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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//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"><title>Judges 6 GNT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></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="../topmenuchap/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="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">GNT</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">Good News Translation</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s">Gideon</h3><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_1"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.1" class="v7_6_1">1</span>Once again the people of Israel sinned against the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, so he let the people of Midian rule them for seven years. </span><span class="v7_6_2"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.2" class="v7_6_2">2</span>The Midianites were stronger than Israel, and the people of Israel hid from them in caves and other safe places in the hills. </span><span class="v7_6_3"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.3" class="v7_6_3">3</span>Whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, the Midianites would come with the Amalekites and the desert tribes and attack them. </span><span class="v7_6_4"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.4" class="v7_6_4">4</span>They would camp on the land and destroy the crops as far south as the area around Gaza. They would take all the sheep, cattle, and donkeys, and leave nothing for the Israelites to live on. </span><span class="v7_6_5"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.5" class="v7_6_5">5</span>They would come with their livestock and tents, as thick as locusts. They and their camels were too many to count. They came and devastated the land, </span><span class="v7_6_6"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.6" class="v7_6_6">6</span>and Israel was helpless against them.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_7"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.7" class="v7_6_7">7</span>Then the people of Israel cried out to the <span class="nd">Lord</span> for help against the Midianites, </span><span class="v7_6_8"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.8" class="v7_6_8">8</span>and he sent them a prophet who brought them this message from the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, the God of Israel: “I brought you out of slavery in Egypt. </span><span class="v7_6_9"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.9" class="v7_6_9">9</span>I rescued you from the Egyptians and from the people who fought you here in this land. I drove them out as you advanced, and I gave you their land. </span><span class="v7_6_10"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.10" class="v7_6_10">10</span>I told you that I am the <span class="nd">Lord</span> your God and that you should not worship the gods of the Amorites, whose land you are now living in. But you have not listened to me.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_11"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.11" class="v7_6_11">11</span>Then the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s angel came to the village of Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was threshing some wheat secretly in a wine press, so that the Midianites would not see him. </span><span class="v7_6_12"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.12" class="v7_6_12">12</span>The <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s angel appeared to him there and said, “The <span class="nd">Lord</span> is with you, brave and mighty man!”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_13"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.13" class="v7_6_13">13</span>Gideon said to him, “If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the <span class="nd">Lord</span> is with us? What happened to all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the <span class="nd">Lord</span> used to do—how he brought them out of Egypt? The <span class="nd">Lord</span> has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_14"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.14" class="v7_6_14">14</span>Then the <span class="nd">Lord</span> ordered him, “Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_15"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.15" class="v7_6_15">15</span>Gideon replied, “But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_16"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.16" class="v7_6_16">16</span>The <span class="nd">Lord</span> answered, “You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_17"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.17" class="v7_6_17">17</span>Gideon replied, “If you are pleased with me, give me some proof that you are really the <span class="nd">Lord</span>. </span><span class="v7_6_18"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.18" class="v7_6_18">18</span>Please do not leave until I bring you an offering of food.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_18">He said, “I will stay until you come back.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_19"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.19" class="v7_6_19">19</span>So Gideon went into his house and cooked a young goat and used a bushel of flour to make bread without any yeast. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them to the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s angel under the oak tree, and gave them to him. </span><span class="v7_6_20"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.20" class="v7_6_20">20</span>The angel told him, “Put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” Gideon did so. </span><span class="v7_6_21"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.21" class="v7_6_21">21</span>Then the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s angel reached out and touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick he was holding. Fire came out of the rock and burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel disappeared.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_22"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.22" class="v7_6_22">22</span>Gideon then realized that it was the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s angel he had seen, and he said in terror, “Sovereign <span class="nd">Lord</span>! I have seen your angel face-to-face!”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_23"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.23" class="v7_6_23">23</span>But the <span class="nd">Lord</span> told him, “Peace. Don't be afraid. You will not die.” </span><span class="v7_6_24"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.24" class="v7_6_24">24</span>Gideon built an altar to the <span class="nd">Lord</span> there and named it “The <span class="nd">Lord</span> is Peace.” (It is still standing at Ophrah, which belongs to the clan of Abiezer.)</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_25"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.25" class="v7_6_25">25</span>That night the <span class="nd">Lord</span> told Gideon, “Take your father's bull and another bull seven years old,<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.6.25!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> tear down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the symbol of the goddess Asherah, which is beside it. </span><span class="v7_6_26"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.26" class="v7_6_26">26</span>Build a well-constructed altar to the <span class="nd">Lord</span> your God on top of this mound. Then take the second bull<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.6.26!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> and burn it whole as an offering, using for firewood the symbol of Asherah you have cut down.” </span><span class="v7_6_27"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.27" class="v7_6_27">27</span>So Gideon took ten of his servants and did what the <span class="nd">Lord</span> had told him. He was too afraid of his family and the people in town to do it by day, so he did it at night.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_28"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.28" class="v7_6_28">28</span>When the people in town got up early the next morning, they found that the altar to Baal and the symbol of Asherah had been cut down, and that the second bull had been burned on the altar that had been built there. </span><span class="v7_6_29"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.29" class="v7_6_29">29</span>They asked each other, “Who did this?” They investigated and found out that Gideon son of Joash had done it. </span><span class="v7_6_30"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.30" class="v7_6_30">30</span>Then they said to Joash, “Bring your son out here, so that we can kill him! He tore down the altar to Baal and cut down the symbol of Asherah beside it.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_31"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.31" class="v7_6_31">31</span>But Joash said to all those who confronted him, “Are you arguing for Baal? Are you defending him? Anyone who argues for him will be killed before morning. If Baal is a god, let him defend himself. It is his altar that was torn down.” </span><span class="v7_6_32"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.32" class="v7_6_32">32</span>From then on Gideon was known as Jerubbaal,<a href="#fn" id="link_Judg.6.32!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> because Joash said, “Let Baal defend himself; it is his altar that was torn down.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_33"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.33" class="v7_6_33">33</span>Then all the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the desert tribes assembled, crossed the Jordan River, and camped in Jezreel Valley. </span><span class="v7_6_34"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.34" class="v7_6_34">34</span>The spirit of the <span class="nd">Lord</span> took control of Gideon, and he blew a trumpet to call the men of the clan of Abiezer to follow him. </span><span class="v7_6_35"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.35" class="v7_6_35">35</span>He sent messengers throughout the territory of both parts of Manasseh to call them to follow him. He sent messengers to the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they also came to join him.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v7_6_36"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.36" class="v7_6_36">36</span>Then Gideon said to God, “You say that you have decided to use me to rescue Israel. </span><span class="v7_6_37"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.37" class="v7_6_37">37</span>Well, I am putting some wool on the ground where we thresh the wheat. If in the morning there is dew only on the wool but not on the ground, then I will know that you are going to use me to rescue Israel.” </span><span class="v7_6_38"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.38" class="v7_6_38">38</span>That is exactly what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the wool and wrung enough dew out of it to fill a bowl with water. </span><span class="v7_6_39"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.39" class="v7_6_39">39</span>Then Gideon said to God, “Don't be angry with me; let me speak just once more. Please let me make one more test with the wool. This time let the wool be dry, and the ground be wet.” </span><span class="v7_6_40"><span class="reftext" id="Judg.6.40" class="v7_6_40">40</span>That night God did that very thing. The next morning the wool was dry, but the ground was wet with dew.</span></p><a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">6.25: </char><char style="fq" closed="false">bull and another bull seven years old; </char><char style="ft" closed="false">or </char><char style="fq" closed="false">bull, the seven-year-old one.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">6.26: </char><char style="fq" closed="false">the second bull; </char><char style="ft" closed="false">or </char><char style="fq" closed="false">the bull.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">6.32: </char><char style="fk" closed="false">Jerubbaal: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">This name in Hebrew means “Let Baal defend himself.”</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 1992 American Bible Society. 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