² Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.”^(A)

²² All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord.

²⁴ And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring^(A) from your share of the plunder.^(B)” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites^(C) to wear gold earrings.)

²⁵ They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each of them threw a ring from his plunder onto it. ²⁶ The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels,^[a] not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains^(D) that were on their camels’ necks. ²⁷ Gideon made the gold into an ephod,^(E) which he placed in Ophrah,^(F) his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare^(G) to Gideon and his family.^(H)