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    Judges · 35 verses

    Judges 8

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    Gideon declines a crown, accepts the gold, and fashions an ephod that becomes a snare: Judges 8 is not shy about the awkwardness of success.

    Bread, briers, and two kingsvv. 1–21

    Ephraim begins the chapter by quarrelling with Gideon for not calling them earlier; a little praise for their gleanings and a mention of Oreb and Zeeb settles the matter. Gideon and his three hundred cross the Jordan exhausted, but still chasing Zebah and Zalmunna. Succoth and Penuel refuse bread until the kings are safely in hand, so Gideon promises thorns to the one and a demolished tower to the other. He takes the kings by surprise at Karkor, captures them, and returns by the Ascent of Heres with a young man of Succoth, who supplies the names of seventy-seven leaders and elders. The promises are then collected: Succoth receives wilderness briers, Penuel loses its tower and its men, and Jether is invited to kill the kings. Jether does not draw his sword. Gideon does.

    The crown refused, the ephod madevv. 22–28

    Israel offers Gideon a dynasty—himself, his son, and his grandson—because he has saved them from Midian. Gideon refuses the throne in words that leave no ambiguity: the LORD shall rule. He does, however, request an earring from every man's plunder. The gold, together with the kings' ornaments and garments, becomes an ephod in Ophrah. Israel worships it there, and the object becomes a snare to Gideon and his household. Midian is subdued, and the land has rest for forty years; the chapter lets that splendid interval stand beside the rather less splendid ephod.

    A large household, a short memoryvv. 29–35

    Gideon—also called Jerubbaal—returns home and settles down. The domestic inventory is unusually exact: seventy sons from his many wives, and another son, Abimelech, from his concubine in Shechem. Gideon dies at a ripe old age and is buried with his father Joash in Ophrah. Then the Israelites turn again to the Baals, set up Baal-berith, forget the LORD who delivered them, and show no kindness to Gideon's household. The chapter closes with a forty-year rest behind it and a household's good deeds behind them both.

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Judg 8:1Then the men of Ephraim said to Gideon, “Why have you done this to us? Why did you fail to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they contended with him violently.

    2. Judg 8:2But Gideon answered them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer?

    3. Judg 8:3God has delivered Oreb and Zeeb, the two princes of Midian, into your hand. What was I able to do compared to you?” When he had said this, their anger against him subsided.

    4. Judg 8:4Then Gideon and his three hundred men came to the Jordan and crossed it, exhausted yet still in pursuit.

    5. Judg 8:5So Gideon said to the men of Succoth, “Please give my troops some bread, for they are exhausted, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

    6. Judg 8:6But the leaders of Succoth asked, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give bread to your army?”

    7. Judg 8:7“Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”

    8. Judg 8:8From there he went up to Penuel and asked the same from them, but the men of Penuel gave the same response as the men of Succoth.

    9. Judg 8:9So Gideon told the men of Penuel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower!”

    10. Judg 8:10Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army of about fifteen thousand men—all that were left of the armies of the people of the east. A hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had already fallen.

    11. Judg 8:11And Gideon went up by way of the caravan route east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and he attacked their army, taking them by surprise.

    12. Judg 8:12When Zebah and Zalmunna fled, Gideon pursued and captured these two kings of Midian, routing their entire army.

    13. Judg 8:13After this, Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle along the Ascent of Heres.

    14. Judg 8:14There he captured a young man of Succoth and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven leaders and elders of Succoth.

    15. Judg 8:15And Gideon went to the men of Succoth and said, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give bread to your weary men?’”

    16. Judg 8:16Then he took the elders of the city, and using the thorns and briers of the wilderness, he disciplined the men of Succoth.

    17. Judg 8:17He also pulled down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.

    18. Judg 8:18Next, Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” “Men like you,” they answered, “each one resembling the son of a king.”

    19. Judg 8:19“They were my brothers,” Gideon replied, “the sons of my mother! As surely as the LORD lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.”

    20. Judg 8:20So he said to Jether, his firstborn, “Get up and kill them.” But the young man did not draw his sword; he was fearful because he was still a youth.

    21. Judg 8:21Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Get up and kill us yourself, for as the man is, so is his strength.” So Gideon got up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments from the necks of their camels.

    22. Judg 8:22Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you and your son and grandson—for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”

    23. Judg 8:23But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The LORD shall rule over you.”

    24. Judg 8:24Then he added, “Let me make a request of you, that each of you give me an earring from his plunder.” (For the enemies had gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites.)

    25. Judg 8:25“We will give them gladly,” they replied. So they spread out a garment, and each man threw an earring from his plunder onto it.

    26. Judg 8:26The weight of the gold earrings he had requested was 1,700 shekels, in addition to the crescent ornaments, the pendants, the purple garments of the kings of Midian, and the chains from the necks of their camels.

    27. Judg 8:27From all this Gideon made an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

    28. Judg 8:28In this way Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. So the land had rest for forty years in the days of Gideon,

    29. Judg 8:29and he—Jerubbaal son of Joash—returned home and settled down.

    30. Judg 8:30Gideon had seventy sons of his own, since he had many wives.

    31. Judg 8:31His concubine, who dwelt in Shechem, also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.

    32. Judg 8:32Later, Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

    33. Judg 8:33And as soon as Gideon was dead, the Israelites turned and prostituted themselves with the Baals, and they set up Baal-berith as their god.

    34. Judg 8:34The Israelites failed to remember the LORD their God who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.

    35. Judg 8:35They did not show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for Israel.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 222 passages were voted onto 32 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 23Isaiah 33:22For the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our King. It is He who will save us.
    • 34Psalms 78:42They did not remember His power—the day He redeemed them from the adversary,
    • 34Psalms 106:21They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,
    • 231 Samuel 12:12But when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites was moving against you, you said to me, ‘No, we must have a king to rule over us’—even though the LORD your God was your king.
    • 27Psalms 106:39They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.
    • 33Judges 9:4So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired some worthless and reckless men to follow him.
    • 34Psalms 78:11They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them.
    • 3Proverbs 15:1A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
    • 42 Corinthians 4:16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day.
    • 4Galatians 6:9Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
    • 5Genesis 33:17but Jacob went on to Succoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock; that is why the place was called Succoth.
    • 24Genesis 25:13These are the names of the sons of Ishmael in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
    • 27Judges 18:14Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish said to their brothers, “Did you know that one of these houses has an ephod, household gods, a graven image, and a molten idol? Now think about what you should do.”
    • 27Deuteronomy 7:16You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
    • 27Judges 17:5Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest.
    • 30Judges 9:2“Please ask all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember that I am your own flesh and blood.”

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