were encamped. The number of the children of Israel who followed Gideon was thirty-two thousand; and they pitched their camp by the well Harod, near Mount Gilboa, not far from the place where the Midianites were.

Then the Lord told Gideon that the people who were with him were too many; He said that He would not deliver the armies of the Midianites into the hands of so great a number, lest Israel should think that their own strength had saved them. So he commanded Gideon to speak to the people who were with him, and say, "Whosoever is fearful and afraid let him return and depart." Then twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand only remained with Gideon.

Then the Lord spoke again to Gideon, and said that the people were yet too many; and He commanded him to lead them down to the water to drink, and said that he would try them there, and show him whom he should take with him, and whom he should send away. And when Gideon had brought the people down to the water's edge, they all bowed down on their knees to drink the

water, except three hundred men, who stood and lapped up the water to their mouths with their hands. Then the Lord commanded Gideon to take with him the three hundred men who had stood and lapped up the water with their hands, and to send the rest away; and He said that He would save Israel and destroy the Midianites by these three hundred men. So Gideon took the three hundred men, as the Lord directed him; and he sent away the rest of the men of Israel to return to their own homes.

Now the Midianites were encamped in the valley of Jezreel, in the land of the children of Israel, and the Amalekites and all the people of the east countries were with them: they were a vast multitude, as the sand of the sea-shore in number. And Gideon and his three hundred men were gathered together on a mountain that overlooked their camp. Then Gideon divided his three hundred men into three companies; and when it was night he put a trumpet into the hand of every man, and an empty pitcher with a lighted torch hid within it; and he led them down in silence to surround the army of

the Midianites. And when they stood every man in his place round about the camp, Gideon blew with his trumpet; and at the sound of the trumpet each man of the three companies, as he had been commanded, broke the pitcher, and held the torch in his left hand and blew the trumpet in his right hand, and cried, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." And when all the hosts of Midian heard the cry, and the sound of the trumpets, and saw the lights on every side, "they ran, and cried, and fled;" for in their fear they thought that they were surrounded by a great multitude of the children of Israel. And the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow throughout the host. In the darkness of the night, they mistook their own friends for the men of Israel, and fought against them; so they destroyed one another. And they fled from Gideon in fear.

Then the men of Israel gathered themselves together, and pursued after the Midianites; and they took Oreb and Zeeb, two princes of the Midianites, and slew them. And the number of the Midianites that were slain was one hundred and

twenty thousand men. Then Gideon with his three hundred men pursued after Zebah and Zalmunnah, the two kings of the Midianites, who remained with the rest of their army, about fifteen thousand men. And he came upon them suddenly, and they fled before him; and he took the two kings, Zebah and Zalmunnah, and slew them.

Thus the people of Midian were subdued before the children of Israel; and there was rest and peace in the land of Israel for forty years in the days of Gideon.

Judges vi. vii. viii. 28.

Chapter XCE.

THE SERVITUDE OF ISRAEL UNDER THE AMMONITES, AND THEIR DELIVERANCE BY THE HAND OF JEPHTHAH.

AFTER Gideon had destroyed the hosts of Midian, the enemies of Israel came no more against their land for many years.

But the children of Israel had not yet learnt to

love the Lord their God, and continue stedfast in About His ways. After Gideon had died in a good old 1305. age at the end of forty years of peace and quietness,

B.C.

About

they turned again from serving the Lord, and worshipped idols. They remembered not the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the hand of their enemies; neither did they show kindness to the family of Gideon. They suffered Abimelech, the son of Gideon, to slay all his brethren. And after this, the men of Shechem, the chief city in the land of Ephraim, made Abimelech to be their ruler. Then the men of Israel quarrelled among themselves, and fought one against another; and there was sorrow and trouble in their land. And after three years Abimelech himself was slain.

Then Tola, a man of the tribe of Issachar, judged Israel for twenty years; and after his death, Jair, a man of Gilead, ruled as chief judge in Israel for twenty-two years.

At this time, the wickedness of the children of B.C. Israel had again become very great. They had wholly forsaken the Lord their God, and wor

1257.