Judges: Gideon

Harvest time. Enemies sweep across the land like a flood. Midianites, Amalekites, and other tribes from the east ride in on camels too many to count. They spread through the valleys and cover the ground like bugs. They eat whatever they find and take whatever they want. Israel watches their food...

Seven long years under Midian. Every season, raiders rush in and cut the crops down. They drive off sheep, oxen, and donkeys. Food runs out. Families leave their homes and hide in caves, in holes dug into the mountains. The open villages sit empty. No one feels safe anymore.

A young man named Gideon hides at Ophrah. He beats wheat inside a winepress, low and out of sight, so the Midianites will not find him. Then the angel of Yahweh appears under an oak tree nearby. Mighty warrior! he calls out. Gideon stares. Why has Yahweh let Midian crush us? Yahweh answers: Go and...

Judg 6:3