Gideon

Gideon (/ˈɡɪdiən/; Biblical Hebrew: גִּדְעוֹן, romanized: Giḏəʿón) also named Jerubbaal (יְרֻבַּעַל Yərubbaʿál and Jerubbesheth (|יְרֻבֶּשֶׁת Yərubbéšeṯ) was a shopeṭ ("judge"), military leader, and prophet whose calling and victory over the Midianites is recounted in Judges 6–8 in the Hebrew Bible.

Gideon was the son of Joash, from the Abiezrite clan in the tribe of Manasseh, and lived in Ephra (Ophrah).^[1] As a leader of the Israelites, he won a decisive victory over a Midianite army despite a vast numerical disadvantage, leading a troop of 300 men.^[2] Archaeologists in southern Israel have found a 3,100-year-old fragment of a jug with five letters written in ink that appear to represent the name Jerubbaal, or Yeruba'al.^[3]