15. He said to him, “O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
16. The Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
17. He said to him, “If now I have found favour in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me.
18. Please don’t go away, until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you.”He said, “I will wait until you come back.”
19. Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes of an efah of meal. He put the meat in a basket and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it.
20. The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.”He did so.
21. Then the Lord’s angel stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then the Lord’s angel departed out of his sight.
22. Gideon saw that he was the Lord’s angel; and Gideon said, “Alas, Lord GOD! Because I have seen the Lord’s angel face to face!”
23. The Lord said to him, “Peace be to you! Don’t be afraid. You shall not die.”
24. Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it “the Lord is Peace.” To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
25. That same night, the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it.
26. Then build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold, in an orderly way, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”
27. Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had spoken to him. Because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city, he could not do it by day, but he did it by night.
28. When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it, and the second bull was offered on the altar that was built.
29. They said to one another, “Who has done this thing?”When they enquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.”
30. Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has broken down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the Asherah that was by it.”