Judges 6:15|297
27 At her feet he collapsed, he fell,
there he lay still;
at her feet he collapsed, he fell;
where he collapsed, there he fell dead.
28 Sisera’s mother looked through the window;
she peered through the lattice and lamented:
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
What has delayed the clatter of his chariots?’
29 Her wisest ladies answer;
indeed she keeps telling herself,
30 ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil—
a girl or two for each warrior,
a plunder of dyed garments for Sisera,
the spoil of embroidered garments
for the neck of the looter?’
31 So may all your enemies perish,
O LORD!
But may those who love You
shine like the sun at its brightest.”
And the land had rest for forty years.
Midian Oppresses Israel
6 Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; so He delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, 2 and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.
3 Whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them, 4 encamping against them as far as Gaza and destroying the produce of the land. They left Israel with no sustenance, neither sheep nor oxen nor donkeys. 5 For 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.
6 Israel was greatly impoverished by Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the LORD.
7 Now when the Israelites cried out to the LORD because of Midian, 8 He sent them a prophet, who told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 9 I delivered you out of the hands of Egypt and all your oppressors. I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you: ‘I am the LORD your God. You must not fear [1] the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.’ But you did not obey Me.”
The Call of Gideon
11 Then the angel [2] of the LORD came and sat down under the oak [3] in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and said, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”
13 “Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wonders of which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Has not the LORD brought us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”
14 The LORD [4] turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?”
15 “Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in
