1. The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian for seven years.
2. The hands of Midian dominated Israel, and because of Midian the children of Israel made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.
3. Whenever Israel would plant crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east would come up against them.
4. Then they would make camp by them and ruin crops of the land all the way to Gaza. They did not leave any provisions behind in Israel—neither sheep, nor cattle, nor donkeys.
5. For they came with their livestock and tents like a swarm of locusts. They and their camels were too numerous to count, and they came into the land to destroy it.
6. Israel was made weak before Midian and cried out to the Lord.
7. When the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of Midian,
8. the Lord sent them a prophet who said, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I brought you up from Egypt and out of that place of slavery.
9. I delivered you from the hands of Egypt and all your oppressors. I drove them out from before you and gave you their land.
10. I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God. Do not worship the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living.’ But you have disobeyed Me.”
11. Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak tree in Ophrah belonging to Joash the Abiezrite. Gideon his son was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
12. The angel of the Lord appeared and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”
13. Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, then why has all this happened to us? Where are all His miracles that our fathers told us about? They said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt?’ Yet now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
14. Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this strength of yours. Save Israel from the control of Midian. Have I not sent you?”
15. And he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”
16. Then the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you will strike the Midianites as one man.”
17. And he said to Him, “If I have found favor in Your sight, give me a sign that it is You who are speaking with me.
18. Please do not depart from here until I come to You and bring out my gift and set it before You.”And He said, “I will stay until you return.”
19. So Gideon went and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought them out and offered them to Him under the oak.