Judges 8:24-34

24 And Gideon said to them, I ask one asking of you, give ye to me the earrings of your prey; for Ishmaelites were wont to have golden earrings.
25 Which answered, We shall give (you them) most gladly. And they spreaded forth a mantle on the earth, and casted forth therein [the] earrings of the prey;
26 and the weight of the earrings that he asked (for) was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold, without [the] ornaments, and brooches, and cloak of purple, which the kings of Midian were wont to use, and besides [the] golden bands of camels (and without the gold bands for the camels).
27 And Gideon made thereof (an) ephod, that is, a priest's cloak, and he put it in his city (of) Ophrah; and all Israel did fornication, that is idolatry, therein (therewith); and it was made to Gideon, and to all his house, into falling.
28 But Midian was made low before the sons of Israel, and they might no more raise up their nolls; and the land rested forty years, in which Gideon was sovereign.
29 And so Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went, and dwelled in his house;
30 and he had seventy sons, that went out of his thigh, for he had many wives.
31 And a concubine, that is, (the) secondary wife, of him, whom he had in Shechem, engendered to him a son, Abimelech by name.
32 And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in [a] good eld [age], and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash, his father, in Ophrah, of the family of Abiezrites.
33 And after that Gideon was dead, the sons of Israel turned away, and they did fornication, that is, idolatry, with Baalim; and they smote (a) bond of peace with Baal(berith), that he should be to them into God (and they made a covenant with Baalberith, so that he would be their god),
34 neither Israel had mind of their Lord God, that had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies by compass/about; (and the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies around them;)

Judges 8:24-34 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 8

In this chapter we are told how Gideon pacified the Ephraimites, who complained because they were not sent unto to fight the Midianites, Jud 8:1-3 how he pursued the Midianites, until he took their two kings, and on his return chastised the men of Succoth and Penuel, because they refused to relieve his men with food as they were pursuing, Jud 8:4-17 how he slew the two kings of Midian, Jud 8:18-21 and after this conquest refused to take the government of Israel when offered him, Jud 8:22,23 how he requested of the Israelites the earrings they had taken from the Midianites, with which he in weakness made an ephod, which proved a snare to his house, Jud 8:24-27 how that the people were in peace forty years during his life, and that he had a numerous issue, and died in a good old age, Jud 8:28-32 but that after his death the Israelites fell into idolatry, and were ungrateful to his family, Jud 8:33-35.

Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.