Gideon had thought that the Midianites would turn toward their own land, if they should be beaten in the battle, and he had already planned to cut off their flight.  The ten thousand men in the camp he had placed on the sides of the valley leading to the Jordan.  There they slew very many of the Midianites as they fled down the steep pass toward the river.  And Gideon had also sent to the men of the tribe of Ephraim, who had thus far taken no part in the war, to hold the only place at the river where men could wade through the water.  Those of the Midianites who had escaped from Gideon’s men on either side of the valley were now met by the Ephraimites at the river, and many more of them were slain.  Among the slain were two of the princes of the Midianites, named Oreb and Zeeb.

A part of the Midianite army was able to get across the river, and to continue its flight toward the desert; but Gideon and his brave three hundred men followed closely after them, fought another battle with them, destroyed them utterly, and took their two kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, whom he killed.  After this great victory the Israelites were freed forever from the Midianites.  They never again ventured to leave their home in the desert to make war on the tribes of Israel.

After this, as long as Gideon lived, he ruled as Judge in Israel.  The people wished him to make himself a king.

“Rule over us as king,” they said, “and let your son be king after you, and his son king after him.”

But Gideon said: 

“No, you have a king already; for the Lord God is the King of Israel.  No one but God shall be king over these tribes.”

Of all the fifteen men who ruled as Judges of Israel, Gideon, the fifth Judge, was the greatest, in courage, in wisdom, and in faith in God.

THE STORY OF SAMSON, THE STRONG MAN

Now we are to learn of three judges who ruled Israel in turn.  Their names were Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon.  None of these were men of war, and in their days the land was quiet.

But the people of Israel again began to worship idols; and as a punishment God allowed them once more to pass under the power of their enemies.  The seventh oppression, which now fell upon Israel, was by far the hardest, the longest and the most widely spread of any, for it was over all the tribes.  It came from the Philistines, a strong and warlike people who lived on the west of Israel upon the plain beside the Great Sea.  They worshipped an idol called Dagon, which was made in the form of a fish’s head on a man’s body.

These people, the Philistines, sent their armies up from the plain beside the sea to the mountains of Israel and overran all the land.  They took away from the Israelites all their swords and spears, so that they could not fight; and they robbed their land of all the crops, so that the people suffered for want of food.  And as before, the Israelites in their trouble, cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard their prayer.