The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 But the men of Efrayim complained to Gid'on, "Why didn't you call on us when you went to fight Midyan? Why did you treat us this way?" They were sharp in their criticism.
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And the men of Ephraim came and said to him, Why did you not send for us when you went to war against Midian? And they said sharp and angry words to him.
2 He answered by saying to them, "How can what I have done be compared with what you have done? Aren't the grapes Efrayim leaves on the vines better than the ones Avi'ezer harvests?
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And he said to them, What have I done in comparison with you? Is not that which Ephraim took up after the grape-cutting better than all the grapes which Abiezer got in from the grape-cutting?
3 God handed over to you Midyan's chiefs, 'Orev and Ze'ev. What could I do that matches what you did?" By saying that, he appeased their anger at him.
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God has given into your hands the chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; what have I been able to do in comparison with you? And when he said this, their feeling about him became kinder.
4 By now Gid'on and his three hundred men had come to the Yarden and crossed over. They were exhausted but were still pursuing the enemy.
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Then Gideon came to Jordan and went over it with his three hundred, overcome with weariness and in need of food.
5 In Sukkot he asked the people there, "Please give some loaves of bread to the men following me, because they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zevach and Tzalmuna the kings of Midyan."
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And he said to the men of Succoth, Give bread cakes to my people, for they are overcome with weariness, and I am going on after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.
6 But the chiefs of Sukkot said, "You haven't captured Zevach and Tzalmuna yet, so why should we give bread to your army?"
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But the chiefs of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna even now in your hand that we are to give bread to your army?
7 Gid'on said: "If that's your answer, then after ADONAI has put Zevach and Tzalmuna in my hands, I will tear your flesh apart with desert thorns and thistles!"
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Then Gideon said, Because of this, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I will have you stretched on a bed of thorns of the waste land and on sharp stems, and have you crushed as grain is crushed on a grain-floor.
8 From there he went up to P'nu'el and made the same request, and the people of P'nu'el gave the same answer as those of Sukkot.
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So he went up from there to Penuel and made the same request to the men of Penuel; but they gave him the same answer as the men of Succoth had given.
9 So he answered the people of P'nu'el similarly, "When I return safe and sound, I will break down this tower!"
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So he said to the men of Penuel, When I come back in peace, I will have this tower broken down.
10 Now Zevach and Tzalmuna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all that remained of the entire army of the people from the east; since 120,000 arms-bearing soldiers had fallen.
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Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, those of all the army of the children of the east who were still living; for a hundred and twenty thousand of their swordsmen had been put to death.
11 Gid'on went up, using the route of the nomads east of Novach and Yogbehah, and struck down the army when they thought they were safe.
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And Gideon went up by the way used by the people living in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and made an attack on the army when they had no thought of danger.
12 Zevach and Tzalmuna fled, but Gid'on pursued them. Thus he captured the two kings of Midyan, Zevach and Tzalmuna, and routed their whole army in panic.
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And Zebah and Zalmunna went in flight; and he went after them, and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and put all the army to the curse.
13 When Gid'on the son of Yo'ash returned from the battle by way of the Heres Pass,
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Then Gideon, the son of Joash, went back from the fight:
14 he captured a young man from Sukkot and asked him about the chiefs and leaders of Sukkot; he wrote down for him the names of seventy-seven of them.
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And taking prisoner a young man of the people of Succoth, he got from him, in answer to his questions, a list of the chiefs of Succoth and the responsible men, seventy-seven men.
15 Then he came to the people of Sukkot and said: "You insulted me when you said, 'You haven't captured Zevach and Tzalmuna yet, so why should we give bread to your exhausted men?' Well, here are Zevach and Tzalmuna!"
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So he came to the men of Succoth and said, Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, on account of whom you made sport of me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna even now in your hand, that we are to give bread to your army who are overcome with weariness?
16 And he took the leaders of the city and desert thorns and thistles, and used them to teach the people of Sukkot a lesson!
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Then he took the responsible men of the town and had them crushed on a bed of thorns and sharp stems.
17 He also broke down the tower of P'nu'el and put the men of the city to death.
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And he had the tower of Penuel broken down and the men of the town put to death.
18 Then he said to Zevach and Tzalmuna, "Tell me about the men you killed at Tavor." They answered, "They looked like you, like a king's sons."
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Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, Where are the men whom you put to death at Tabor? And they gave answer, As you are, so were they; every one of them was like a king's son.
19 Gid'on replied, "They were my brothers, my mother's sons. As surely as ADONAI is alive, I swear that if you had spared them, I would not kill you."
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And he said, They were my brothers, my mother's sons: by the life of the Lord, if you had kept them safe, I would not put you to death.
20 Then he ordered his oldest son, Yeter, "Get up, and kill them!" But the boy didn't draw his sword; being still a boy, he was afraid.
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Then he said to Jether, his oldest son, Up! Put them to death. But the boy did not take out his sword, fearing because he was still a boy.
21 Then Zevach and Tzalmuna said, "You, do it. You, kill us. Let a grown man do what takes a grown man's strength." So Gid'on got up and killed Zevach and Tzalmuna; then he took the ornamental crescents from around their camels' necks.
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Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Up! Put an end to us yourself: for you have a man's strength. Then Gideon got up and put Zebah and Zalmunna to death and took the ornaments which were on their camels' necks.
22 The men of Isra'el said to Gid'on: "Rule over us, you, your son and your grandson, because you saved us from the power of Midyan.
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Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Be our ruler, you and your son and your son's son after him; for you have been our saviour from the hands of Midian.
23 Gid'on replied, "Neither I nor my son will rule over you; ADONAI will rule over you."
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But Gideon said to them, I will not be a ruler over you, and my son will not be a ruler over you: it is the Lord who will be ruler over you.
24 Then he added, "But I have this request to make of you, that each of you would give me the earrings from the booty you have taken." For the enemy soldiers had worn gold earrings, like all the other tribes descended from Yishma'el.
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Then Gideon said to them, I have a request to make to you; let every man give me the ear-rings he has taken. (For they had gold ear-rings, because they were Ishmaelites.)
25 They replied, "We're glad to give them to you." They spread out a robe, and each man threw in the earrings from his booty.
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And they gave answer, We will gladly give them. So they put down a robe, every man dropping into it the ear-rings he had taken.
26 The gold earrings he requested weighed more than forty-two pounds; and this doesn't include the crescents, pendants and purple cloth worn by the kings of Midyan and the chains around their camels' necks.
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The weight of the gold ear-rings which he got from them was one thousand, seven hundred shekels of gold; in addition to the moon-ornaments and jewels and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and the chains on their camels' necks.
27 Out of these things Gid'on made a ritual vest, which he located in his city, 'Ofrah. But all Isra'el turned it into an idol there, and it thus became a snare to Gid'on and his family.
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And Gideon made an ephod from them and put it up in his town Ophrah; and all Israel went after it there and were false to the Lord; and it became a cause of sin to Gideon and his house.
28 This is how Midyan was defeated by Isra'el, so that they ceased to be a threat. The land had rest forty years during the lifetime of Gid'on;
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So Midian was broken before the children of Israel and the Midianites never got back their strength. And the land had peace for forty years, in the days of Gideon.
29 Yeruba'al the son of Yo'ash returned to his home and stayed there.
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And Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went back to his house and was living there.
30 Gid'on became the father of seventy sons, because he had many wives.
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Gideon had seventy sons, the offspring of his body; for he had a number of wives.
31 He also had a concubine in Sh'khem, and she too bore him a son, whom he called Avimelekh.
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And the servant-wife he had in Shechem had a son by him, to whom he gave the name Abimelech.
32 Gid'on the son of Yo'ash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Yo'ash, in 'Ofrah of the Avi'ezri.
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And Gideon, the son of Joash, came to his end when he was very old, and his body was put in the resting-place of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
33 But as soon as Gid'on was dead, the people of Isra'el again went astray after the ba'alim and made Ba'al-B'rit their god.
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And after the death of Gideon, the children of Israel again went after the gods of Canaan and were false to the Lord, and made Baal-berith their god.
34 They forgot ADONAI their God, who had saved them from the power of all their enemies on every side;
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And the children of Israel did not keep in their minds the Lord their God, who had been their saviour from all their haters on every side;
35 and they showed no kindness toward the family of Yeruba'al, that is, Gid'on, to repay them for all the good he had done for Isra'el.
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And they were not kind to the house of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, in reward for all the good he had done to Israel.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.