¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord came to him, and said, I am God, Ruler of all; go in my ways and be upright in all things,

² And I will make an agreement between you and me, and your offspring will be greatly increased.

³ And Abram went down on his face on the earth, and the Lord God went on talking with him, and said,

⁴ As for me, my agreement is made with you, and you will be the father of nations without end.

⁵ No longer will your name be Abram, but Abraham, for I have made you the father of a number of nations.

⁶ I will make you very fertile, so that nations will come from you and kings will be your offspring.

⁷ And I will make between me and you and your seed after you through all generations, an eternal agreement to be a God to you and to your seed after you.

⁸ And to you and to your seed after you, I will give the land in which you are living, all the land of Canaan for an eternal heritage; and I will be their God.

⁹ And God said to Abraham, On your side, you are to keep the agreement, you and your seed after you through all generations.

¹⁰ And this is the agreement which you are to keep with me, you and your seed after you: every male among you is to undergo circumcision.

¹¹ In the flesh of your private parts you are to undergo it, as a mark of the agreement between me and you.

¹² Every male among you, from one generation to another, is to undergo circumcision when he is eight days old, with every servant whose birth takes place in your house, or for whom you gave money to someone of another country, and not of your seed.

¹³ He who comes to birth in your house and he who is made yours for a price, all are to undergo circumcision; so that my agreement may be marked in your flesh, an agreement for all time.

¹⁴ And any male who does not undergo circumcision will be cut off from his people: my agreement has been broken by him.

¹⁵ And God said, As for Sarai, your wife, from now her name will be not Sarai, but Sarah.

¹⁶ And I will give her a blessing so that you will have a son by her: truly my blessing will be on her, and she will be the mother of nations: kings of peoples will be her offspring.

¹⁷ Then Abraham went down on his face, and laughing, said in his heart, May a man a hundred years old have a child? will Sarah, at ninety years old, give birth?

¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, If only Ishmael's life might be your care!

¹⁹ And God said, Not so; but Sarah, your wife, will have a son, and you will give him the name Isaac, and I will make my agreement with him for ever and with his seed after him.

²⁰ As for Ishmael, I have given ear to your prayer: truly I have given him my blessing and I will make him fertile and give him great increase; he will be the father of twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹ But my agreement will be with Isaac, to whom Sarah will give birth a year from this time.

²² And having said these words, God went up from Abraham.

²³ And Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all whose birth had taken place in his house, and all his servants whom he had made his for a price, every male of his house, and on that very day he gave them circumcision in the flesh of their private parts as God had said to him.

²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he underwent circumcision.

²⁵ And Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he underwent circumcision.

²⁶ Abraham and Ishmael, his son, underwent circumcision on that very day.

²⁷ And all the men of his house, those whose birth had taken place in the house and those whom he had got for money from men of other lands, underwent circumcision with him.

¹ And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord gave them up into the hand of Midian for seven years.

² And Midian was stronger than Israel; and because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made holes for themselves in the mountains, and hollows in the rocks, and strong places.

³ And whenever Israel's grain was planted, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came up against them;

⁴ And put their army in position against them; and they took all the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, till there was no food in Israel, or any sheep or oxen or asses.

⁵ For they came up regularly with their oxen and their tents; they came like the locusts in number; they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land for its destruction.

⁶ And Israel was in great need because of Midian; and the cry of the children of Israel went up to the Lord.

⁷ And when the cry of the children of Israel, because of Midian, came before the Lord,

⁸ The Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, The Lord the God of Israel, has said, I took you up from Egypt, out of the prison-house;

⁹ And I took you out of the hands of the Egyptians and out of the hands of all who were cruel to you, and I sent them out by force from before you and gave you their land;

¹⁰ And I said to you, I am the Lord your God; you are not to give worship to the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but you did not give ear to my voice.

¹¹ Now the angel of the Lord came and took his seat under the oak-tree in Ophrah, in the field of Joash the Abiezrite; and his son Gideon was crushing grain in the place where the grapes were crushed, so that the Midianites might not see it.

¹² And the angel of the Lord came before his eyes, and said to him, the Lord is with you, O man of war.

¹³ Then Gideon said to him, O my lord, if the Lord is with us why has all this come on us? And where are all his works of power, of which our fathers have given us word, saying, Did not the Lord take us out of Egypt? But now he has given us up, handing us over to the power of Midian.

¹⁴ And the Lord, turning to him, said, Go in the strength you have and be Israel's saviour from Midian: have I not sent you?

¹⁵ And he said to him, O Lord, how may I be the saviour of Israel? See, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

¹⁶ Then the Lord said to him, Truly, I will be with you, and you will overcome the Midianites as if they were one man.

¹⁷ So he said to him, If now I have grace in your eyes, then give me a sign that it is you who are talking to me.

¹⁸ Do not go away till I come with my offering and put it before you. And he said, I will not go away before you come back.

¹⁹ Then Gideon went in and made ready a young goat, and with an ephah of meal he made unleavened cakes: he put the meat in a basket and the soup in which it had been cooked he put in a pot, and he took it out to him under the oak-tree and gave it to him there.

²⁰ And the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them down on the rock over there, draining out the soup over them. And he did so.

²¹ Then the angel of the Lord put out the stick which was in his hand, touching the meat and the cakes with the end of it; and a flame came up out of the rock, burning up the meat and the cakes: and the angel of the Lord was seen no longer.

²² Then Gideon was certain that he was the angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, I am in fear, O Lord God! for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.

²³ But the Lord said to him, Peace be with you; have no fear: you are in no danger of death.

²⁴ Then Gideon made an altar there to the Lord, and gave it the name Yahweh-shalom; to this day it is in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

²⁵ The same night the Lord said to him, Take ten men of your servants and an ox seven years old, and after pulling down the altar of Baal which is your father's, and cutting down the holy tree by its side,

²⁶ Make an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this rock, in the ordered way and take the ox and make a burned offering with the wood of the holy tree which has been cut down.

²⁷ Then Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had said to him; but fearing to do it by day, because of his father's people and the men of the town, he did it by night.

²⁸ And the men of the town got up early in the morning, and they saw the altar of Baal broken down, and the holy tree which was by it cut down, and the ox offered on the altar which had been put up there.

²⁹ And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And after searching with care, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, has done this thing.

³⁰ Then the men of the town said to Joash, Make your son come out to be put to death, for pulling down the altar of Baal and cutting down the holy tree which was by it.

³¹ But Joash said to all those who were attacking him, Will you take up the cause of Baal? will you be his saviour? Let anyone who will take up his cause be put to death while it is still morning: if he is a god, let him take up his cause himself because of the pulling down of his altar.

³² So that day he gave him the name of Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal take up his cause against him because his altar has been broken down.

³³ Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east, banding themselves together, went over and put up their tents in the valley of Jezreel.

³⁴ But the spirit of the Lord came on Gideon; and at the sound of his horn all Abiezer came together after him.

³⁵ And he sent through all Manasseh, and they came after him; and he sent to Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali, and they came up and were joined to the others.

³⁶ Then Gideon said to God, If you are going to give Israel salvation by my hand, as you have said,

³⁷ See, I will put the wool of a sheep on the grain-floor; if there is dew on the wool only, while all the earth is dry, then I will be certain that it is your purpose to give Israel salvation by my hand as you have said.

³⁸ And it was so: for he got up early on the morning after, and twisting the wool in his hands, he got a basin full of water from the dew on the wool.

³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, Do not be moved to wrath against me if I say only this: let me make one more test with the wool; let the wool now be dry, while the earth is covered with dew.

⁴⁰ And that night God did so; for the wool was dry, and there was dew on all the earth round it.