sent messengers to
Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.
And Gideon said to God, "If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as
thou hast spoken, behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the
threshing-floor; if there be dew on the fleece only, and it {325} be
dry upon all the ground, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel
by mine hand, as thou hast spoken."

And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and pressed the
fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of
water.

And Gideon said to God, "Let not thine anger be kindled against me,
and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this
once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon
all the ground let there be dew."

And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and
there was dew on all the ground.

Then Jerubbaal (which is another name for Gideon), and all the people
that were with him, rose up early, and camped beside the spring of
Harod: and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them, by the
hill of Moreh, in the valley.

And the Lord said to Gideon, "The people that are with thee are too
many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast
themselves against me, saying, 'Mine own hand hath saved me.' Now
therefore, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, 'Whosoever is
fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.'"

And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there
remained ten thousand.

And the Lord said to Gideon, "The people are yet too many; bring them
down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall
be, that of whom I say {326} unto thee, 'These shall go with thee,'
the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, 'These
shall not go with thee,' the same shall not go."

So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto
Gideon, "Everyone that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog
lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise everyone that boweth
down upon his knees to drink."

And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth,
was three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon
their knees to drink water.

And the Lord said unto Gideon, "By the three hundred men that lapped
will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let
all the people go