Judges 7:12-22 (NRSV)
12The
Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the
valley as thick as locusts; and their camels were without number, countless
as the sand on the seashore. 13When Gideon arrived, there was
a man telling a dream to his comrade; and he said, "I had a dream, and
in it a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to
the tent, and struck it so that it fell; it turned upside down, and the tent
collapsed." 14And his comrade answered, "This is no
other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; into his hand
God has given Midian and all the army." 15When Gideon
heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped; and
he returned to the camp of Israel, and said, "Get up; for the LORD has
given the army of Midian into your hand." 16After he divided
the three hundred men into three companies, and put trumpets into the hands
of all of them, and empty jars, with torches inside the jars, 17he
said to them, "Look at me, and do the same; when I come to the outskirts
of the camp, do as I do. 18When I blow the trumpet, I and all
who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets around the whole camp, and
shout, 'For the LORD and for Gideon!'" 19So Gideon
and the hundred who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the
beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch; and they
blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20So
the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars, holding in their
left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow; and
they cried, "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!" 21Every
man stood in his place all around the camp, and all the men in camp ran;
they cried out and fled. 22When they blew the three hundred trumpets,
the LORD set every man's sword against his fellow and against all the army;
and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border
of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
ELCA's daily Bible readings are chosen from
"Revised
Common Lectionary Daily Readings," prepared by Consultation
on the Common Texts, © 2005.
All text is from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division
of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches USA,
and is used by permission. All rights reserved.
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