When they came to the water, most of the men threw aside their shields and spears, and knelt down and scooped up a draft of the water with both hands together like a cup.  These men Gideon commanded to stand in one company.

There were a few men who did not stop to take a large draft of water.  Holding spear and shield in the right hand, to be ready for the enemy if one should suddenly appear, they merely caught up a handful of the water in passing and marched on, lapping up the water from one hand.  God said to Gideon: 

“Set by themselves these men who lapped up each a handful of water.  These are the men whom I have chosen to set Israel free.”

Gideon counted these men, and found that there were only three hundred of them, while all the rest bowed down on their faces to drink.  The difference between them was that the three hundred were earnest men, of one purpose; not turning aside from their aim even to drink, as the others did.  Then, too, they were watchful men, always ready to meet their enemies.

So Gideon, at God’s command, sent back to the camp on Mount Gilboa all the rest of his army, nearly ten thousand men, keeping with himself only his little band of three hundred.

Gideon’s plan did not need a large army; but it needed a few careful, bold men, who should do exactly as their leader commanded them.  He gave to each man a lamp, a pitcher, and a trumpet, and told the men just what was to be done with them.  The lamp was lighted, but was placed inside the pitcher, so that it could not be seen.  He divided his men into three companies, and very quietly led them down the mountain in the middle of the night, and arranged them all in order around the camp of the Midianites.

[Illustration:  The men blew their trumpets with a mighty noise]

Then at one moment a great shout rang out in the darkness, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon,” and after it came a crash of breaking pitchers, and then a flash of light in every direction.  The three hundred men had given the shout, and broken their pitchers, so that on every side lights were shining.  The men blew their trumpets with a mighty noise; and the Midianites were roused from sleep, to see enemies all round them, lights beaming and swords flashing, while everywhere the sharp sound of the trumpets was heard.

They were filled with sudden terror, and thought only of escape, not of fighting.  But wherever they turned, their enemies seemed to be standing with swords drawn.  They trampled each other down to death, flying from the Israelites.  Their own land was in the east, across the river Jordan, and they fled in that direction, down one of the valleys between the mountains.