6. Three hundred men lapped water with their hands to their mouths. All the rest of the men knelt down to drink water.
7. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped water I will save you and hand Midian over to you. All the other men should go home.”
8. So Gideon sent the other men of Israel home, but the 300 men who stayed kept all the supplies and rams’ horns.The camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
9. That night the Lord said to Gideon, “Attack! Go into the camp! I will hand it over to you.
10. But if you’re afraid to go, take your servant Purah to the camp with you.
11. Listen to what people are saying. After that, you will have the courage to go into the camp and attack it.”So Gideon and his servant Purah went to the edge of the camp.
12. Midian, Amalek, and all of Kedem were spread out in the valley like a swarm of locusts. There were so many camels that they could not be counted. They were as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore.
13. When Gideon got there, he heard a man telling his friend a dream. The man said, “I had a strange dream. There was a loaf of barley bread rolling around in the camp of Midian. When it got to the command post, the loaf of bread hit that tent so hard that the tent collapsed, turned upside down, and fell flat.”
14. His friend replied, “That can only be the sword of Gideon, son of Joash, from Israel. God is going to hand Midian and the whole camp over to him.”
15. When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped the Lord. Then he went back to the camp of Israel and said, “Attack! The Lord will hand Midian’s camp over to you.”
16. Gideon divided the 300 men into three companies. He gave them each rams’ horns and jars with torches inside.
17. He said to them, “Watch me, and do what I do. When I come to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do.
18. When I and those with me blow our rams’ horns, then the rest of you around the camp do the same and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’ ”
19. Gideon and his 100 men came to the edge of the camp. It was the beginning of the midnight watch just at the change of the guards. They blew their rams’ horns and smashed the jars they were holding in their hands.
20. The three companies also blew their rams’ horns and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hands and the rams’ horns in their right hands so that they could blow them. They shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”