Israel’s Disobedience

1 Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to ^jBochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ^k‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2 ^land you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ^myou shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? 3 So now I say, ⁿI will not drive them out before you, but they shall become ^othorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” 4 As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.

The Call of Gideon

11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash ^vthe Abiezrite, while his son ^wGideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And ^xthe angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, ^y“The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are ^zall his wonderful deeds ^athat our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the Lord¹ turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; ^bdo not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, ^c“Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, ^dmy clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, ^e“But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, ^f“If now I have found favor in your eyes, then ^gshow me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please ^hdo not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”

19 So Gideon went into his house ⁱand prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah² of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them ^jon this rock, and ^kpour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. ^lAnd fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, ^m“Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” 23 But the Lord said to him, ⁿ“Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, ^oThe Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at ^pOphrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.