Bible Reading
May 25
The World English Bible
May
25
Judges
7, 8
Jdg
7:1 Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people who were with
him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod: and the
camp of Midian was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh,
in the valley.
Jdg
7:2 Yahweh said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many
for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt
themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me.
Jdg
7:3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying,
Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from
Mount Gilead. There returned of the people twenty-two thousand; and
there remained ten thousand.
Jdg
7:4 Yahweh said to Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them
down to the water, and I will try them for you there: and it shall
be, that of whom I tell you, This shall go with you, the same shall
go with you; and of whoever I tell you, This shall not go with you,
the same shall not go.
Jdg
7:5 So he brought down the people to the water: and Yahweh said to
Gideon, Everyone who laps of the water with his tongue, as a dog
laps, you shall set him by himself; likewise everyone who bows down
on his knees to drink.
Jdg
7:6 The number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their
mouth, was three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed
down on their knees to drink water.
Jdg
7:7 Yahweh said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who lapped will
I save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand; and let all
the people go every man to his place.
Jdg
7:8 So the people took food in their hand, and their trumpets; and
he sent all the men of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the
three hundred men: and the camp of Midian was beneath him in the
valley.
Jdg
7:9 It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, Arise, go
down into the camp; for I have delivered it into your hand.
Jdg
7:10 But if you fear to go down, go with Purah your servant down to
the camp:
Jdg
7:11 and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your will hands
be strengthened to go down into the camp. Then went he down with
Purah his servant to the outermost part of the armed men who were in
the camp.
Jdg
7:12 The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the
east lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their
camels were without number, as the sand which is on the seashore for
multitude.
Jdg
7:13 When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream
to his fellow; and he said, Behold, I dreamed a dream; and behold, a
cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the
tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so
that the tent lay flat.
Jdg
7:14 His fellow answered, This is nothing else save the sword of
Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: into his hand God has
delivered Midian, and all the army.
Jdg
7:15 It was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and its
interpretation, that he worshiped; and he returned into the camp of
Israel, and said, Arise; for Yahweh has delivered into your hand the
army of Midian.
Jdg
7:16 He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he
put into the hands of all of them trumpets, and empty pitchers, with
torches within the pitchers.
Jdg
7:17 He said to them, Look on me, and do likewise: and behold, when
I come to the outermost part of the camp, it shall be that, as I do,
so you shall do.
Jdg
7:18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow
the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, For Yahweh
and for Gideon.
Jdg
7:19 So Gideon, and the hundred men who were with him, came to the
outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when
they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and
broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands.
Jdg
7:20 The three companies blew the trumpets, and broke the pitchers,
and held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets in their
right hands with which to blow; and they cried, The sword of Yahweh
and of Gideon.
Jdg
7:21 They stood every man in his place around the camp; and all the
army ran; and they shouted, and put them
to flight.
Jdg
7:22 They blew the three hundred trumpets, and Yahweh set every
man's sword against his fellow, and against all the army; and the
army fled as far as Beth Shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border
of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath.
Jdg
7:23 The men of Israel were gathered together out of Naphtali, and
out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after Midian.
Jdg
7:24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of
Ephraim, saying, Come down against Midian, and take before them the
waters, as far as Beth Barah, even the Jordan. So all the men of
Ephraim were gathered together, and took the waters as far as Beth
Barah, even the Jordan.
Jdg
7:25 They took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they
killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the
winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian: and they brought the heads of
Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.
Jdg
8:1 The men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you treated us this
way, that you didn't call us, when you went to fight with Midian?
They rebuked him sharply.
Jdg
8:2 He said to them, What have I now done in comparison with you?
Isn't the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage
of Abiezer?
Jdg
8:3 God has delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and
Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their
anger was abated toward him, when he had said that.
Jdg
8:4 Gideon came to the Jordan, and
passed over, he, and the three hundred men who were with him, faint,
yet pursuing.
Jdg
8:5 He said to the men of Succoth, Please give loaves of bread to
the people who follow me; for they are faint, and I am pursuing after
Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.
Jdg
8:6 The princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna
now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?
Jdg
8:7 Gideon said, Therefore when Yahweh has delivered Zebah and
Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of
the wilderness and with briers.
Jdg
8:8 He went up there to Penuel, and spoke to them in like manner;
and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had
answered.
Jdg
8:9 He spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in
peace, I will break down this tower.
Jdg
8:10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with
them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of all the army
of the children of the east; for there fell one hundred twenty
thousand men who drew sword.
Jdg
8:11 Gideon went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the
east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and struck the army; for the army was
secure.
Jdg
8:12 Zebah and Zalmunna fled; and he pursued after them; and he took
the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and confused all the
army.
Jdg
8:13 Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle from the
ascent of Heres.
Jdg
8:14 He caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of
him: and he described for him the princes of Succoth, and its elders,
seventy-seven men.
Jdg
8:15 He came to the men of Succoth, and said, See Zebah and
Zalmunna, concerning whom you taunted me, saying, Are the hands of
Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to
your men who are weary?
Jdg
8:16 He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness
and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth.
Jdg
8:17 He broke down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the
city.
Jdg
8:18 Then said he to Zebah and Zalmunna, What kind of men were they
whom you killed at Tabor? They answered, They were like you. Each one
resembled the children of a king.
Jdg
8:19 He said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother: as
Yahweh lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.
Jdg
8:20 He said to Jether his firstborn, Up, and kill them. But the
youth didn't draw his sword; for he feared, because he was yet a
youth.
Jdg
8:21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise and fall on us; for as the
man is, so is his strength. Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and
Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels' necks.
Jdg
8:22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, both you,
and your son, and your son's son also; for you have saved us out of
the hand of Midian.
Jdg
8:23 Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my
son rule over you: Yahweh shall rule over you.
Jdg
8:24 Gideon said to them, I would make a request of you, that you
would give me every man the earrings of his spoil. (For they had
golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)
Jdg
8:25 They answered, We will willingly give them. They spread a
garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his spoil.
Jdg
8:26 The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one
thousand and seven hundred shekels
of gold, besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple
clothing that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that
were about their camels' necks.
Jdg
8:27 Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in
Ophrah: and all Israel played the prostitute after it there; and it
became a snare to Gideon, and to his house.
Jdg
8:28 So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they
lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the
days of Gideon.
Jdg
8:29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house.
Jdg
8:30 Gideon had seventy sons conceived from his body; for he had
many wives.
Jdg
8:31 His concubine who was in Shechem, she also bore him a son, and
he named him Abimelech.
Jdg
8:32 Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried
in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Jdg
8:33 It happened, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of
Israel turned again, and played the prostitute after the Baals, and
made Baal Berith their god.
Jdg
8:34 The children of Israel didn't remember Yahweh their God, who
had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every
side;
Jdg
8:35 neither did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, who
is Gideon, according to all the goodness
which he had shown to Israel.
and eyes like something from a Batman movie, it is no surprise that the editors of New Scientist
used the term “alien” in its description of the cuttlefish; the animals
do look bizarre—plain and simple. Make no mistake, however, these
creatures are anything but simple. In fact, just above the cuttlefish
was the cover title, “Alien Intelligence: Secret Code of an Eight-Legged Genius” (Brooks, 2008, emp. added). Michael Brooks, author of the feature article, declared that the cuttlefish is “the world’s most inventive mollusk” (2008, 198[2653]:31, emp. added) with a “sophisticated
system for talking to one another” (p. 28, emp. added). Scientists have
documented “around 40 different cuttlefish body patterns, many of which
are used to communicate with other cuttlefish” (p. 29). At other times,
cuttlefish send “tailor-made” signals to predators (p. 29, emp. added).
to
change to red, it sends signals from its brain to its “pigment” sacs
(called chromatophores) to change to red. Cuttlefish can hide from other
sea life by changing to the color of sand or seaweed. They can also
appear as a strobe lights, blinking “on an off” very quickly. So
extraordinary are these “masters of camouflage” (p. 28) that government
researchers are even “looking into the possibility of copying cuttlefish
camouflage for use in the military” (p. 31). Researchers are enamored
with “how cuttlefish achieve their quick and convincing camouflage” (p.
30). Nevertheless, “[i]t’s highly unlikely that anyone could achieve
that same level of camouflage” (p. 30). Scientists admittedly find it
difficult “mimicking the colour-matching abilities of the
cuttlefish...and its texture-matching ability, which utilizes the
muscles beneath it” (p. 30). In fact, “[n]o one knows
exactly” how cuttlefish match their backgrounds so effectively,
especially since “[e]xperiments have shown that cuttlefish don’t look at
their skin to check how well it matches the background” (p. 31, emp.
added). What’s more, if, as scientists believe, this animal is
colorblind, only seeing in shades of green (p. 31), how does it always
choose the color most helpful (like changing to the color of sand when
on the ocean floor)?