Judges 6:25-40

Names of God Bible

Gideon Destroys an Altar Dedicated to Baal

²⁵ That same night Yahweh said to Gideon, “Take a bull from your father’s herd, a bull that is seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar dedicated to the god Baal and cut down the pole dedicated to the goddess Asherah that is next to it. ²⁶ Then, in the proper way, build an altar to Yahweh your Elohim on top of this fortified place. Take this second bull and sacrifice it as a burnt offering on the wood from the Asherah pole that you have cut down.”

²⁷ Gideon took ten of his servants and did what Yahweh had told him to do. However, he didn’t do anything during the day. He was too afraid of his father’s family and the men of the city, so he did it at night. ²⁸ When the men of the city got up early in the morning, they saw that the Baal altar had been torn down. The Asherah pole next to it had also been cut down. They saw that the second bull had been sacrificed as a burnt offering on the altar that had been built. ²⁹ They asked each other, “Who did this?” While they were investigating the matter, someone said, “Gideon, son of Joash, did this.”

³⁰ Then the men of the city told Joash, “Bring your son out. He must die. He has torn down the Baal altar and cut down the Asherah pole that was beside it.”

³¹ But Joash said to everyone standing around him, “You’re not going to defend Baal, are you? Do you think you should save him? Whoever defends him will be put to death in the morning. If he’s a god, let him defend himself when someone tears down his altar.” ³² So that day they nicknamed Gideon “Jerubbaal” [Let Baal Defend Himself], because they said, “When someone tears down Baal’s altar, let Baal defend himself.”

Gideon Summons an Army

³³ All of Midian, Amalek, and Kedem combined their armies, crossed the Jordan River, and camped in the valley of Jezreel. ³⁴ Then the Ruach Yahweh gave Gideon strength. So Gideon blew the ram’s horn to summon Abiezer’s family to follow him. ³⁵ He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh to summon the people to follow him. The tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali were also summoned to follow him, and they went to meet the enemy in battle.

³⁶ Then Gideon said to Elohim, “You said that you would rescue Israel through me. ³⁷ I’ll place some wool on the threshing floor.^[a] If there is dew on the wool while all the ground is dry, then I’ll know that you will rescue Israel through me, as you said.” ³⁸ And that is what happened. The next morning Gideon got up early. He squeezed out a bowl full of water from the wool.

³⁹ Then Gideon said to Elohim, “Don’t be angry with me. But let me ask one more thing. Let me make one more test with the wool. Let the wool be dry while all the ground is covered with dew.” ⁴⁰ During the night, Elohim did what Gideon asked. The wool was dry, but all the ground was covered with dew.