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JugesChapitre 6

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The Israelites did what was evil in the LORD's sight, and the LORD handed them over to Midian for seven years.
Midian's grip on Israel grew so harsh that, to escape them, the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, along with caves and strongholds.
Whenever Israel sowed its crops, the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the peoples of the east would come up and attack Israel.
They camped against them and destroyed the produce of the land as far as Gaza, leaving Israel nothing to live on—no sheep, no ox, no donkey.
They came up with their livestock and their tents, swarming in like locusts; they and their camels were beyond counting. They invaded the land to ravage it.
So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the LORD.
When the Israelites cried out to the LORD on account of Midian,
the LORD sent them a prophet, who said to them: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt and led you out of the house of slavery.
I rescued you from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of all who oppressed you. I drove them out before you and gave you their land.
And I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to my voice."
Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak at Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
Gideon replied, "Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian."
The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this strength of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?"
But he said to him, "Please, my Lord, how can I save Israel? Look, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."
The LORD said to him, "I will be with you, and you will strike down Midian as though they were one man."
Please do not leave this place until I come back to you and bring out my offering and set it before you." And he said, "I will stay until you return."
Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them out to him under the oak, and presented them.
The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, set them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so.
Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared up from the rock and consumed the meat and the bread, and the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.
When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he said, "Oh no, Lord GOD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"
But the LORD said to him, "Peace to you. Do not be afraid; you will not die."
So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it "The LORD Is Peace." To this day it still stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
That same night the LORD said to him, "Take your father's bull, the second bull, seven years old. Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.
Then build a proper altar to the LORD your God on top of this stronghold. Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down."
So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was afraid of his father's household and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than by day.
When the men of the town got up early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down, the Asherah pole beside it cut down, and the second bull offered up on the newly built altar.
They said to one another, "Who did this thing?" And after they investigated and searched, they said, "Gideon son of Joash did it."
So the men of the town said to Joash, "Bring out your son. He must die, because he has torn down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it."
But Joash said to all who stood against him, "Will you plead Baal's case? Will you rescue him? Whoever argues for him shall be put to death by morning. If Baal is a god, let him defend himself, since it was his altar that was torn down."
So that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, meaning, "Let Baal contend with him," because he tore down Baal's altar.
Now all the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the peoples of the east joined forces, crossed over, and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.
Then the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon. He sounded the ram's horn, and the men of Abiezer rallied behind him.
He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet them.
Then Gideon said to God, "If you really are going to save Israel by my hand, as you have said—
look, I am placing a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said."
And so it was. He rose early the next morning and wrung out the fleece, and he squeezed from it enough dew to fill a bowl with water.
Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me; let me speak just once more. Let me make one more test with the fleece: let the fleece alone be dry, and let there be dew on all the ground."
That night God did so: the fleece alone was dry, and there was dew on all the ground.
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