3. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east would attack them.
4. They invaded the land and devoured its crops all the way to Gaza. They left nothing for the Israelites to eat, and they took away the sheep, oxen, and donkeys.
5. When they invaded with their cattle and tents, they were as thick as locusts. Neither they nor their camels could be counted. They came to devour the land.
6. Israel was so severely weakened by Midian that the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.
7. When the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help because of Midian,
8. he sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said to them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and took you out of that place of slavery.
9. I rescued you from Egypt’s power and from the power of all who oppressed you. I drove them out before you and gave their land to you.
10. I said to you, “I am the Lord your God! Do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living!” But you have disobeyed me.’”
11. The Lord’s angelic messenger came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress so he could hide it from the Midianites.
12. The Lord’s messenger appeared and said to him, “The Lord is with you, courageous warrior!”
13. Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”
14. Then the Lord himself turned to him and said, “You have the strength. Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites! Have I not sent you?”
15. Gideon said to him, “But Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Just look! My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my family.”
16. The Lord said to him, “Ah, but I will be with you! You will strike down the whole Midianite army.”