Forthwith he divided his three hundred into three bands, and each man
took an empty pitcher and placed a torch inside it. In the dead of the
night they marched to the camp, this little three hundred, and placed
themselves round it. Then Gideon broke his pitcher and showed his
torch, and all the others did likewise, and shouted, "The sword of the
Lord, and of Gideon."

The host cried and fled, for a terror from the Lord descended on them,
and turned their own swords against them. When they were defeated all
Israel went out after them, and there was great slaughter, and Oreb and
Zeeb, two princes of Midian, were slain.

As soon as the victory was achieved, and while he was yet in pursuit,
the men of Ephraim turned upon him and abused him because he had not
taken them with him to fight the battle against the Midianites, but
never had they lifted a finger to save themselves before Gideon
appeared. When, however, he had caught and destroyed Zebah and
Zalmunna, the two Midianitish kings, and had chastised Succoth and
beaten down the tower of Penuel, Israel came to him and asked him to
rule over them, but he would not. He cared not to be king. He
remembered with what difficulty he had believed the angel and the
promise, the sickly faintness which had overcome him on that night
before the Midianitish overthrow. Whatever he had done had not been
his doing, but the Lord's; and how did he know that the Lord's help
would continue? The thought of being king, and of having a set office,
perhaps without the Lord's assistance, was too much for him. He was
right in his refusal. He was one of those men who can do much if left
to themselves, and if they are supported by the Most High, but who
shrink and tremble when something is expected from them. "The Lord