King James Version · The judges
Judges 7
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Then , who is , and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. And said unto , The people that are with thee are too many for me to give into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath me. Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount . And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. And said unto , The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. 5So he brought down the people unto the water: and said unto , Every one that lappeth of the water with his , as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. 6And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their , were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people upon their knees to drink water. And said unto , By the three hundred men that lapped will I you, and into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place. So the people took victuals in their hand, and their : and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of was beneath him in the valley. And it came to pass the same night, that said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have it into thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host: And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host. And 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 by the sea side for multitude. And when was come, behold, there was a man that told a unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a , and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of , and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else of the son of , a man of Israel: for into his hand hath , and . And it was so, when heard the telling of the , and the thereof, that he , and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for hath into your hand the host of . And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do. When I blow with a , I and all that are with me, then blow ye the also on every side of all the camp, and say, of , and of . So , and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the , and brake the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the , and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, of , and of . And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and ran, and cried, and fled. And the three hundred blew the , and set every man’s against his fellow, even throughout : and the host fled to Beth–shittah in Zererath, and to the border of , unto Tabbath. And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of , and out of Asher, and out of all , and pursued after . And sent throughout all mount , saying, Come down against , and take before them the waters unto Beth–barah and Jordan. Then all the men of gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Beth–barah and Jordan. And they took two princes of , and ; and they slew upon , and they slew at the winepress of , and pursued , and brought the heads of and to on the other side Jordan.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
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.