Judges 8

8 ¹ Then the men of Ephraim said, "Why treat us like this—not calling us when you went to fight Midian?" And they quarreled with him sharply. ² But he said to them, "What have I done now compared to you? Isn't Ephraim's gleaning better than Abiezer's grape harvest? ³ Our Father handed Midian's princes, Oreb and Zeeb, to you. What could I do compared to you?" At these words their anger against him faded.

⁴ Gideon reached the Jordan and crossed, he and his three hundred men, exhausted but still pursuing. ⁵ He said to the men of Succoth, "Please give bread to my troops; they are worn out, and I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian."

⁶ But the officials of Succoth said, "Do you already hold Zebah and Zalmunna, that we should give bread to your army?"

⁷ So Gideon said, "When our Father hands Zebah and Zalmunna to me, I'll thresh your flesh with wilderness thorns and thornbushes."

⁸ From there he went up to Penuel and spoke to them the same, and Penuel's men answered him as Succoth's men had. ⁹ So he said to the men of Penuel too, "When I return safely, I will tear down this tower."

¹⁰ Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their armies — about fifteen thousand, all who remained of the entire army of the eastern peoples; a hundred twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen. ¹¹ Gideon went up the tent dwellers' route east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army; the army felt secure. ¹² Zebah and Zalmunna fled; he chased them, captured the two Midian kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, and panicked the whole army. ¹³ Then Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres. ¹⁴ He caught a young man of Succoth and questioned him; the man wrote down for him Succoth's officials and elders — seventy-seven men. ¹⁵ He came to the men of Succoth and said, "Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you mocked me: 'Are Zebah and Zalmunna's hands already in your grasp, that we should give bread to your tired men?'" ¹⁶ He took the city's elders and, with desert thorns and thornbushes, taught the men of Succoth a lesson. ¹⁷ He also tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.

¹⁸ He asked Zebah and Zalmunna, "What were the men you killed at Tabor like?" They said, "Like you—each resembling a king's son."

¹⁹ He said, "They were my brothers, my own mother's sons. As our Father lives, had you spared them, I would not kill you."

²⁰ He said to Jether, his firstborn, "Get up, kill them!" But the boy did not draw his sword; he was afraid, still only a boy.

²¹ Zebah and Zalmunna said, "Get up and strike us down, for as the man is, so is his strength." So Gideon killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescent ornaments on their camels' necks.

Gideon Refuses to Rule

²² Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us — you, your son, and your grandson — for you saved us from Midian's hand."

²³ Gideon told them, "I will not rule over you, nor will my son; our Father will rule over you." ²⁴ Gideon said to them, "I have one request: each of you give me an earring from his plunder." (The enemy had gold earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)

²⁵ They said, "We'll gladly give them." They spread out a cloak, and each man threw on it an earring from his plunder. ²⁶ The gold earrings he requested weighed about forty-two and a half pounds of gold, apart from the crescent ornaments, pendants, and purple garments worn by Midian's kings, and the chains on their camels' necks. ²⁷ Gideon made an ephod from it and set it up in his city, Ophrah, and all Israel prostituted themselves to it there, becoming a snare to Gideon and his household.

Forty Years of Rest

²⁸ So Midian was subdued before the Israelites and lifted its head no more. The land had peace forty years in Gideon's days. ²⁹ Then Jerubbaal son of Joash went and lived in his own house. ³⁰ Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. ³¹ His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. ^a a v31 The name Abimelech means "my father is king" — a striking name given Gideon's refusal of kingship in this same chapter.

³² Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age, buried in his father Joash's tomb at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³ When Gideon died, the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. ³⁴ The people of Israel did not remember our Father, who rescued them from all their enemies around them. ³⁵ Nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal (Gideon) for all the good he had done for Israel.