Hello, this is Father Paul, and I'm glad we're
taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year. Today's reading is from Judges chapters
5 through 7. Chapter 5 Then Deborah and Barak
the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying,
When leaders lead in Israel, when the people
willingly offer themselves, bless the Lord. Hear,
O kings, give ear, O princes. I, even I, will
sing to the Lord. I will sing praises to the
Lord God of Israel. Lord, when you went out from
Seir, when you marched from the field of Edom,
the earth trembled and the heavens poured. The
clouds also poured water. The mountains gushed
before the Lord. This Sinai before the Lord God
of Israel. In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath,
in the days of Jael, the highways were deserted
and the travelers walked along the byways. Village
life ceased. It ceased in Israel. Until I, Deborah,
arose, arose a mother in Israel. They chose new
gods. Then there was war in the gates. Not a
shield or spear was seen among forty thousand
in Israel. My heart is with the rulers of Israel,
who offered themselves willingly with the people.
Bless the Lord. Speak, you who ride on white
donkeys, who sit in judges' attire, and who walk
along the road, far from the noise of the archers
among the watering places. There they shall recount
the righteous acts of the Lord. the righteous
acts for his villagers in Israel. Then the people
of the Lord shall go down to the gates. Awake,
awake, Deborah. Awake, awake, sing a song. Arise,
Barak, and lead your captives away, O son of
Abinoam. Then the survivors came down, the people
against the nobles. The Lord came down for me
against the mighty. From Ephraim were those whose
roots were in Amalek. After you, Benjamin, with
your peoples, from Machir rulers came down. and
from Zebulun those who bear the recruiter's staff.
And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah.
As Issachar, so was Barak, sent into the valley
under his command. Among the divisions of Reuben
there were great resolves of heart. Why did you
sit among the sheepfolds? To hear the pipings
for the flocks? The divisions of Reuben have
great searchings of heart. Gilead stayed beyond
the Jordan. And why did Dan remain on ships?
Asher continued at the seashore, and stayed by
his inlets. Zebulun is a people who jeopardized
their lives to the point of death. Naphtali also
on the heights of the battlefield. The kings
came and fought. Then the kings of Canaan fought
in Tanak by the waters of Megiddo. They took
no spoils of silver. They fought from the heavens.
The stars from their courses fought against Sisera.
The torrent of Kishon swept them away. That ancient
torrent, the torrent of Kishon. O my soul, march
on in strength. Then the horse's hooves pounded,
the galloping and galloping of his steeds. Curse
Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse its
inhabitants bitterly, because they did not come
to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord
against the mighty. Most blessed among women
is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Blessed
is she among women in tents. He asked for water,
she gave milk. She brought out cream in a lordly
bowl. She stretched her hand to the tent peg,
her right hand to the workman's hammer. She pounded
Cicera, she pierced his head. She split and struck
through his temple. At her feet he sank, he fell,
he lay still. At her feet he sank, he fell. Where
he sank, there he fell dead. The mother of Cicera
looked through the window and cried out through
the lattice. Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why tarry the clatter of his chariots? Her wisest
ladies answered her. Yes, she answered herself.
Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?
to every man a girl or two. For Caesarea plunder
of dyed garments, plunder of garments embroidered
and dyed, two pieces of dyed embroidery for the
neck of the looter. Thus let all your enemies
perish, O Lord, but let those who love him be
like the sun when it comes out in full strength.
So the land had rest for forty years. Chapter
6 Then the children of Israel did evil in the
sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them
into the hand of Midian for seven years. And
the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel.
Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel
made for themselves the dens, the caves, and
the strongholds which are in the mountains. So
it was whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would
come up. Also Amalekites and the people of the
east would come up against them. Then they would
encamp against them and destroy the produce of
the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance
for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey.
for they would come up with their livestock and
their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts.
Both they and their camels were without number,
and they would enter the land to destroy it.
So Israel was greatly impoverished because of
the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried
out to the Lord. And it came to pass, when the
children of Israel cried out to the Lord because
of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet
to the children of Israel, who said to them,
Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I brought you
up from Egypt and brought you out of the house
of bondage, and I delivered you out of the hand
of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who
oppressed you, and drove them out before you
and gave you their land. Also I said to you,
I am the Lord your God. Do not fear the gods
of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell, but
you have not obeyed my voice. Now the angel of
the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree.
which was an ophrah which belonged to Joash the
Abizrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat
in the winepress in order to hide it from the
Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared
to him and said to him, The Lord is with you,
you mighty man of valor. Gideon said to him,
O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has
all this happened to us? And where are all his
miracles, which our fathers told us about, saying,
Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But
now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us
into the hands of the Midianites. Then the Lord
turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours,
and you shall save Israel from the hand of the
Midianites. Have I not sent you? So he said to
him, O my lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed,
my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am
the least in my father's house. And the Lord
said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you
shall defeat the Midianites as one man. Then
he said to him, If now I have found favor in
your sight, then show me a sign that it is you
who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I
pray, until I come to you and bring out my offering
and set it before you. And he said, I will wait
until you come back. So Gideon went in and prepared
a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah
of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he
put the broth in a pot, and brought them out
to him under the terebinth tree, and presented
them. The angel of God said to him, Take the
meat and the unleavened bread, and lay them on
this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did
so. Then the angel of the Lord put out the end
of the staff that was in his hand, and touched
the meat and the unleavened bread. And fire rose
out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the
unleavened bread. And the angel of the Lord departed
out of his sight. Now Gideon perceived that he
was the angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, Alas,
O Lord God, for I have seen the angel of the
Lord face to face. Then the Lord said to him,
Peace be with you. Do not fear. You shall not
die. So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord
and called it the Lord is peace. To this day,
it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Now
it came to pass the same night that the Lord
said to him, Take your father's young bull, the
second bull of seven years old, and tear down
the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut
down the wooden image that is beside it, and
build an altar to the Lord your God on top of
this rock in the proper arrangement, and take
the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with
the wood of the image which you shall cut down.
So Gideon took ten men from among his servants
and did as the Lord had said to him. But because
he feared his father's household and the men
of the city too much to do it by day, he did
it by night. And when the men of the city arose
early in the morning, there was the altar of
Baal torn down, and the wooden image that was
beside it was cut down, and the second bull was
being offered on the altar which had been built.
So they said to one another, Who has done this
thing? And when they had inquired and asked,
they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this
thing. Then the men of the city said to Joash,
Bring out your son that he may die, because he
has torn down the altar of Baal, and because
he has cut down the wooden image that was beside
it. But Joash said to all who stood against him,
Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him?
Let the one who would plead for him be put to
death by morning. If he is a god, let him plead
for himself, because his altar has been torn
down. Therefore on that day he called him Jerob
Baal, saying, Let Baal plead against him. because
he has torn down his altar. Then all the Midianites
and Amalekites, the people of the east, gathered
together, and they crossed over and encamped
in the valley of Jezreel. But the Spirit of the
Lord came upon Gideon, then he blew the trumpet,
and the Abiezrites gathered behind him, and he
sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who
also gathered behind him. He also sent messengers
to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came
up to meet them. So Gideon said to God, If you
will save Israel by my hand, as you have said,
look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing
floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and
it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know
that you will save Israel by my hand, as you
have said. And it was so. When he rose early
the next morning and squeezed the fleece together,
he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full
of water. Then Gideon said to God, Do not be
angry with me, but let me speak just once more.
Let me test, I pray, just once more with the
fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece,
but on all the ground let there be dew. And God
did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only,
but there was dew on all the ground. Then Jeroboam,
that is Gideon, and all the people who were with
him, rose early and encamped outside the well
of Herod, so that the camp of the Midianites
was on the north side of them by the hill of
Moreh in the valley. And the Lord said to Gideon,
The people who are with you are too many for
me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest
Israel claim glory for itself against me, saying,
My own hand has saved me. Now therefore proclaim
in the hearing of the people, saying, Whoever
is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart
at once from Mount Gilead. And twenty -two thousand
of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
But the Lord said to Gideon, The people are still
too many. Bring them down to the water, and I
will test them for you there. Then it will be
that of whom I say to you, this one shall go
with you, the same shall go with you. And of
whomever I say to you, this one shall not go
with you, the same shall not go. So he brought
the people down to the water. And the Lord said
to Gideon, Everyone who laps from the water with
his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set apart
by himself. Likewise, everyone who gets down
on his knees to drink. And the number of those
who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth,
was three hundred men. But all the rest of the
people got down on their knees to drink water.
Then the Lord said to Gideon, By the three hundred
men who lapped, I will save you, and deliver
the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other
people go, every man to his place. So the people
took provisions and their trumpets in their hands.
And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every
man to his tent, and retained those three hundred
men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in
the valley. It happened on the same night that
the Lord said to him, Arise, go down against
the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.
But if you are afraid to go down, go down to
the camp with Purah your servant, and you shall
hear what they say. And afterward your hands
shall be strengthened to go down against the
camp. Then he went down with Purah his servant
to the outpost of the armed men who were in the
camp. Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all
the people of the east, were lying in the valley
as numerous as locusts, and their camels were
without number, as the sand by the seashore in
multitude. And when Gideon had come, there was
a man telling a dream to his companion. He said,
I've had a dream. To my surprise, a loaf of barley
bread tumbled into the camp of Midian. It came
to a tent and struck it, so that it fell and
overturned, and the tent collapsed. Then his
companion answered and said, This is nothing
else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash,
a man of Israel. Into his hand God has delivered
Midian and the whole camp. And so it was, when
Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its
interpretation, that he worshipped. He returned
to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for the
Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your
hand. Then he divided the three hundred men into
three companies, and he put a trumpet into every
man's hand, with empty pitchers and torches inside
the pitchers. And he said to them, Look at me
and do likewise. Watch, and when I come to the
edge of the camp, you shall do as I do. When
I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me,
then you also blow the trumpets on every side
of the whole camp and say, The sword of the Lord
and of Gideon. So Gideon and a hundred men who
were with him came to the outpost of the camp
at the beginning of the middle watch, just as
they had posted the watch, and they blew the
trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in
their hands. Then the three companies blew the
trumpets and broke the pitchers. They held the
torches in their left hands and the trumpets
in their right hands for blowing, and they cried,
The sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And every
man stood in his place all around the camp, and
the whole army ran and cried out and fled. When
the three hundred blew the trumpets, the Lord
set every man's sword against his companion throughout
the whole camp, and the army fled to Beth Acacia,
towards Zerera, as far as the border of Abel
Meholah, by Tabath. And the men of Israel gathered
together from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh,
and pursued the Midianites. Then Gideon sent
messengers throughout all the mountains of Ephraim,
saying, Come down against the Midianites, and
seize from them the watering places as far as
Beth Barah and the Jordan. Then all the men of
Ephraim gathered together and seized the watering
places as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan. And
they captured two princes of the Midianites,
Oreb and Zeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of
Oreb, and Zeb they killed at the winepress of
Zeb. They pursued Midian and brought the heads
of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on the other side of
the Jordan. I hope you enjoyed today's reading
as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing
you again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.