2
And the Lord said to Gideon, (Too) Much people is with thee, and Midian shall not be betaken into the hands thereof, lest Israel have glory against me, and say, I am delivered by my strengths. (And the Lord said to Gideon, Too many people be with thee, and the Midianites shall not be delivered into their hands, lest the people of Israel take the glory from me, and say, We were saved by our own strength.)
3
Speak thou to the people, and preach thou, while all men hear, (and say,) He that is fearedful, and dreadful, turn again. And (so) they (who were afraid) went away from the hill of Gilead, and (in all) two and twenty thousand of men turned again from the people; and only ten thousand (still) dwelled (there).
4
And the Lord said to Gideon, Yet the people is (too) much; lead thou them to the waters, and there I shall prove them, and he (shall) go with thee, of whom I shall say, that he (should) go; and turn he again, whom I shall forbid to go.
5
And when the people had gone down to the waters, the Lord said to Gideon, Thou shalt separate them by themselves that lap (up the) waters with hand and tongue, as dogs be wont to lap (it up); and those, that drink with knees bowed, shall be in the tother part.
6
And so the number of them, that lapped (up the) waters, by the hand casting (it) to the mouth, was three hundred men; and all the tother multitude drank kneeling.
7
And the Lord said to Gideon, In three hundred men, that lapped waters, I shall deliver you, and I shall betake Midian in thine hand; and all the tother multitude turn again into their place. (And the Lord said to Gideon, With the three hundred men who lapped up the water, I shall save you, and I shall deliver the Midianites into thy hands; and all the other multitude should return to their homes.)
8
And [so] when they had taken meats and trumps for the number of them, he commanded all the tother multitude to go (back) to their tabernacles; and Gideon, with (those) three hundred men, gave himself to [the] battle. And the tents of Midian were beneath in the valley (And the tents of the Midianites were pitched below him in the valley).
9
In the same night the Lord said to him, Rise thou (up), and go down into their tents, for I have betaken them in thine hand (for I have delivered them into thy hands);
10
and if thou dreadest to go alone, Phurah, thy servant, go down with thee. (and if thou fearest to go down alone, let thy servant Phurah go down with thee.)
11
And when thou shalt hear what they speak, then thine hands shall be strengthened, and thou shalt go down securer to the tents of [the] enemies. Therefore he went down, and Phurah, his servant (And so he, and his servant Phurah, went down), into the part of [the] tents, where the watches of (the) armed men were.
12
And Midian, and Amalek, and all the peoples of the east lay spread abroad in the valley, as the multitude of locusts; and the camels were unnumberable, as gravel that lieth in the brink of the sea. (And the Midianites, and the Amalekites, and all the peoples of the east lay spread abroad in the valley, like a multitude of locusts; and their camels were innumerable, like the gravel, or the sand, that lieth at the seashore.)