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Judges 8
New English Translation

8 The Ephraimites said to him, “Why have you done such a thing to us? You did not summon us[a] when you went to fight the Midianites!” They argued vehemently with him. 2 He said to them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Even Ephraim’s leftover grapes[b] are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest![c] 3 It was to you that God handed over the Midianite generals, Oreb and Zeeb! What did I accomplish to rival that?”[d] When he said this, they calmed down.[e]

Gideon Tracks Down the Midianite Kings

4 Now Gideon and his 300 men had crossed over the Jordan River, and even though they were exhausted, they were still chasing the Midianites.[f] 5 He said to the men of Sukkoth, “Give[g] some loaves of bread to the men[h] who are following me,[i] because they are exhausted. I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 The officials of Sukkoth said, “You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna. So why should we give[j] bread to your army?”[k] 7 Gideon said, “Since you will not help,[l] after the Lord hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will thresh[m] your skin[n] with[o] desert thorns and briers.” 8 He went up from there to Penuel and made the same request.[p] The men of Penuel responded the same way the men of Sukkoth had.[q] 9 He also threatened[r] the men of Penuel, warning,[s] “When I return victoriously,[t] I will tear down this tower.”

10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their armies. There were about 15,000 survivors from the army of the eastern peoples; 120,000 sword-wielding soldiers had been killed.[u] 11 Gideon went up the road of the nomads[v] east of Nobah and Jogbehah and ambushed the surprised army.[w] 12 When Zebah and Zalmunna ran away, Gideon[x] chased them and captured the two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna. He had surprised[y] their entire army.

13 Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle by the pass[z] of Heres. 14 He captured a young man from Sukkoth[aa] and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of Sukkoth’s officials and city leaders—seventy-seven men in all.[ab] 15 He approached the men of Sukkoth and said, “Look what I have![ac] Zebah and Zalmunna! You insulted me, saying, ‘You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna. So why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’”[ad] 16 He seized the leaders[ae] of the city, along with some desert thorns and briers; he then “threshed” the men of Sukkoth with them.[af] 17 He also tore down the tower of Penuel and executed the city’s men.

18 He said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Describe for me[ag] the men you killed at Tabor.” They said, “They were like you. Each one looked like a king’s son.”[ah] 19 He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. I swear,[ai] as surely as the Lord is alive, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.” 20 He ordered Jether his firstborn son, “Come on![aj] Kill them!” But Jether was too afraid to draw his sword,[ak] because he was still young. 21 Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon,[al] “Come on,[am] you strike us, for a man is judged by his strength.”[an] So Gideon killed[ao] Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent-shaped ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.

Gideon Rejects a Crown but Makes an Ephod

22 The men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son, and your grandson. For you have delivered us from Midian’s power.”[ap] 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” 24 Gideon continued,[aq] “I would like to make one request. Each of you give me an earring from the plunder you have taken.”[ar] (The Midianites[as] had gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 They said, “We are happy to give you earrings.”[at] So they[au] 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.[av] This was in addition to the crescent-shaped ornaments, jewelry,[aw] purple clothing worn by the Midianite kings, and the necklaces on the camels.[ax] 27 Gideon used all this to make[ay] an ephod,[az] which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites[ba] prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it[bb] there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.

Gideon’s Story Ends

28 The Israelites humiliated Midian; the Midianites’ fighting spirit was broken.[bc] The land had rest for forty years during Gideon’s time.[bd] 29 Then Jerub Baal son of Joash went home and settled down.[be] 30 Gideon fathered seventy sons through his many wives.[bf] 31 His concubine,[bg] who lived in Shechem, also gave him a son, whom he named Abimelech.[bh] 32 Gideon son of Joash died at a very[bi] old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash located in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Israel Returns to Baal Worship

33 After Gideon died, the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They made Baal Berith[bj] their god. 34 The Israelites did not remain true[bk] to the Lord their God, who had delivered them from all the enemies who lived around them. 35 They did not treat[bl] the family of Jerub Baal (that is, Gideon) fairly in return for all the good he had done for Israel.

Footnotes

  1. Judges 8:1 tn Heb “by not summoning us.”
  2. Judges 8:2 tn Heb “gleanings.”
  3. Judges 8:2 sn Ephraim’s leftover grapes are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest. Gideon employs an agricultural metaphor. He argues that Ephraim’s mopping up operations, though seemingly like the inferior grapes which are missed initially by the harvesters or left for the poor, are actually more noteworthy than the military efforts of Gideon’s family.
  4. Judges 8:3 tn Heb “What was I able to do compared to you?”
  5. Judges 8:3 tn Heb “Then their spirits relaxed from against him, when he spoke this word.”
  6. Judges 8:4 tn Heb “And Gideon arrived at the Jordan, crossing over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted and chasing.” The English past perfect (“had crossed”) is used because this verse flashes back chronologically to an event that preceded the hostile encounter described in vv. 1-3. (Note that 7:25 assumes Gideon had already crossed the Jordan.)
  7. Judges 8:5 tn Or perhaps, “sell.”
  8. Judges 8:5 tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because these were warriors and in ancient Israelite culture would have been exclusively males.
  9. Judges 8:5 tn Heb “who are at my feet.”
  10. Judges 8:6 tn Or perhaps, “sell.”
  11. Judges 8:6 tn Heb “Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give to your army bread?” Perhaps the reference to the kings’ “palms” should be taken literally. The officials of Sukkoth may be alluding to the practice of mutilating prisoners or enemy corpses (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 155).sn The officials of Sukkoth are hesitant to give (or sell) food to Gideon’s forces because they are not sure of the outcome of the battle. Perhaps they had made an alliance with the Midianites which demanded their loyalty.
  12. Judges 8:7 tn Heb “Therefore.”
  13. Judges 8:7 sn I will thresh. The metaphor is agricultural. Threshing was usually done on a hard threshing floor. As farm animals walked over the stalks, pulling behind them a board embedded with sharp stones, the stalks and grain would be separated. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63-65. Gideon threatens to use thorns and briers on his sledge.
  14. Judges 8:7 tn Or “flesh.”
  15. Judges 8:7 tn This is apparently a rare instrumental use of the Hebrew preposition אֵת (ʾet, note the use of ב [bet] in v. 16). Some, however, argue that אֵת more naturally indicates accompaniment (“together with”). In this case Gideon envisions threshing their skin along with thorns and briers, just as the stalks and grain are intermingled on the threshing floor. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 229-30.
  16. Judges 8:8 tn Heb “and spoke to them in the same way.”
  17. Judges 8:8 tn Heb “The men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Sukkoth answered.”
  18. Judges 8:9 tn Heb “said to.” The translation “threatened” is interpretive, but is clearly indicated by the context.
  19. Judges 8:9 tn Heb “saying.”
  20. Judges 8:9 tn Or “safely.” Heb “in peace.”
  21. Judges 8:10 tn Heb “About 15,000 [in number] were all the ones remaining from the army of the sons of the east. The fallen ones were 120,000 [in number], men drawing the sword.”
  22. Judges 8:11 tn Heb “the ones living in tents.”
  23. Judges 8:11 tc Heb “and attacked the army, while the army was secure.” The Hebrew term בֶטַח (vetakh, “secure”) may means the army was undefended (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 156), not suspecting an attack at that time and place. A few mss supported by the LXX read the participle form from the same root, בֹטֵחַ (voteakh) “trustingly,” the implication being that they were not attentive to defense.
  24. Judges 8:12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  25. Judges 8:12 tn Or “routed”; Heb “caused to panic.”
  26. Judges 8:13 tn Or “ascent.”
  27. Judges 8:14 tn Heb “from the men of Sukkoth.”
  28. Judges 8:14 tn Heb “wrote down for him the officials of Sukkoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.”
  29. Judges 8:15 tn Heb “Look!” The words “what I have” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
  30. Judges 8:15 tn Heb “Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give to your exhausted men bread?” sn Gideon changes their actual statement (see v. 6) by saying exhausted men rather than “army.” In this way he emphasizes the crisis his men were facing and highlights the insensitivity of the men of Sukkoth.
  31. Judges 8:16 tn Heb “elders.”
  32. Judges 8:16 tc The translation follows the reading of several ancient versions (LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate) in assuming the form וַיָּדָשׁ (vayyadash) from the verb דּוּשׁ (dush, “thresh”) as in v. 7. The MT reads instead the form וַיֹּדַע (vayyodaʿ, “make known”), a Hiphil form of יָדַע (yadaʿ). In this case one could translate, “he used them [i.e., the thorns and briers] to teach the men of Sukkoth a lesson.”
  33. Judges 8:18 tn Heb “Where are?”
  34. Judges 8:18 tn Heb “each one like the appearance of sons of the king.”
  35. Judges 8:19 tn The words “I swear” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
  36. Judges 8:20 tn Or “Arise!”
  37. Judges 8:20 tn Heb “did not draw his sword for he was afraid.”
  38. Judges 8:21 tn The words “to Gideon” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
  39. Judges 8:21 tn Or “Arise.”
  40. Judges 8:21 tn Heb “for as the man is his strength.”
  41. Judges 8:21 tn Heb “arose and killed.”
  42. Judges 8:22 tn Heb “hand.”
  43. Judges 8:24 tn Heb “said to them.”
  44. Judges 8:24 tn Heb “Give to me, each one, an earring from his plunder.”
  45. Judges 8:24 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Midianites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  46. Judges 8:25 tn Heb “We will indeed give.”
  47. Judges 8:25 tc In the LXX the subject of this verb is singular, referring to Gideon rather than to the Israelites.
  48. Judges 8:26 sn 1,700 gold shekels would be about 42.7 pounds (19.4 kilograms) of gold.
  49. Judges 8:26 tn Or “pendants.”
  50. Judges 8:26 tn Heb “the ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.”
  51. Judges 8:27 tn Heb “made it into.”
  52. 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.
  53. Judges 8:27 tn Heb “Israel” (a collective singular).
  54. Judges 8:27 tn The words “by worshiping it” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
  55. Judges 8:28 tn Heb “Midian was humbled before the Israelites, and they no longer lifted their heads.”
  56. Judges 8:28 tn Heb “in the days of Gideon.”
  57. Judges 8:29 tn Heb “went and lived in his house.”
  58. Judges 8:30 tn Heb “Gideon had seventy sons who went out from his thigh, for he had many wives.” The Hebrew word יָרֵךְ (yarekh, “thigh”) is a euphemism here for the penis.
  59. Judges 8:31 sn A concubine was a slave woman in ancient Near Eastern societies who was the legal property of her master, but who could have legitimate sexual relations with her master. A concubine’s status was more elevated than a mere servant, but she was not free and did not have the legal rights of a free wife. The children of a concubine could, in some instances, become equal heirs with the children of the free wife. After the period of the Judges concubines may have become more of a royal prerogative (2 Sam 21:10-14; 1 Kgs 11:3).
  60. Judges 8:31 sn The name Abimelech means “my father is king.”
  61. Judges 8:32 tn Heb “good.”
  62. Judges 8:33 sn Baal Berith was a local manifestation of the Canaanite storm god. The name means, ironically, “Baal of the covenant.” Israel’s covenant allegiance had indeed shifted.
  63. Judges 8:34 tn Heb “remember.”
  64. Judges 8:35 tn Heb “did not do loyalty with,” or “did not act faithfully toward.”
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Judges 8
New International Version

Zebah and Zalmunna

8 Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon,(A) “Why have you treated us like this? Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian?(B)”(C) And they challenged him vigorously.(D)

2 But he answered them, “What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren’t the gleanings of Ephraim’s grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer?(E) 3 God gave Oreb and Zeeb,(F) the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you?” At this, their resentment against him subsided.

4 Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan(G) and crossed it. 5 He said to the men of Sukkoth,(H) “Give my troops some bread; they are worn out,(I) and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna,(J) the kings of Midian.”

6 But the officials of Sukkoth(K) said, “Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread(L) to your troops?”(M)

7 Then Gideon replied, “Just for that, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna(N) into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.”

8 From there he went up to Peniel[a](O) and made the same request of them, but they answered as the men of Sukkoth had. 9 So he said to the men of Peniel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower.”(P)

10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen.(Q) 11 Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah(R) and Jogbehah(S) and attacked the unsuspecting army. 12 Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army.

13 Gideon son of Joash(T) then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres.(U) 14 He caught a young man of Sukkoth and questioned him, and the young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Sukkoth,(V) the elders(W) of the town. 15 Then Gideon came and said to the men of Sukkoth, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me by saying, ‘Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?(X)’” 16 He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Sukkoth a lesson(Y) by punishing them with desert thorns and briers. 17 He also pulled down the tower of Peniel(Z) and killed the men of the town.(AA)

18 Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?(AB)”

“Men like you,” they answered, “each one with the bearing of a prince.”

19 Gideon replied, “Those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the Lord lives,(AC) if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you.” 20 Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, “Kill them!” But Jether did not draw his sword, because he was only a boy and was afraid.

21 Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Come, do it yourself. ‘As is the man, so is his strength.’” So Gideon stepped forward and killed them, and took the ornaments(AD) off their camels’ necks.

Gideon’s Ephod

22 The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”

23 But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule(AE) over you.” 24 And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring(AF) from your share of the plunder.(AG)” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites(AH) 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,[b] not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains(AI) that were on their camels’ necks. 27 Gideon made the gold into an ephod,(AJ) which he placed in Ophrah,(AK) his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare(AL) to Gideon and his family.(AM)

Gideon’s Death

28 Thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head(AN) again. During Gideon’s lifetime, the land had peace(AO) forty years.

29 Jerub-Baal(AP) son of Joash(AQ) went back home to live. 30 He had seventy sons(AR) of his own, for he had many wives. 31 His concubine,(AS) who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelek.(AT) 32 Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age(AU) and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

33 No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals.(AV) They set up Baal-Berith(AW) as their god(AX) 34 and did not remember(AY) the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. 35 They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal(AZ) (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them.(BA)

Footnotes

  1. Judges 8:8 Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel; also in verses 9 and 17
  2. Judges 8:26 That is, about 43 pounds or about 20 kilograms
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