9
And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and
1drove them out before you and gave you their land.
10
And I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God;
2you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.' But you have not obeyed my voice."
The Call of Gideon
11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash
3the Abiezrite, while his son
4Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
12
And
5the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him,
6"The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor."
13
And Gideon said to him, "Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are
7all his wonderful deeds
8that 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."
14
And the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian;
9do not I send you?"
15
And he said to him,
10"Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold,
11my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."
16
And the LORD said to him,
12"But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man."
17
And he said to him,
13"If now I have found favor in your eyes, then
14show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.
18
Please
15do 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."
19
So Gideon went into his house
16and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah 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.