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Judges 8:25-27
New English Translation
Judges 8:25-27
New English Translation
25 They said, “We are happy to give you earrings.”[a] So they[b] spread out a garment, and each one threw an earring from his plunder onto it. 26 The total weight of the gold earrings he requested came to 1,700 gold shekels.[c] This was in addition to the crescent-shaped ornaments, jewelry,[d] purple clothing worn by the Midianite kings, and the necklaces on the camels.[e] 27 Gideon used all this to make[f] an ephod,[g] which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites[h] prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it[i] there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.
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- Judges 8:25 tn Heb “We will indeed give.”
- Judges 8:25 tc In the LXX the subject of this verb is singular, referring to Gideon rather than to the Israelites.
- Judges 8:26 sn 1,700 gold shekels would be about 42.7 pounds (19.4 kilograms) of gold.
- Judges 8:26 tn Or “pendants.”
- Judges 8:26 tn Heb “the ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.”
- Judges 8:27 tn Heb “made it into.”
- Judges 8:27 sn In Exod 28:4-6 and several other texts an ephod is described as a priestly or cultic garment. In some cases an ephod is used to obtain a divine oracle (1 Sam 23:9; 30:7). Here the ephod is made of gold and is described as being quite heavy (70-75 lbs?). Some identify it as an idol, but it was more likely a cultic object fashioned in the form of a garment which was used for oracular purposes. For discussion of the ephod in the OT, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 236-43, and R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 349-52.
- Judges 8:27 tn Heb “Israel” (a collective singular).
- Judges 8:27 tn The words “by worshiping it” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
New English Translation (NET)
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