1 Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, rose early with all the people who were with him, and they camped by the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of him, by the hill of Moreh in the valley. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give Midian into their hand, lest Israel boast against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now proclaim in the hearing of the people, ‘Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’ ” Twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.

4 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Whoever I tell you, ‘This one will go with you,’ will go with you. And whoever I tell you, ‘This one will not go with you,’ will not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. The LORD said to Gideon, “Set apart everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, and likewise everyone who kneels down to drink.”

6 The number of those who lapped, bringing their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men. All the rest of the people knelt down to drink water.

7 The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped I will save you and give Midian into your hand. Let all the other people go, each to his own place.” 8 The men took the people’s provisions and their ram’s horns. Gideon sent every other man of Israel to his tent, but kept the three hundred men. The camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

9 That night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 Listen to what they say, and afterward your hands will be strengthened, and you will go down against the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to the edge of the armed men in the camp. 12 The Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the people of the east lay in the valley, as numerous as locusts. Their camels were beyond counting, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. 13 When Gideon arrived, a man was telling his companion a dream. He said, “I had a dream! A loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian. It came to the tent and struck it, and it fell. It turned it upside down, and the tent collapsed.” 14 His companion answered, “This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, an Israelite. God has given Midian and the whole camp into his hand.”

15 When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the camp of Midian into your hand!” 16 He divided the three hundred men into three companies and put ram’s horns into the hands of all of them, along with empty jars and torches inside the jars. 17 He said to them, “Watch me and do as I do. When I come to the edge of the camp, do just as I do. 18 When I blow the ram’s horn, I and all who are with me, you too must blow the ram’s horns all around the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon!’ ”

19 Gideon and the hundred men with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the sentries had been posted. They blew the ram’s horns and smashed the jars in their hands. 20 The three companies blew the ram’s horns and broke the jars. They held the torches in their left hands and the ram’s horns in their right hands to blow, and they cried, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” 21 Each man stood in his place around the camp, while the whole army ran, cried out, and fled. 22 When the three hundred ram’s horns sounded, the LORD turned each man’s sword against his companion throughout the camp. The army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah near Tabbath. 23 The men of Israel were summoned from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Go down to meet Midian and seize the waters ahead of them as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan.” All the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they seized the waters as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan. 25 They captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb, and they pursued Midian. They brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from beyond the Jordan.