1De novo os israelitas fizeram o que o SENHOR reprova, e durante sete anos ele os entregou nas mãos dos midianitas.2Os midianitas dominaram Israel; por isso os israelitas fizeram para si esconderijos nas montanhas, nas cavernas e nas fortalezas.3Sempre que os israelitas faziam as suas plantações, os midianitas, os amalequitas e outros povos da região a leste deles as invadiam.4Acampavam na terra e destruíam as plantações ao longo de todo o caminho, até Gaza, e não deixavam nada vivo em Israel, nem ovelhas nem gado nem jumentos.5Eles subiam trazendo os seus animais e suas tendas, e vinham como enxames de gafanhotos; era impossível contar os homens e os seus camelos. Invadiam a terra para devastá-la.6Por causa de Midiã, Israel empobreceu tanto que os israelitas clamaram por socorro ao SENHOR.7Quando os israelitas clamaram ao SENHOR por causa de Midiã,8ele lhes enviou um profeta, que disse: “Assim diz o SENHOR, o Deus de Israel: ‘Tirei vocês do Egito, da terra da escravidão.9Eu os livrei do poder do Egito e das mãos de todos os seus opressores. Expulsei-os e dei a vocês a terra deles.10E também disse a vocês: Eu sou o SENHOR, o seu Deus; não adorem os deuses dos amorreus, em cuja terra vivem, mas vocês não me deram ouvidos’ ”.11Então o Anjo do SENHOR veio e sentou-se sob a grande árvore de Ofra, que pertencia ao abiezrita Joás. Gideão, filho de Joás, estava malhando o trigo num tanque de prensar uvas, para escondê-lo dos midianitas.12Então o Anjo do SENHOR apareceu a Gideão e lhe disse: “O SENHOR está com você, poderoso guerreiro”.13“Ah, Senhor”, Gideão respondeu, “se o SENHOR está conosco, por que aconteceu tudo isso? Onde estão todas as suas maravilhas que os nossos pais nos contam quando dizem: ‘Não foi o SENHOR que nos tirou do Egito?’ Mas agora o SENHOR nos abandonou e nos entregou nas mãos de Midiã”.14O SENHOR se voltou para ele e disse: “Com a força que você tem, vá libertar Israel das mãos de Midiã. Não sou eu quem o está enviando?”15“Ah, Senhor[1]”, respondeu Gideão, “como posso libertar Israel? Meu clã é o menos importante de Manassés, e eu sou o menor da minha família.”16“Eu estarei com você”, respondeu o SENHOR, “e você derrotará todos os midianitas como se fossem um só homem”.17E Gideão prosseguiu: “Se de fato posso contar com o teu favor, dá-me um sinal de que és tu que estás falando comigo.18Peço-te que não vás embora até que eu volte e traga minha oferta e a coloque diante de ti”. E o SENHOR respondeu: “Esperarei até você voltar”.19Gideão foi para casa, preparou um cabrito e com uma arroba[2] de farinha fez pães sem fermento. Pôs a carne num cesto e o caldo numa panela, trouxe-os para fora e ofereceu-os a ele sob a grande árvore.20E o Anjo de Deus lhe disse: “Apanhe a carne e os pães sem fermento, ponha-os sobre esta rocha e derrame o caldo”. Gideão assim o fez.21Com a ponta do cajado que estava em sua mão, o Anjo do SENHOR tocou a carne e os pães sem fermento. Fogo subiu da rocha, consumindo a carne e os pães. E o Anjo do SENHOR desapareceu.22Quando Gideão viu que era o Anjo do SENHOR, exclamou: “Ah, SENHOR Soberano! Vi o Anjo do SENHOR face a face!”23Disse-lhe, porém, o SENHOR: “Paz seja com você! Não tenha medo. Você não morrerá”.24Gideão construiu ali um altar em honra ao SENHOR e lhe deu este nome: O SENHOR é Paz. Até hoje o altar está em Ofra dos abiezritas.25Naquela mesma noite, o SENHOR lhe disse: “Separe o segundo novilho[3] do rebanho de seu pai, aquele de sete anos de idade. Despedace o altar de Baal, que pertence a seu pai, e corte o poste sagrado de Aserá que está ao lado do altar.26Depois faça um altar para o SENHOR, o seu Deus, no topo desta elevação. Ofereça o segundo novilho em holocausto[4] com a madeira do poste sagrado que você irá cortar”.27Assim Gideão chamou dez dos seus servos e fez como o SENHOR lhe ordenara. Mas, com medo da sua família e dos homens da cidade, fez tudo de noite, e não durante o dia.28De manhã, quando os homens da cidade se levantaram, lá estava demolido o altar de Baal, com o poste sagrado ao seu lado, cortado, e com o segundo novilho sacrificado no altar recém-construído!29Perguntaram uns aos outros: “Quem fez isso?” Depois de investigar, concluíram: “Foi Gideão, filho de Joás”.30Os homens da cidade disseram a Joás: “Traga seu filho para fora. Ele deve morrer, pois derrubou o altar de Baal e quebrou o poste sagrado que ficava ao seu lado”.31Joás, porém, respondeu à multidão hostil que o cercava: “Vocês vão defender a causa de Baal? Estão tentando salvá-lo? Quem lutar por ele será morto pela manhã! Se Baal fosse realmente um deus, poderia defender-se quando derrubaram o seu altar”.32Por isso naquele dia chamaram Gideão de “Jerubaal”, dizendo: “Que Baal dispute com ele, pois derrubou o seu altar”.33Nesse meio tempo, todos os midianitas, amalequitas e outros povos que vinham do leste uniram os seus exércitos, atravessaram o Jordão e acamparam no vale de Jezreel.34Então o Espírito do SENHOR apoderou-se de Gideão, e ele, com toque de trombeta, convocou os abiezritas para segui-lo.35Enviou mensageiros a todo o Manassés, chamando-o às armas, e também a Aser, a Zebulom e a Naftali, que também subiram ao seu encontro.36E Gideão disse a Deus: “Quero saber se vais libertar Israel por meu intermédio, como prometeste.37Vê, colocarei uma porção de lã na eira. Se o orvalho molhar apenas a lã e todo o chão estiver seco, saberei que tu libertarás Israel por meu intermédio, como prometeste”.38E assim aconteceu. Gideão levantou-se bem cedo no dia seguinte, torceu a lã e encheu uma tigela de água do orvalho.39Disse ainda Gideão a Deus: “Não se acenda a tua ira contra mim. Deixa-me fazer só mais um pedido. Permite-me fazer mais um teste com a lã. Desta vez faze ficar seca a lã e o chão coberto de orvalho”.40E Deus assim fez naquela noite. Somente a lã estava seca; o chão estava todo coberto de orvalho.
1The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. (Gn 25:2; Nm 25:17; Jz 2:19; Hc 3:7)2And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. (1 Sm 13:6; Hb 11:38)3For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. (Gn 29:1; Jz 3:13; Jz 6:33; Jz 7:12; Jz 8:10; 1 Rs 4:30; Jó 1:3)4They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. (Lv 26:16; Dt 28:30; Dt 28:51; Mq 6:15)5For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. (Jz 7:12)6And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. (Jz 3:9)7When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites,8the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. (1 Sm 10:18)9And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. (Sl 44:2)10And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” (Js 24:15; 2 Rs 17:35)
The Call of Gideon
11Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. (Js 17:2; Jz 8:2; Hb 11:32)12And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” (Js 1:5; Jz 13:3; Lc 1:11; At 10:3)13And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” (Sl 44:1; Sl 89:49; Is 63:15)14And the Lord[1] turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” (Js 1:9; 1 Sm 12:11)15And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” (Ex 3:11; 1 Sm 9:21; 1 Sm 18:18)16And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” (Ex 3:12; Js 1:5)17And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. (Ex 4:1; Ex 33:13; Jz 6:36; 2 Rs 20:8; Is 7:11)18Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” (Gn 18:3; Jz 13:15)19So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah[2] of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. (Gn 18:6)20And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. (Jz 13:19; 1 Rs 18:33)21Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. (Lv 9:24; 1 Rs 18:38; 2 Cr 7:1)22Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” (Gn 32:30; Ex 33:20; Dt 5:26; Jz 13:21)23But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” (Dn 10:19)24Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. (Gn 22:14; Ex 17:15; Jz 6:11; Jz 8:27; Jz 8:32; Ez 48:35)25That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it (Jz 3:7)26and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” (Dn 11:7; Dn 11:10; Dn 11:31)27So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.
Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal
28When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built.29And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.”30Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.”31But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.”32Therefore on that day Gideon[3] was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. (Jz 7:1; 1 Sm 12:11; 2 Sm 11:21)33Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. (Js 17:16; Jz 6:3)34But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. (Jz 3:10; Jz 3:27)35And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. (Jz 7:24)
The Sign of the Fleece
36Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, (Ex 4:1)37behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.”38And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water.39Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” (Gn 18:32)40And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.