Judges 7

³²So on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend with him,” because he had torn down Baal’s altar.

⁶Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.

¹⁰Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

³⁰Are not these mountains across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak of Moreh?

³So Abraham got up early the next morning, saddled his donkey, and took along two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split the wood for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had designated.

¹Early the next morning Joshua got up and left Shittim with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.

¹⁷You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.”

²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

²⁸He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are,

⁷Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.

¹⁸do not boast over those branches. If you do, remember this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

⁷The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and of the people of Jerusalem may not be greater than that of Judah.

⁶So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.

⁸Then the officers shall speak further to the army, saying, “Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him return home, so that the hearts of his brothers will not melt like his own.”

¹⁴They will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will triumph over them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and He will be accompanied by His called and chosen and faithful ones.”

¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

⁸But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

²⁵Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and He turned and said to them,

²⁶“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.

²¹But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

¹⁶No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.

⁷But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the Lord does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the Lord sees the heart.”

⁹Put an end to the evil of the wicked, but establish the righteous, O righteous God who searches hearts and minds.

²But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.

³And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.

¹⁰Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

⁶Jonathan said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let us cross over to the outpost of these uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will work on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.”

⁶Jonathan said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let us cross over to the outpost of these uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will work on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.”

¹⁴Do not fear, O Jacob, you worm, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the Lord. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.

¹³And in that day a great ram’s horn will sound, and those who were perishing in Assyria will come forth with those who were exiles in Egypt. And they will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

²⁷On arriving in Seirah, he blew the ram’s horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites came down with him from the hills, and he became their leader.

⁴Have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark. Then on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the horns.

²⁴“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly announced by trumpet blasts.

⁵²in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

⁹Then you are to sound the horn far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. You shall sound it throughout your land.

⁹One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking; do not be silent.

¹⁰For I am with you and no one will lay a hand on you, because I have many people in this city.”

²⁸“Follow me,” he told them, “for the Lord has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they followed him down and seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and they did not allow anyone to cross over.

²And that night God spoke to Israel in a vision: “Jacob, Jacob!” He said. “Here I am,” replied Jacob.

³“I am God,” He said, “the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

⁸Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand.

⁹For the eyes of the Lord roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. You have acted foolishly in this matter. From now on, therefore, you will be at war.”

²³For just last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me

¹⁷You need not fight this battle. Take up your positions, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out and face them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you.’”

¹⁰“Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”

¹¹And the Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Or who makes the mute or the deaf, the sighted or the blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

⁸Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”

⁹“I will certainly go with you,” Deborah replied, “but the road you are taking will bring you no honor, because the Lord will be selling Sisera into the hand of a woman.” So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh,

⁹But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.

¹⁰That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

¹³I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

¹⁸So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the Israelites left the land of Egypt arrayed for battle.

¹³And as Gideon arrived, a man was telling his friend about a dream. “Behold, I had a dream,” he said, “and I saw a loaf of barley bread come tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent so hard that the tent overturned and collapsed.”

¹⁴His friend replied: “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has delivered Midian and the whole camp into his hand.”

²²For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy, because the Lord had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Israel.

⁵For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it.

¹⁰Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army of about fifteen thousand men—all that were left of the armies of the people of the east. A hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had already fallen.

³Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,

⁹Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!

¹⁰Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.”

⁴So these kings came out with all their armies, a multitude as numerous as the sand on the seashore, along with a great number of horses and chariots.

¹A Psalm of David, when he fled from his son Absalom. O Lord, how my foes have increased! How many rise up against me!

²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

³¹After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath. And he too saved Israel, striking down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.

¹⁵And again they cried out to the Lord, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjamite, as their deliverer. So they sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.

¹⁵“Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”

¹⁴Do not fear, O Jacob, you worm, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the Lord. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.

⁹“I will certainly go with you,” Deborah replied, “but the road you are taking will bring you no honor, because the Lord will be selling Sisera into the hand of a woman.” So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh,

⁹and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you.

⁶For the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots, horses, and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel must have hired the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us.”

⁷Thus the Arameans had arisen and fled at twilight, abandoning their tents and horses and donkeys. The camp was intact, and they had run for their lives.

⁵Then the Lord put a message in Balaam’s mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and give him this message.”

¹⁰Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

²⁰I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.

¹⁴The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the dwellers of Philistia.

¹⁵Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed; trembling will seize the leaders of Moab; those who dwell in Canaan will melt away,

⁴The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the flesh. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

⁵We demolish arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

⁴⁸Then I bowed down and worshiped the Lord; and I blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who led me on the right road to take the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son.

⁸“We both had dreams,” they replied, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

²⁶Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord,

²⁷saying, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld His kindness and faithfulness from my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

¹⁸Then Jehoshaphat bowed facedown, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down before the Lord to worship Him.

¹⁹And the Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, shouting in a very loud voice.

¹¹One night both the chief baker and I had dreams, and each dream had its own meaning.

⁷Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.

²⁴Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

¹You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.

⁷Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

³not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

⁴⁸he and all his men went up to Mount Zalmon. Abimelech took his axe in his hand and cut a branch from the trees, which he lifted to his shoulder, saying to his men, “Hurry and do what you have seen me do.”

¹⁵And he said, “Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Listen, King Jehoshaphat! This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army, for the battle does not belong to you, but to God.

¹⁶Tomorrow you are to march down against them. You will see them coming up the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the valley facing the Wilderness of Jeruel.

⁴⁷And all those assembled here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give all of you into our hands.”

⁹You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery.”

²⁴At morning watch, however, the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud, and He threw their camp into confusion.

¹⁵“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who remains awake and clothed, so that he will not go naked and let his shame be exposed.”

¹³then you are to tell them that this is what the Lord says: ‘I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem.

¹⁴I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons alike, declares the Lord. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.’”

¹⁶And he divided the three hundred men into three companies and gave each man a ram’s horn in one hand and a large jar in the other, containing a torch.

²For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

¹⁶After the seventh time around, the priests blew the horns, and Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!

⁵²in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

¹³And in that day a great ram’s horn will sound, and those who were perishing in Assyria will come forth with those who were exiles in Egypt. And they will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

²⁰So when the rams’ horns sounded, the people shouted. When they heard the blast of the horn, the people gave a great shout, and the wall collapsed. Then all the people charged straight into the city and captured it.

⁷Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.

¹Then the Lord said to Moses,

²“Make two trumpets of hammered silver to be used for calling the congregation and for having the camps set out.

¹The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

²⁵He caused their chariot wheels to wobble, so that they had difficulty driving. “Let us flee from the Israelites,” said the Egyptians, “for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt!”

¹⁷You need not fight this battle. Take up your positions, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out and face them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you.’”

⁶For the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots, horses, and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel must have hired the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us.”

⁷Thus the Arameans had arisen and fled at twilight, abandoning their tents and horses and donkeys. The camp was intact, and they had run for their lives.

¹³But Moses told the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the Lord’s salvation, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again.

¹⁴The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

¹⁵For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “By repentance and rest you would be saved; your strength would lie in quiet confidence—but you were not willing.”

¹²Baana son of Ahilud in Taanach, in Megiddo, and in all of Beth-shean next to Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and on past Jokmeam;

²“So I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian; brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

¹⁶After the seventh time around, the priests blew the horns, and Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!

²³The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction. And when they had finished off the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.

¹⁶You are also to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah to succeed you as prophet.

⁴For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.

³⁵Calling them to arms, Gideon sent messengers throughout Manasseh, as well as Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, so that they came up to meet him.

²¹And the Hebrews who had previously gone up into the surrounding camps to join the Philistines now went over to the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.

²²When all the Israelites who had been hiding in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they also joined the battle in close pursuit.

⁵The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a fugitive from Ephraim would say, “Let me cross over,” the Gileadites would ask him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he answered, “No,”

³⁰Now I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

²⁷Nevertheless, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending together as one for the faith of the gospel,

²⁸All this happened at Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

²⁷On arriving in Seirah, he blew the ram’s horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites came down with him from the hills, and he became their leader.

²⁸“Follow me,” he told them, “for the Lord has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they followed him down and seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and they did not allow anyone to cross over.

²⁶And the Lord of Hosts will brandish a whip against them, as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise His staff over the sea, as He did in Egypt.

³God has delivered Oreb and Zeeb, the two princes of Midian, into your hand. What was I able to do compared to you?” When he had said this, their anger against him subsided.

⁴Then Gideon and his three hundred men came to the Jordan and crossed it, exhausted yet still in pursuit.

¹¹Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

¹²who said, “Let us possess for ourselves the pastures of God.”

²⁶And they heaped over Achan a large pile of rocks that remains to this day. So the Lord turned from His burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor to this day.