Judges, Chapter 8

This chapter is about Zebah & Zalmunna, Gideon’s ephod, & Gideon’s death. Zebah & Zalmunna are kings of Midian. They talk crap to Gideon. Gideon woke up & chose violence. Because you know, Midianites. Gideon made an ephod, made from the plunder of the Midianites. An ephod, for those not in the Judiac community, is an apron used by the High Priesthood. As shown below. Gideon’s death also makes the Israelites unruly again. Enjoy the read!

This is the "uniform" of the ancient Judaic High Priest.The ephod is the apron part. — Here’s a full description of the “uniform” of the High Priest of ancient Judaism.

The Ephraimites approach Gideon. They ask him why he (Gideon) didn’t ask them to fight against Midian. They criticized him harshly. Gideon doesn’t miss a beat. He tells them, “What have I done compared to you guys? Ephraim’s grapes are WAY better than the grapes of Abiezer. God gave Oreb & Zeeb to you. What was I able to do compared to you?”

The Ephraimites chilled out after that. Gideon & his 300 men were exhausted. But they kept going, coming to the Jordan River & crossing it. Gideon said to the men of Succoth, “Give my guy some bread. They’re really tired. I’m still going after King Zebah & King Zalmunna, kings of Midian.”

But the officials of Succoth weren’t having any of it. Gideon told them that once he was done with King Zebah & King Zalmunna, he was going to tear their flesh with desert thorns & briers. Yep. That’s what Gideon said.

From there, Gideon went up to Peniel/Penuel. He asked them the same thing for his men. Peniel/Penuel had the same response as the officials of Succoth had. So Gideon to the men of Peniel/Penuel said, “When I return in triumph, I’m gonna tear down this tower.” (The text doesn’t really get into what the tower looks like, where exactly it’s located, etc. here.)

Now Zebah & Zalmunna were in Karkor. They had a military force of about 15,000 men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples. 120,000 swordsmen had fallen. Gideon went by the route of the nomads east of Nobah & Jogbehah & fell upon the unprepared army.

King Zebah & King Zalmunna fled. Gideon pursued & captured them. He (Gideon) routed their entire army. Gideon then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres. He caught someone from Succoth & questioned them. The Succothean wrote for Gideon the names of 77 officials of Succoth.

Gideon went back to Succoth. He gathered the men of the town & pretty much put them in their place. Then Gideon takes the 77 people off the list he had & did what he said he was gonna do. He beat them with desert thorns & briars. Gideon went back to Peniel/Penuel & razed their tower to the ground. He then killed the men of the town.

Gideon asks the 2 kings, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” The 2 kings answered, “Men like you. Each one with the bearing of a prince.” Gideon told the 2 men, “Those were my brothers, the sons of my mom. As surely as my God lives, if you hadn’t killed them, I wouldn’t have killed you.”

Gideon turns to his oldest son, Jether, he tells his son to kill them. But Jether couldn’t do it. Because he was only a boy & he was afraid. The 2 kings taunt Gideon. “Come on! Kill us yourself. Be a man!” Gideon doesn’t even hesitate, he kills them. Then he takes the ornaments off their camels’ necks.

The Israelites want Gideon & his descendants to rule over them, like a hereditary monarchy. Because Gideon saved the Israelites from the Midianites. Gideon didn’t want any part of that! He did want 1 thing, however. He wanted 1 earring from their share of the plunder. It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.

They gladly gave them to him. So they spread out a cloth & each man threw an earring from his plunder onto the cloth. The weight of the gold earrings Gideon asked for came to 1700 shekels (about 43 pounds or about 19 1/2 kilograms). This didn’t include the ornaments, pendants & purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, or the chains that were on the camels’ necks.

Gideon made the gold from the earrings into an ephod. (Shown in the illustration above.) He placed the ephod in Ophrah, his hometown. All of the Israelites started worshipping the ephod. It became a snare to Gideon & his family.

The Midianites were conquered. They didn’t give the Israelites any more trouble. During Gideon’s lifetime, there were 40 years of peace. Jerub-Baal (Gideon) went back to his own home to live. He had 70 sons because he had practiced polygamy. He also had a concubine who bore him a son named Abimelech. Gideon died at a “good old age.” He was buried in the tomb of his dad, Joash. This was in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again went astray. They set up Baal-Berith as their god. They didn’t remember the Israelite god. The Israelites also weren’t nice to the family of Gideon. Because of the good things Gideon had done for them.