Judges 8:26

26 The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold (apart from the crescents and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and the collars that were on the necks of their camels).

Judges 8:26 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 8:26

And the weight of the golden earrings he requested was
one thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold
Which, as Schcuchzer ^F5 computes, was eight hundred and ten ounces, five drachms, one scruple, and ten grains, of the weight of physicians; but as reckoned by Moatanus ^F6 amounted to eight hundred and fifty ounces, and were of the value of 6800 crowns of gold; and, according to Waserus ^F7, it amounted to 3400 Hungarian pieces of gold, and of their money at Zurich upwards of 15,413 pounds, and of our money 2,380 pounds:

besides ornaments;
such as were upon the necks of the camels, ( Judges 8:21 ) for the same word is used here as there:

and collars;
the Targum renders it a crown, and Ben Melech says in the Arabic language the word signifies clear crystal; but Kimchi and Ben Gersom take them to be golden vessels, in which they put "stacte", or some odoriferous liquor, and so were properly smelling bottles:

and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian;
which it seems was the colour that kings wore, as they now do; so Strabo ^F8 says of the kings of Arabia, that they are clothed in purple:

and besides the chains that were about their camels' necks;
which seem to be different from the other ornaments about them, since another word is here used; now all these seem to have been what fell to his share, as the general of the army, and not what were given him by the people.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 Physica Sacra, vol. 3. p. 468.
F6 Tubal Cain, p. 15.
F7 De Numis. Heb. l. 2. c. 10.
F8 Geograph. l. 16. p. 539.

Judges 8:26 In-Context

24 Then Gideon said to them, "Let me make a request of you; each of you give me an earring he has taken as booty." (For the enemy had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)

25 "We will willingly give them," they answered. So they spread a garment, and each threw into it an earring he had taken as booty.

26 The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold (apart from the crescents and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and the collars that were on the necks of their camels).

27 Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his town, in Ophrah; and all Israel prostituted themselves to it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.

28 So Midian was subdued before the Israelites, and they lifted up their heads no more. So the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.