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Page 27
But the Lord said to Gideon: "The people are yet too many. You need only
a few of the bravest and best men to fight in this battle. Bring the men
down the mountain, past the water, and I will show you there how to find
the men whom you need."
In the morning Gideon, by God's command called his ten thousand men out,
and made them march down the hill, just as though they were going to
attack the enemy. And as they were beside the water, he noticed how they
drank, and set them apart in two companies, according to their way of
drinking.
When they came to the water, most of the men threw aside their shields
and spears, and knelt down and scooped up a draft of the water with both
hands together like a cup. These men Gideon commanded to stand in one
company.
There were a few men who did not stop to take a large draft of water.
Holding spear and shield in the right hand, to be ready for the enemy if
one should suddenly appear, they merely caught up a handful of the water
in passing and marched on, lapping up the water from one hand. God said
to Gideon:
"Set by themselves these men who lapped up each a handful of water.
These are the men whom I have chosen to set Israel free."
Gideon counted these men, and found that there were only three hundred
of them, while all the rest bowed down on their faces to drink. The
difference between them was that the three hundred were earnest men, of
one purpose; not turning aside from their aim even to drink, as the
others did. Then, too, they were watchful men, always ready to meet
their enemies.
So Gideon, at God's command, sent back to the camp on Mount Gilboa all
the rest of his army, nearly ten thousand men, keeping with himself only
his little band of three hundred.
Gideon's plan did not need a large army; but it needed a few careful,
bold men, who should do exactly as their leader commanded them. He gave
to each man a lamp, a pitcher, and a trumpet, and told the men just what
was to be done with them. The lamp was lighted, but was placed inside
the pitcher, so that it could not be seen. He divided his men into three
companies, and very quietly led them down the mountain in the middle of
the night, and arranged them all in order around the camp of the
Midianites.
[Illustration: _The men blew their trumpets with a mighty noise_]
Then at one moment a great shout rang out in the darkness, "The sword of
the Lord and of Gideon," and after it came a crash of breaking pitchers,
and then a flash of light in every direction. The three hundred men had
given the shout, and broken their pitchers, so that on every side
lights were shining. The men blew their trumpets with a mighty noise;
and the Midianites were roused from sleep, to see enemies all round
them, lights beaming and swords flashing, while everywhere the sharp
sound of the trumpets was heard.
They were filled with sudden terror, and thought only of escape, not of
fighting. But wherever they turned, their enemies seemed to be standing
with swords drawn. They trampled each other down to death, flying from
the Israelites. Their own land was in the east, across the river Jordan,
and they fled in that direction, down one of the valleys between the
mountains.
Gideon had thought that the Midianites would turn toward their own land,
if they should be beaten in the battle, and he had already planned to
cut off their flight. The ten thousand men in the camp he had placed on
the sides of the valley leading to the Jordan. There they slew very many
of the Midianites as they fled down the steep pass toward the river. And
Gideon had also sent to the men of the tribe of Ephraim, who had thus
far taken no part in the war, to hold the only place at the river where
men could wade through the water. Those of the Midianites who had
escaped from Gideon's men on either side of the valley were now met by
the Ephraimites at the river, and many more of them were slain. Among
the slain were two of the princes of the Midianites, named Oreb and
Zeeb.
A part of the Midianite army was able to get across the river, and to
continue its flight toward the desert; but Gideon and his brave three
hundred men followed closely after them, fought another battle with
them, destroyed them utterly, and took their two kings, Zebah and
Zalmunna, whom he killed. After this great victory the Israelites were
freed forever from the Midianites. They never again ventured to leave
their home in the desert to make war on the tribes of Israel.
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