17. And he said to Him, “If I have found favor in Your sight, give me a sign that it is You who are speaking with me.
18. Please do not depart from here until I come to You and bring out my gift and set it before You.”And He said, “I will stay until you return.”
19. So Gideon went and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought them out and offered them to Him under the oak.
20. And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And so he did.
21. The angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in His hand and touched the meat and unleavened flatbread. Fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord departed from his sight.
22. Then Gideon perceived that it was indeed the angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.”
23. Then the Lord said to him, “Peace be with you. Do not be afraid. You will not die.”
24. Then Gideon built an altar for the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. Even to this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
25. That night the Lord said to him, “Take a bull from your father’s herd and a second bull seven years old. Tear down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.
26. Then build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this stronghold in an orderly way. Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah pole that you will cut down.”
27. So Gideon took ten men from among his slaves and did as the Lord had told him, but because he was too afraid of the rest of his father’s household and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it at night.
28. When the men of the city got up early in the morning, the altar of Baal was torn down, the Asherah pole beside it was cut down, and the second bull had been offered on the new altar that had been built.
29. They said to each other, “Who has done this?”When they had inquired and asked, they responded, “Gideon son of Joash has done this.”
30. Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son so that he may die, for he tore down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.”
31. Joash then said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Whoever fights for him will be killed by morning. If Baal is a god, let him fight for himself, for someone has torn down his altar.”
32. Therefore on that day he called him Jerub-Baal, saying, “Let Baal fight him, for he tore down the altar of Baal.”