Discovery BoxJudges 7:8-22 
Context7:8 The men 1 who were chosen 2 took supplies 3 and their trumpets. Gideon 4 sent all the men of Israel back to their homes; 5 he kept only three hundred men. Now the Midianites 6 were camped down below 7 in the valley.
7:9 That night the Lord said to Gideon, 8 “Get up! Attack 9 the camp, for I am handing it over to you. 10 7:10 But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with Purah your servant 7:11 and listen to what they are saying. Then you will be brave 11 and attack the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to where the sentries were guarding the camp. 12 7:12 Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east covered the valley like a swarm of locusts. 13 Their camels could not be counted; they were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore. 7:13 When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling another man about a dream he had. 14 The man 15 said, “Look! I had a dream. I saw 16 a stale cake of barley bread rolling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent so hard it knocked it over and turned it upside down. The tent just collapsed.” 17 7:14 The other man said, 18 “Without a doubt this symbolizes 19 the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God is handing Midian and all the army over to him.”
7:15 When Gideon heard the report of the dream and its interpretation, he praised God. 20 Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up, for the Lord is handing the Midianite army over to you!” 7:16 He divided the three hundred men into three units. 21 He gave them all trumpets and empty jars with torches inside them. 22 7:17 He said to them, “Watch me and do as I do. Watch closely! 23 I am going to the edge of the camp. Do as I do! 7:18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, you also blow your trumpets all around the camp. Then say, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”
7:19 Gideon took a hundred men to the edge of the camp 24 at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guards. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars they were carrying. 25 7:20 All three units blew their trumpets and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hand and the trumpets in their right. 26 Then they yelled, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 7:21 They stood in order 27 all around the camp. The whole army ran away; they shouted as they scrambled away. 28 7:22 When the three hundred men blew their trumpets, the Lord caused the Midianites to attack one another with their swords 29 throughout 30 the camp. The army fled to Beth Shittah on the way to Zererah. They went 31 to the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.
1 tn Heb “The people.”
2 tn The words “who were chosen” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
3 tn The Hebrew text has “in their hands.”
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “tents.”
6 tn Heb “Midian.”
7 tn The Hebrew text adds “him” (i.e., Gideon).
8 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Heb “Go down against.”
10 tn The Hebrew verbal form is a perfect, emphasizing the certainty of the promise.
11 tn Heb “your hands will be strengthened.”
12 tn Heb “to the edge of the ones in battle array who were in the camp.”
13 tn Heb “Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the east were falling in the valley like locusts in great number.”
14 tn Heb “And Gideon came, and, look, a man was relating to his friend a dream.”
15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned in the previous clause) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
16 tn Heb “Look!” The repetition of this interjection, while emphatic in Hebrew, would be redundant in the English translation.
17 tn Heb “It came to the tent and struck it and it fell. It turned it upside down and the tent fell.”
18 tn Heb “answered and said.”
19 tn Heb “This can be nothing but.”
20 tn Heb “he bowed down” or “worshiped.”
21 tn Heb “heads.”
22 tn Heb “the jars.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“them”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
sn They hid the torches inside the earthenware jars to disguise their approach and to keep the torches from being extinguished by the breeze.
23 tn Or “look.”
24 tn Heb “Gideon went, along with the hundred men who were with him, to the edge of the camp.”
25 tn Heb “that were in their hands.”
26 tn The Hebrew text adds, “in order to blow [them].” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
27 tn Heb “each in his place.”
28 tn Or “fled.”
29 tn Heb “the
30 tc MT has “and throughout the camp,” but the conjunction (“and”) is due to dittography and should be dropped. Compare the ancient versions, which lack the conjunction here.
31 tn The words “they went” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
