Harod

The Spring of Harod ("trembling") was the camp of Gideon's army on the northern slope of Mount Gilboa, just before the great night battle against the vast Midianite host camped across the valley by the hill of Moreh (Judges 7:1-8). To make sure that "Israel may not boast over me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me,'" the Lord first sent home everyone who was afraid — and twenty-two thousand left, while ten thousand remained. Then the Lord told Gideon to bring the men down to the water and reduce them further by the way they drank: the three hundred who lapped the water from their cupped hands like a dog were kept; the rest, who knelt to drink with their faces in the water, were sent home. With these three hundred, Gideon launched the famous night attack with trumpets and torches and broken jars that routed the entire Midianite encampment. The site is identified with Ain Jalut at the foot of Mount Gilboa, the same spring where the Mamluk sultan Qutuz famously defeated the Mongols in 1260 — a layer of history echoing the earlier biblical battle.