17. Gideon replied, "If you are pleased with me, give me a special sign. Then I'll know that it's really you talking to me.
18. Please don't go away until I come back. I'll bring my offering and set it down in front of you." The Lord said, "I will wait until you return."
19. Gideon went and prepared a young goat. From more than half a bushel of flour he made bread without using yeast. He put the meat in a basket. In a pot he put soup that was made from the meat. Then he brought all of it and offered it to the Lord under the oak tree.
20. The angel of God spoke to Gideon. He said, "Take the meat and the bread. Place them on this rock. Then pour out the soup." So Gideon did it.
21. The angel of the Lord had a wooden staff in his hand. With the tip of his staff he touched the meat and the bread. Fire blazed out of the rock. It burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel of the Lord disappeared.
22. Gideon realized it was the angel of the Lord. He cried out, "Lord and King, I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!"
23. But the Lord said to him, "May peace be with you! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die."
24. So Gideon built an altar to honor the Lord there. He called it The Lord Is Peace. It still stands in Ophrah to this very day. Ophrah is in the territory that belongs to the family line of Abiezer.