Judges 8
1 Then the descendants of Ephraim said to Gideon, “Why have you acted toward us like this? When you went out to fight against the people of Midian, why did you not summon us [to help you]?” They rebuked Gideon severely.
The men of Ephraim said to Gideon, “What is this you have done to us? You did not call us when you went to fight against Midian.” Then they had a violent argument with him.
2 But Gideon replied, “I have done [RHQ] very little compared with what you have done! My small clan of descendants of Abiezer only started the battle, but [your very large group of] descendants of Ephraim [helped me to finish the task very well. It is like] the final grapes of the harvest being much better than the first grapes that are picked.
He said to them, “What have I done now compared to you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim's grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer?
3 God enabled you to defeat Oreb and Zeeb, the generals of the army from Midian. That is [RHQ] much more important than what I did!” After Gideon told them that, they no longer resented what he had done.
God has given you victory over the princes of Midian—Oreb and Zeeb! What have I accomplished compared to you?” Their anger toward him died down when he said this.
4 Then Gideon and his 300 men [went east and] crossed the Jordan [River]. Although they were very tired, they continued to pursue their enemies.
Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over it, he and the three hundred men who were with him. They were exhausted, yet they still kept up the pursuit.
5 When they arrived at Succoth [town], Gideon said to the town leaders, “Please give my men some food! They are very tired. We are pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”
He said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”
6 But the leaders of Succoth replied, “You have not caught [RHQ] Zebah and Zalmunna yet. So why should we give food to your troops [now? Catch them first, and then we will give you food].”
Then the officials said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand? Why should we give bread to your army?”
7 Gideon replied, “[Because you said that], after Yahweh enables us to defeat Zebah and Zalmunna, we will return. And then we will make whips from thorns from the desert, and with them we will rip the flesh off your bones!”
Gideon said, “When Yahweh has given us victory over Zebah and Zalmunna, I will tear your skin with the desert thorns and briers.”
8 From there, Gideon [and his 300 men] went to Peniel and asked for food there, but the people gave him the same answer.
He went up from there to Peniel and spoke to the people there in the same way, but the men of Peniel answered him just as the men of Succoth had answered.
9 So he said to the men of Peniel, “After I defeat those kings, I will return and tear down this tower!”
He spoke also to the men of Peniel and said, “When I come again in peace, I will pull down this tower.”
10 By that time, Zebah and Zalmunna had gone to Karkor [town] with 15,000 troops. They were all that were left of the armies that had come from the east. 120,000 of their men had already been killed.
Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about fifteen thousand men, all who remained out of the entire army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword.
11 Gideon [and his men] went east along the road on which caravans travel. They went past Nobah and Jogbehah [villages] and arrived at the enemy camp by surprise.
Gideon went up the road taken by tent dwellers, past Nobah and Jogbehah. He defeated the enemy army, because they were not expecting an attack.
12 Zebah and Zalmunna fled, but Gideon’s men pursued them and captured them and all their warriors.
Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and as Gideon pursued them, he captured the two kings of Midian—Zebah and Zalmunna—and set their whole army into a panic.
13 After that, Gideon and his men [took Zebah and Zalmunna with them and] started to return, going through Heres Pass.
Gideon, son of Joash, returned from the battle going through the pass of Heres.
14 There he captured a young man from Succoth, and demanded that he write down the names of all of the leaders in the town. The young man wrote down seventy-seven names.
He caught a young man of Succoth and questioned him. The young man wrote down the names of seventy-seven officials and elders of Succoth.
15 Then Gideon and his men returned to Succoth and said to those leaders, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna. When we were here before, you made fun of me and said ‘You have not [RHQ] caught Zebah and Zalmunna yet! After you catch them, we will give your exhausted men some food.’”
Gideon came to the men of Succoth and said, “Look at Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you mocked me and said, 'Have you already conquered Zebah and Zalmunna? We do not know that we should give bread to your army.'”
16 Then Gideon’s men took the town leaders and whipped them with whips made from briers from the desert, to teach them [that they deserved to be punished for not giving them any food].
Gideon took the elders of the city, and he punished the men of Succoth with the desert thorns and briers.
17 Then [they went to] Peniel and tore down the tower, and killed all the men in the town.
Then he pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of that city.
18 Then Gideon said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “The men you killed near Tabor [Mountain], what did they look like?” They replied, “They were like you; they all looked like they were sons of a king.”
Then Gideon said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them looked like the son of a king.”
19 Gideon replied, “They were my brothers! Just as surely as Yahweh lives, I would not kill you if you had not killed them.”
Gideon said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As Yahweh lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.”
20 Then he turned to his oldest son, Jether. He said to him, “Kill them!” But Jether was only a boy, and he was afraid, so he did not pull out his dagger [to kill them].
He said to Jether (his firstborn), “Get up and kill them!” But the young man did not draw his sword for he was afraid, because he was still a young boy.
21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, “Do not ask a young boy to do the work that a man should do!” So Gideon killed both of them. Then he took the gold ornaments from the necks of their camels.
Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Get up yourself and kill us! For as the man is, so is his strength.” Gideon rose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna. He also took off the crescent-shaped ornaments that were on their camels' necks.
22 Then a group of Israeli men [came to] Gideon and said to him, “You be our ruler! [We want] you and your son and your grandsons [to] be our rulers, because you rescued us from the Midian army.”
Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son, and your grandson—because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian.”
23 But Gideon replied, “No, I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you. Yahweh will rule over you.”
Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, neither will my son rule over you. Yahweh will rule over you.”
24 Then he said, “I request only one thing. I request that each of you give me one earring from the things you captured after the battle.” [All the men descended from Ishmael wore gold earrings.]
Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: Every one of you would give me the earrings from his plunder.” (The Midianites had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites.)
25 They replied, “We will be glad to give earrings to you!” So they spread a cloth [on the ground], and each man threw on it one gold earring that he had taken [from a man he had killed in the battle].
They answered, “We are glad to give them to you.” They spread out a cloak and every man threw on it the earrings from his plunder.
26 The weight of all the earrings was (43 pounds/19.4 kg.). That did not include other things [that they gave to Gideon]—the other ornaments or the pendants or the clothes that the kings of Midian wore or the gold chains that were on the necks of their camels.
The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold. This plunder was in addition to the crescent ornaments, the pendants, the purple clothing that was worn by the kings of Midian, and in addition to the chains that had been around their camels' necks.
27 Gideon made/decorated a sacred vest from the gold, and later he put it in his hometown, Ophrah. But soon the Israeli people started to worship the vest. So it became like a trap [MET] for the people, [causing them to worship it instead of worshiping only God].
Gideon made an ephod out of the earrings and put it in his city, in Ophrah, and all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there. It became a trap for Gideon and for those in his house.
28 That is how the Israelis defeated the people from Midian. The people of Midian did not become strong enough to attack Israel again. So while Gideon was alive, there was peace in the land for 40 years.
So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel and they did not raise their heads up again. So the land had peace for forty years in the days of Gideon.
29 Gideon went back home to live there.
Jerub Baal, son of Joash, went and lived in his own house.
30 He had many wives, and they bore him seventy sons.
Gideon had seventy sons who were his descendants, for he had many wives.
31 He also had a slave wife in Shechem [town], who bore him a son whom he named Abimelech.
His concubine, who was in Shechem, also bore him a son, and Gideon gave him the name Abimelech.
32 Gideon died when he was very old. They buried his body in the grave where his father Joash was buried, at Ophrah, in the land belonging to the descendants of Abiether.
Gideon, son of Joash, died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the clan of Abiezer.
33 But as soon as Gideon died, the Israelis [stopped worshiping God and started worshiping the images of the god Baal, like] [MET] adultresses [leave their husbands and go to sleep with other men]. They made a [statue of a] new god called Baal-Berith.
It came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, the people of Israel turned again and prostituted themselves by worshiping the Baals. They made Baal-Berith their god.
34 They forgot about Yahweh, the one who had rescued them from all their enemies that surrounded them.
The people of Israel did not remember to honor Yahweh, their God, who had rescued them from the hand of all their enemies on every side.
35 And even though Gideon had done many good things for the Israelis, they were not kind to Gideon’s family.
They did not keep their promises to the house of Jerub Baal (that is, Gideon), in return for all the good he had done in Israel.
