World English Bible · The judges
Judges 7
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Then , who is , and all the people who were with him, rose up early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. camp was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. said to , "The people who are with you are too many for me to give into their hand, lest Israel brag against me, saying, 'My own hand has me.' Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, 'Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount .'" So twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained. said to , "There are still too many people. Bring them down to the water, and I will them for you there. It shall be, that those whom I tell you, 'This shall go with you,' shall go with you; and whoever I tell you, 'This shall not go with you,' shall not go." 5So he brought down the people to the water; and said to , "Everyone who laps of the water with his , like a dog laps, you shall set him by himself; likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink." 6The number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their , was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people on their knees to drink water. said to , "I will you by the three hundred men who lapped, and into your hand. Let all the other people go, each to his own place." So the people took food in their hand, and their ; and he sent all the rest of the men of Israel to their own tents, but retained the three hundred men; and the camp of was beneath him in the valley. That same night, said to him, "Arise, go down into the camp, for I have it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah down to the camp. You will hear what they say; and afterward your hands will be strengthened to go down into the camp." Then went he down with Purah his servant to the outermost part of the armed men who were in the camp. and and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand which is on the seashore for multitude. When had come, behold, there was a man telling a to his fellow. He said, "Behold, I dreamed a ; and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of , came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat." His fellow answered, "This is nothing other than of the son of , a man of Israel. has into his hand, with ." It was so, when heard the telling of the and its , that he . Then he returned into the camp of Israel and said, "Arise, for has the army of into your hand!" He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers. He said to them, "Watch me, and do likewise. Behold, when I come to the outermost part of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so you shall do. When I blow the , I and all who are with me, then blow the also on every side of all the camp, and shout, 'For and for !'" So and the hundred men who were with him came to the outermost part of the camp of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch. Then they blew the and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands. The three companies blew the , broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands and the in their right hands with which to blow; and they shouted, " of and of !" They each stood in his place around the camp, and ran; and they shouted, and put them to flight. They blew the three hundred , and set every man's against his fellow and against ; and the army fled as far as Beth Shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of , by Tabbath. The men of Israel were gathered together out of , out of Asher, and out of all , and pursued . sent throughout all the hill country of , saying, "Come down against and take the waters before them as far as Beth Barah, even !" So all the men of were gathered together and took the waters as far as Beth Barah, even . They took the two princes of , and . They killed at , and they killed at press, as they pursued . Then they brought the heads of and to beyond .
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The world at this moment · The judges, 1200 BC to 1050 BC ›
No central government and no standing army. The great empires are weak, which is precisely why Israel's troubles come from close neighbors: Moab, Ammon, Midian, and the newly arrived Philistines on the coast.
- Egypt
- Broken into competing power centres and no longer able to project force into Canaan. Its withdrawal is the single biggest reason this period has no imperial overlord.
- Mesopotamia
- Assyria exists but is dormant, hemmed in and looking east. The century that would have crushed a stateless Israel simply has not arrived yet.
- The coast
- The Philistines settle their five cities after arriving from the Aegean world, bringing Mycenaean-style pottery, a taste for pork, and an early advantage in ironworking. Further north the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Sidon start the trading expansion that will eventually give the alphabet to Greece.
- Further afield
- Greece has entered its dark age: the palaces are gone, Linear B is forgotten, and writing disappears from the Aegean for three centuries. In China the Zhou dynasty replaces the Shang in 1046 BC and issues the doctrine that heaven withdraws its mandate from unjust kings, an idea with an interesting resemblance to the book of Judges.