Help QuickNav Adv. Options
NLT

NLT

Click to Change

Return to Top

Return to Top

Printer Icon

Print

Copy
Copy Options
Format by: Verse Paragraph
Strong's
Red Letter
Audio Bibles
Copy Options
Cite Print
The Blue Letter Bible

Judges 6 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

Choose a new font size and typeface
Audio Bibles
Gideon Becomes Israel’s Judge

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:1

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:1 - The Israelites did evil in the LORD’s sight. So the LORD handed them over to the Midianites for seven years.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:2

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:2 - The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:3

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:3 - Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel,

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:4

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:4 - camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:5

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:5 - These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:6

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:6 - So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:7

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:7 - When they cried out to the LORD because of Midian,

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:8

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:8 - 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.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:9

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:9 - I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:10

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:10 - 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.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:11

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:11 - 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.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:12

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:12 - The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:13

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:13 - “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.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:14

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:14 - Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:15

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:15 - “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!”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:16

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:16 - The LORD said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:17

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:17 - Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the LORD speaking to me.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:18

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:18 - Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.”
He answered, “I will stay here until you return.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:19

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:19 - Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket[fn] of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and presented them to the angel, who was under the great tree.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:20

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:20 - The angel of God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:21

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:21 - Then the angel of the LORD touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the LORD disappeared.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:22

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:22 - When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he cried out, “Oh, Sovereign LORD, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:23

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:23 - “It is all right,” the LORD replied. “Do not be afraid. You will not die.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:24

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:24 - And Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means “the LORD is peace”). The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:25

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:25 - That night the LORD said to Gideon, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one that is seven years old. Pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:26

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:26 - Then build an altar to the LORD your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:27

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:27 - So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father’s household and the people of the town.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:28

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:28 - Early the next morning, as the people of the town began to stir, someone discovered that the altar of Baal had been broken down and that the Asherah pole beside it had been cut down. In their place a new altar had been built, and on it were the remains of the bull that had been sacrificed.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:29

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:29 - The people said to each other, “Who did this?” And after asking around and making a careful search, they learned that it was Gideon, the son of Joash.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:30

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:30 - “Bring out your son,” the men of the town demanded of Joash. “He must die for destroying the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah pole.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:31

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:31 - But Joash shouted to the mob that confronted him, “Why are you defending Baal? Will you argue his case? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal truly is a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar!”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:32

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:32 - From then on Gideon was called Jerub-baal, which means “Let Baal defend himself,” because he broke down Baal’s altar.
Gideon Asks for a Sign

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:33

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:33 - Soon afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east formed an alliance against Israel and crossed the Jordan, camping in the valley of Jezreel.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:34

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:34 - Then the Spirit of the LORD took possession of Gideon. He blew a ram’s horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:35

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:35 - He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, summoning their warriors, and all of them responded.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:36

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:36 - Then Gideon said to God, “If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised,

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:37

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:37 - prove it to me in this way. I will put a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:38

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:38 - And that is just what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:39

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:39 - Then Gideon said to God, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Jdg 6:40

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 6:40 - So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew.
See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NLT Footnotes
Hebrew an ephah [20 quarts or 22 liters].
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

BLB Searches
Search the Bible
NLT
  [?]

Advanced Options

Other Searches

Multi-Verse Retrieval
x
NLT
Daily Devotionals
x

Blue Letter Bible offers several daily devotional readings in order to help you refocus on Christ and the Gospel of His peace and righteousness.

Daily Bible Reading Plans
x

Recognizing the value of consistent reflection upon the Word of God in order to refocus one's mind and heart upon Christ and His Gospel of peace, we provide several reading plans designed to cover the entire Bible in a year.

One-Year Plans

Two-Year Plan

Judges Chapter 6 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New International Version English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras