The Story of the Bible

Deborah, the judge, wrote a great song about this victory. Here are some verses from it:

"Because the elders took the lead in Israel,

Because the people offered themselves willingly,

Bless ye the Lord.

Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes;

I, even I will sing unto the Lord;

I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel.

         .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

The kings came and fought.

Then fought the kings of Canaan,

In Taanach by the waters of Meggido.

They took no gain of money.

They fought from heaven,

The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

The river Kishon swept them away,

That ancient river, the river Kishon.

O my soul, march on with strength;

         .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

Blessed among women shall Jael be,

The wife of Heber the Kenite,

Blessed shall she be among women in the tent.

He asked water, and she gave him milk,

She brought him butter in a lordly dish.

         .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay;

At her feet he bowed, he fell.

Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

Through the window a woman looked forth and cried,

The mother of Sisera cried through the lattice,

Why is his chariot so long in coming?

Why tarry the wheels of his chariot?

         .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord;

But let them that love him be as the sun,

When he goeth forth in his might.

Gideon and His Brave Three Hundred

Judges vi: 1, to viii: 28.

Again The people of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord in worshipping Baal; and the Lord left them again to suffer for their sins. This time it was the Midianites, living near the desert on the east of Israel, who came against the tribes in the middle of the country. The two tribes that suffered the hardest fate were Ephraim, and the part of Manasseh on the west of Jordan. For seven years the Midianites swept over their land every year, just at the time of harvest, and carried away all the crops of grain, until the Israelites had no food for themselves and none for their sheep and cattle. The Midianites brought also their own flocks, and camels without number, which ate all the grass of the field. These Midianites were the wild Arabs, living on the border of the desert, and from their land they made sudden and swift attacks upon the people of Israel.

The people of Israel were driven away from their villages and their farms; and were compelled to hide in the caves of the mountains. And if any Israelite could raise any grain, he buried it in pits covered with earth, or in empty wine-presses, where the Midianites could not find it.

One day a man named Gideon was threshing out wheat in a hidden place, when suddenly he saw an angel sitting under an oak-tree. The angel said to him, "You are a brave man, Gideon; and the Lord is with you. Go out boldly, and save your people from the power of the Midianites."

THE ANGEL SPEAKING TO GIDEON ON THE THRESHING FLOOR

Gideon answered the angel, "O Lord, how can I save Israel? Mine is a poor family in Manasseh, and I am the least of my father's house."

And the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and I will help you drive out the Midianites."

Gideon felt that it was the Lord who was talking with him, in the form of an angel. He brought an offering, and laid it on a rock before the angel. Then the angel touched the offering with his staff. At once a fire leaped up and burned the offering; and then the angel vanished from his sight. Gideon was afraid when he saw this; but the Lord said to him, "Peace be unto you, Gideon; do not fear, for I am with you."

THE ANGEL TOUCHED GIDEON'S OFFERING

On the spot where the Lord appeared to Gideon, under an oak-tree near the village of Ophrah, in the tribe-land of Manasseh, Gideon built an altar, and called it by a name which means "The Lord is peace." This altar was standing long afterward in that place.

Then the Lord told Gideon that before setting his people free from the Midianites, he must first set them free from the service of Baal and Asherah, the two idols most worshipped among them. Near the house of Gideon's own father stood an altar to Baal, and the image of Asherah.

On that night Gideon went out with ten men, and threw down the image of Baal, and cut in pieces the wooden image of Asherah, and destroyed the altar before these idols. And in place he built an altar to the God of Israel, and on it laid the broken pieces of the idols for wood, and with them offered a young ox as a burnt-offering.

On the next morning, when the people of the village went out to worship their idols, they found them cut in pieces, the altar taken away; in its place stood an altar of the Lord, and on it the pieces of the Asherah were burning as wood under a sacrifice to the Lord. The people looked at the broken and burning idols, and they said, "Who has done this?"