But the Lord spoke to Gedeon and told him that his army was too great, and that the Madianites should not thus be delivered into his hands, lest the children of Israel should glory, and say that they conquered by their own strength.
And the Lord commanded Gedeon to speak to the people and proclaim in the hearing of all that whosoever was fearsome or timorous should return home. And the army hearing this, twenty-two thousand men retired from the field, leaving only ten thousand to meet the enemy. The Lord spoke again to Gedeon, telling him that there were still too many soldiers. “Bring them to the waters”, He said, “and there I will try them.”
He then told Gedeon to observe how the men would drink when they came to the water. “They that shall lap the water with their tongues, as dogs are wont to lap, thou shalt set apart by themselves; but they that shall drink, bowing down their knees, shall be on the other side.” The number of those who had lapped the water from the hollow of their hand, in order to save time, was three hundred men[1]; all the rest of the multitude had knelt down to drink at their ease.
Gedeon kept with him only the three hundred who drank the water from the hollow of their hand: the rest he sent to their homes. He then divided the three hundred men into three companies, and gave them trumpets in their hands, and empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. And he said to them: “What you shall see me do, do you the same; I will go into one part of the camp, and do you as I shall do.”
Gedeon and the three hundred men who were with him approached the enemy’s camp at the midnight-watch, and entering in, began to sound their trumpets and to strike the pitchers one against the other, dazzling the bewildered enemy with the sudden light of the concealed lamps. At the same time the Israelites cried out with a loud voice: “The sword of the Lord[2] and of Gedeon.”
- ↑ Three hundred men . These three hundred were temperate men, who had their desire to quench their thirst under control, whereas the remainder threw themselves on the ground so as to drink as speedily and copiously as possible.
- ↑ The sword of the Lord. Has come upon you and will overcome you. The sword of Gedeon was at the same time the sword of the Lord, because God was with Gedeon and would through him overcome the enemy. The night-attack caused such confusion among the Madianites that in the dark they turned one against the other. In their flight they were cut down by the Israelites who, by Gedeon’s orders, had taken possession of the banks of the river.
