9. I rescued you from the Egyptians and from the people who fought against you here in this land. I drove them out as you advanced, and I gave you their land.
10. I told you that I am the Lord your God and that you should not worship the gods of the Amorites, whose land you are now living in. But you did not listen to me.”
11. Then the Lord's angel came to the village of Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was threshing some wheat secretly in a winepress, so that the Midianites would not see him.
12. The Lord's angel appeared to him there and said, “The Lord is with you, brave and mighty man!”
13. Gideon said to him, “If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the Lord is with us? What about all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the Lord used to do — how he brought them out of Egypt? The Lord has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites.”
14. Then the Lord ordered him, “Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you.”
15. Gideon replied, “But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family.”
16. The Lord answered, “You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man.”
17. Gideon replied, “If you are pleased with me, give me some proof that you are really the Lord.
18. Please do not leave until I bring you an offering of food.”He said, “I will stay until you come back.”
19. So Gideon went into his house and cooked a young goat and used ten kilogrammes of flour to make bread without any yeast. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them to the Lord's angel under the oak tree, and gave them to him.
20. The angel ordered him, “Put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” Gideon did so.
21. Then the Lord's angel reached out and touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick he was holding. Fire came out of the rock and burnt up the meat and the bread. Then the angel disappeared.
22. Gideon then realized that it was the Lord's angel he had seen, and he said in terror, “Sovereign Lord! I have seen your angel face to face!”
23. But the Lord said to him, “Peace. Don't be afraid. You will not die.”
24. Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it “The Lord is Peace”. (It is still standing at Ophrah, which belongs to the clan of Abiezer.)
25. That night the Lord told Gideon, “Take your father's bull and another bull seven years old, tear down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the symbol of the goddess Asherah, which is beside it.
26. Build a well-constructed altar to the Lord your God on top of this mound. Then take the second bull and burn it whole as an offering, using for firewood the symbol of Asherah you have cut down.”