Gideon Gideon Gideon () or Gedeon, also named Jerubbaal, and Jerubbesheth, was a military leader, judge and prophet whose calling and victory over the Midianites are recounted in chapters 6 to 8 of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. Gideon was the son of Joash, from the Abiezrite clan in the tribe of Manasseh and lived in Ephra (Ophrah). 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 'valiant' men. The nineteenth-century Strong's Concordance derives the name "Jerubbaal" from "Baal will contend", in
Iconostasis of the Cathedral of Hajdúdorog Priest of the Israelites. In his right hand he holds a crosier decorated with flowers, and a thurible in his left. The next image depicts Gideon, one of the judges of Israel, with a fleece. In the Old Testament, an angel appeared to Gideon, telling him that he would save his tribe from the invading Midianites. Gideon asked for proof of God's message; he laid a fleece of wool on the ground and asked the Lord to make the fleece wet and keep the ground dry by next morning, if the victory were to be his. Next morning the fleece