8. the lord sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, “This is what the lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt.
9. I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land.
10. I told you, ‘I am the lord your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
11. Then the angel of the lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.
12. The angel of the lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the lord is with you!”
13. “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”
14. Then the lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
15. “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”