Judges 8 Study Notes

8:18-21 Gideon then accused the two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, of atrocities at Mount Tabor, not far from his home in the Jezreel Valley. Their response drew a comparison between Gideon and royalty—probably a desperate attempt at flattery. Gideon replied that the men whom the kings slaughtered were his own close relatives, revealing that the motivation for his pursuit of the Midianites was personal vengeance, not obedience to the Lord’s call. Gideon instructed his son Jether to kill the Midianite kings, but Jether did not do so because he was afraid. Gideon’s son resembled Gideon himself. Gideon was no longer afraid. He killed Zebah and Zalmunna and took for himself their crescent symbols of royalty.

8:22-27 The Israelites recognized the significance of Gideon’s behavior. They asked him to rule over them as the founder of a dynastic line. Though they carefully avoided the word king, it is clear that they were offering Gideon that office. The rationale that the people gave is telling: For you delivered us from the power of Midian. The Lord’s work in raising Gideon as deliverer had become obscured. Gideon’s response was orthodox. He replied that neither he nor his sons would rule over them; the Lord would rule over them. Even as he formally refused the status of king, however, he failed to contradict their assertion that it was he who had saved them from the Midianites. He also proceeded to act precisely as a king would. He asked for a royal share of the plunder, gold earrings from every man, representing a symbolic token of submission to him. As in Ex 32, where earrings were used in the making of the golden calf, so Gideon used these earrings to manufacture an idol in the form of an ephod, a garment worn by the priests and used as a means of determining God’s will. The amount of gold suggests that the garment included an idolatrous image. Gideon’s intent was to glorify himself, founding his own cult like the Canaanite kings. The result was spiritually disastrous, ensnaring all Israel in prostituting themselves.

8:28-32 The narrative ends where it started—at Ophrah—suggesting that nothing had changed. Baal had changed his shape, but the idolatry continued. The oppressive Midianite kings had been replaced by Gideon, who was acting like the worst kind of king. Along with supporting idolatry, Gideon married many wives and had seventy sons, a family structure forbidden to kings in Dt 17:17. He also intermarried with the local population, taking a concubine from Canaanite Shechem, with whom he had a son named Abimelech, which literally means “my father is king.” Positively, the land had peace for forty years during Gideon’s lifetime, but from this point on in the Judges narrative, Israel never again attained rest. This negative portrayal of kingship suggests that the phrase “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him” (17:6) did not portray an earthly monarchy as the solution to Israel’s problems.

8:33-35 After Gideon’s death, Israel went from bad to worse and prostituted themselves in the worship of the Baals. Baal was worshiped in many local manifestations, including Baal-berith (“Baal of the Covenant”), who was the patron deity of Shechem. It is ironic that in worshiping a god whose name includes the word for “covenant,” Israel forgot the covenant faithfulness of their own God, Yahweh, who had delivered them from the power of their enemies. The place where this Baal was worshiped, Shechem, was where the people had renewed their covenant with the Lord at the end of the book of Joshua when the people swore never to worship the gods of the land (Jos 24). Nor did they show kindness to the house of Gideon after his death. The word for “kindness” (Hb chesed) is often used in covenantal contexts, and it suggests that Israel forgot Gideon’s acts of deliverance as swiftly as they forgot the Lord’s. The irony of Israel’s return to Baal worship is heightened by the use of Gideon’s other name, Jerubbaal, “Let Baal Contend.”