So the three hundred waited with Gideon for the going down of the sun. And when it was dark, and the lights were out in the camp of the Midianites, Gideon took his armor-bearer, and they two went alone, very softly, and crept about among the tents of Midian. The Midianites lay in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were without number, like the sand by the seaside. And as Gideon and his armor-bearer passed a tent, they heard men talking.
One man said, “I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the army of Midian, and came into a tent and struck it so that it fell and was overturned and lay upon the ground.”
And the other man said, “That means the sword of Gideon, for into his hands has God delivered all of us this night.”
Then Gideon knew that the soldiers were afraid, and he went back to his own camp and called his three hundred men together.
And Gideon divided the three hundred into three companies, a hundred in each company; and to every man he gave a trumpet and an empty pitcher and a lamp; but the lamp was what we call a torch, a burning stick. And Gideon said, “Watch me, and do as you see me do. When I blow my trumpet, you all blow yours, and shout with all your might, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon! The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’ ”