and the unleavened bread, and settle it to this crag, and pour out the broth. And so he made.

²¹And the messenger of Yahweh sent out the end of the staff which was in his hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened bread; and the fire came up from the rock and ate the flesh and the unleavened bread; and the messenger of Yahweh went from his eyes.

²²And Gideon saw that he was the messenger of Yahweh; and Gideon said: Alas, Adonai Yahweh! For now I have seen the messenger of Yahweh face to face.

²³And Yahweh said to him: Wholeness to you; do not fear, you will not die.

²⁴And Gideon built there an altar to Yahweh and called it: Yahweh is Wholeness. Until this day it is again in Ophrah of the Ezrite.

²⁵And it was in that night, that Yahweh said to him: Take the bull of the ox which is to your father, and the second bull of seven years, and you will demolish the altar of the Baal which is to your father, and the Asherah pole which is over it you will cut.

²⁶And you will build an altar to Yahweh your God over the head of this stronghold in the row; and you will take the second bull, and you will bring up a burnt offering in the wood of the Asherah pole which you will cut.

²⁷And Gideon took ten men from his slaves and made as Yahweh spoke to him; and it was, as he feared the house of his father and the men of the city to make it by day, that he made it by night.

²⁸And the men of the city rose early in the morning, and the altar of the Baal was pulled down, and the Asherah pole which was over it was cut, and the second bull came up over the altar that was built.

²⁹And one said to another: Who made this word? And they inquired and searched, and they said: Gideon the son of Joash made this word.

³⁰And the men of the city said to Joash: bring forth your son, and he will die, for he pulled down the altar of the Baal and for he cut the Asherah pole which was over it.

³¹And Joash said to all who stood over him: Will you contend for the Baal? Will you save he? Who will contend for him will be put to death by the morning. If he is God, let him contend for himself, for he pulled down his altar.

³²And he called it Jerub on that day, saying: Let the Baal contend in him, for he pulled down his altar.

³³And all Midian and Amalek and the children of the east gathered as one and passed over and encamped in the vale of Jezreel.

³⁴And the breath of Yahweh clothed Gideon, and he blew in the rams, and Abiezer was cried out after him.

³⁵And he sent messengers in all Manasseh, and it also was cried out after him; and he sent messengers in Asher and in Zebulun and in Naphtali, and they came up to encounter them.

³⁶And Gideon said to God: If you are saving Israel in my hand as you spoke,

³⁷I am setting the fleece of wool in the threshing-floor; if dew will be over the fleece to her alone, and over all the land heat, then I will know that you will save Israel in my hand as you spoke.

³⁸And so it was; and he rose early from the next day and wrung the fleece and drained dew from the fleece, the fullness of the bowl of waters.

³⁹And Gideon said to God: Let not your anger burn in me, and I will speak only this time; let me test only this time in the fleece; let there be heat to the fleece to her alone, and over all the land let there be dew.

⁴⁰And God made so in that night; and there was heat to the fleece to her alone, and over all the land there was dew.