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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>Judges 6 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/judges/6.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="/bmcc/judges/6-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com/catholic">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NRSVCE</a> > Judges 6</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../judges/5.htm" title="Judges 5">◄</a> Judges 6 <a href="../judges/7.htm" title="Judges 7">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><div class="text-html"> <h3><span id="en" class="text">The Midianite Oppression</span></h3><p class="chapter-1"><span class="text"><span class="versenum">1</span>The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, and the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">2</span>The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel; and because of Midian the Israelites provided for themselves hiding places in the mountains, caves and strongholds. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">3</span>For whenever the Israelites put in seed, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">4</span>They would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the land, as far as the neighborhood of Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep or ox or donkey. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">5</span>For they and their livestock would come up, and they would even bring their tents, as thick as locusts; neither they nor their camels could be counted; so they wasted the land as they came in. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">6</span>Thus Israel was greatly impoverished because of Midian; and the Israelites cried out to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> for help.</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">7</span>When the Israelites cried to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> on account of the Midianites, </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">8</span>the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> sent a prophet to the Israelites; and he said to them, “Thus says the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of slavery; </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">9</span>and 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; </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">10</span>and I said to you, ‘I am the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> your God; you shall not pay reverence to the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not given heed to my voice.”</span></p> <h3><span id="en" class="text">The Call of Gideon</span></h3><p><span class="text"><span class="versenum">11</span>Now the angel of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">12</span>The angel of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> appeared to him and said to him, “The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> is with you, you mighty warrior.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">13</span>Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">14</span>Then the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">15</span>He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">16</span>The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">17</span>Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">18</span>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 until you return.”</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">19</span>So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, 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 oak and presented them. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">20</span>The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">21</span>Then the angel of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> 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 <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> vanished from his sight. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">22</span>Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>; and Gideon said, “Help me, Lord <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">God</span>! For I have seen the angel of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> face to face.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">23</span>But the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">24</span>Then Gideon built an altar there to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, and called it, The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> is peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">25</span>That night the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to him, “Take your father’s bull, the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the sacred pole<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-6680a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote a">a</a>]</span> that is beside it; </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">26</span>and build an altar to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> your God on the top of the stronghold here, in proper order; then take the second bull, and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the sacred pole<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-6681b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote b">b</a>]</span> that you shall cut down.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">27</span>So Gideon took ten of his servants, and did as the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> had told him; but because he was too afraid of his family and the townspeople to do it by day, he did it by night.</span></p> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal</span></h3><p><span class="text"><span class="versenum">28</span>When the townspeople rose early in the morning, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the sacred pole<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-6683c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote c">c</a>]</span> beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">29</span>So they said to one another, “Who has done this?” After searching and inquiring, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">30</span>Then the townspeople said to Joash, “Bring out your son, so that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the sacred pole<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-6685d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote d">d</a>]</span> beside it.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">31</span>But Joash said to all who were arrayed against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you defend his cause? 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 pulled down.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">32</span>Therefore on that day Gideon<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-6687e" title="See footnote e">e</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote e">e</a>]</span> was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he pulled down his altar.</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">33</span>Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together, and crossing the Jordan they encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">34</span>But the spirit of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> took possession of Gideon; and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">35</span>He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.</span></p> <h3><span id="en" class="text">The Sign of the Fleece</span></h3><p><span class="text"><span class="versenum">36</span>Then Gideon said to God, “In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">37</span>I am going to lay 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 deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">38</span>And 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. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">39</span>Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">40</span>And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.</span></p> <A name="fen"></a><div class="footnotes"><h4>Footnotes</h4><ol><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Judges 6:25">Judges 6:25</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>Asherah</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Judges 6:26">Judges 6:26</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>Asherah</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Judges 6:28">Judges 6:28</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>Asherah</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Judges 6:30">Judges 6:30</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>Asherah</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Judges 6:32">Judges 6:32</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>he</i></span></li></ol></div> </div></div></div></div></div> </div> </div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. 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