Judges 8
8
The Final Defeat of the Midianites
1Then the men of Ephraim said to Gideon, “Why didn't you call us when you went to fight the Midianites? Why did you treat us like this?” They complained bitterly about it.
2But he said, “What I was able to do is nothing compared with what you have done. Even the little that you men of Ephraim did is worth more than what my whole clan has done. 3#Ps 83.11After all, through the power of God you killed the two Midianite chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I done to compare with that?” When he said this, they were no longer so angry.
4By this time Gideon and his 300 men had come to the River Jordan and had crossed it. They were exhausted, but were still pursuing the enemy. 5When they arrived at Sukkoth, he said to the men of the town, “Please give my men some loaves of bread. They are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the Midianite kings.”
6But the leaders of Sukkoth said, “Why should we give your army any food? You haven't captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet.”
7So Gideon said, “All right! When the LORD has handed Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will beat you with thorns and briars from the desert!” 8Gideon went on to Penuel and made the same request of the people there, but the men of Penuel gave the same answer as the men of Sukkoth. 9So he said to them, “I am going to come back safe and sound, and when I do, I will tear your tower down!”
10Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor with their army. Of the whole army of desert tribesmen, only about 15,000 were left; 120,000 soldiers had been killed. 11Gideon went along the road by the edge of the desert, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the army by surprise. 12The two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, ran away, but he pursued them and captured them, and caused their whole army to panic.
13When Gideon was returning from the battle by way of Heres Pass, 14he captured a young man from Sukkoth and questioned him. The young man wrote down for Gideon the names of the 77 leading men of Sukkoth. 15Then Gideon went to the men of Sukkoth and said, “Remember when you refused to help me? You said that you couldn't give any food to my exhausted army because I hadn't captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet. Well, here they are!” 16He then took thorns and briars from the desert and used them to punish the leaders of Sukkoth. 17He also tore down the tower at Penuel and killed the men of that city.
18Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What about the men you killed at Tabor?”
They answered, “They looked like you — every one of them like the son of a king.”
19Gideon said, “They were my brothers, my own mother's sons. I solemnly swear that if you had not killed them, I would not kill you.” 20Then he said to Jether, his eldest son, “Go ahead, kill them!” But the boy did not draw his sword. He hesitated, because he was still only a boy.
21Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, “Come on, kill us yourself. It takes a man to do a man's job.” So Gideon killed them and took the ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.
22After that, the Israelites said to Gideon, “Be our ruler — you and your descendants after you. You have saved us from the Midianites.”
23Gideon answered, “I will not be your ruler, nor will my son. The LORD will be your ruler.” 24But he went on to say, “Let me ask one thing of you. Every one of you give me the earrings you took.” (The Midianites, like other desert people, wore gold earrings.)
25The people answered, “We'll be glad to give them to you.” They spread out a cloth, and everyone put on it the earrings that he had taken. 26The gold earrings that Gideon received weighed nearly twenty kilogrammes, and this did not include the ornaments, necklaces, and purple clothes that the kings of Midian wore, nor the collars that were round the necks of their camels. 27Gideon made an idol from the gold and put it in his home town, Ophrah. All the Israelites abandoned God and went there to worship the idol. It was a trap for Gideon and his family.
28So Midian was defeated by the Israelites and was no longer a threat. The land was at peace for forty years, until Gideon died.
The Death of Gideon
29Gideon went back to his own home and lived there. 30He had seventy sons, because he had many wives. 31He also had a concubine in Shechem; she bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. 32Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, at Ophrah, the town of the clan of Abiezer.
33After Gideon's death the people of Israel were again unfaithful to God and worshipped the Baals. They made Baal-of-the-Covenant their god, 34and no longer served the LORD their God, who had saved them from all their enemies round them. 35They were not grateful to the family of Gideon for all the good that he had done for Israel.
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Judges 8
8
1And the men of Ephraim say unto him, ‘What [is] this thing thou hast done to us — not to call for us when thou didst go to fight with Midian?’ and they strive with him severely;
2and he saith unto them, ‘What have I done now like you? are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the harvest of Abi-Ezer?
3Into your hand hath God given the heads of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and what have I been able to do like you?’ Then their temper desisted from off him in his speaking this thing.
4And Gideon cometh in unto the Jordan, passing over, he and the three hundred men who [are] with him — wearied, and pursuing,
5and he saith to the men of Succoth, ‘Give, I pray you, cakes of bread to the people who [are] at my feet, for they [are] wearied, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna kings of Midian.’
6And the heads of Succoth say, ‘Is the hand of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thy hand, that we give to thy host bread?’
7And Gideon saith, ‘Therefore — in Jehovah's giving Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand — I have threshed your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness, and with the threshing instruments.’
8And he goeth up thence [to] Penuel, and speaketh unto them thus; and the men of Penuel answer him as the men of Succoth answered.
9And he speaketh also to the men of Penuel, saying, ‘In my turning back in peace, I break down this tower.’
10And Zebah and Zalmunna [are] in Karkor, and their camps with them, about fifteen thousand, all who are left of all the camp of the sons of the east; and those falling [are] a hundred and twenty thousand men, drawing sword.
11And Gideon goeth up the way of those who tabernacle in tents, on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and smiteth the camp, and the camp was confident;
12and Zebab and Zalmunna flee, and he pursueth after them, and captureth the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and all the camp he hath caused to tremble.
13And Gideon son of Joash turneth back from the battle, at the going up of the sun,
14and captureth a young man of the men of Succoth, and asketh him, and he describeth unto him the heads of Succoth, and its elders — seventy and seven men.
15And he cometh in unto the men of Succoth, and saith, ‘Lo Zebah and Zalmunna, with whom ye reproached me, saying, Is the hand of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thy hand that we give to thy men who [are] wearied bread?’
16And he taketh the elders of the city, and the thorns of the wilderness, and the threshing instruments, and teacheth by them the men of Succoth,
17and the tower of Penuel he hath broken down, and slayeth the men of the city.
18And he saith unto Zebah and unto Zalmunna, ‘How — the men whom ye slew in Tabor?’ and they say, ‘As thou — so they, one — as the form of the king's sons.’
19And he saith, ‘My brethren — sons of my mother — they; Jehovah liveth, if ye had kept them alive — I had not slain you.’
20And he saith to Jether his first-born, ‘Rise, slay them;’ and the young man hath not drawn his sword, for he hath been afraid, for he [is] yet a youth.
21And Zebah saith — also Zalmunna — ‘Rise thou, and fall upon us; for as the man — his might;’ and Gideon riseth, and slayeth Zebah and Zalmunna, and taketh their round ornaments which [are] on the necks of their camels.
22And the men of Israel say unto Gideon, ‘Rule over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, for thou hast saved us from the hand of Midian.’
23And Gideon saith unto them, ‘I do not rule over you, nor doth my son rule over you; Jehovah doth rule over you.’
24And Gideon saith unto them, ‘Let me ask of you a petition, and give ye to me each the ring of his prey, for they have rings of gold, for they [are] Ishmaelites.’
25And they say, ‘We certainly give;’ and they spread out the garment, and cast thither each the ring of his prey;
26and the weight of the rings of gold which he asked is a thousand and seven hundred [shekels] of gold, apart from the round ornaments, and the drops, and the purple garments, which [are] on the kings of Midian, and apart from the chains which [are] on the necks of their camels,
27and Gideon maketh it into an ephod, and setteth it up in his city, in Ophrah, and all Israel go a-whoring after it there, and it is to Gideon and to his house for a snare.
28And Midian is humbled before the sons of Israel, and have not added to lift up their head; and the land resteth forty years in the days of Gideon.
29And Jerubbaal son of Joash goeth and dwelleth in his own house,
30and to Gideon there have been seventy sons, coming out of his loin, for he had many wives;
31and his concubine, who [is] in Shechem, hath born to him — even she — a son, and he appointeth his name Abimelech.
32And Gideon son of Joash dieth, in a good old age, and is buried in the burying-place of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abi-Ezrite.
33And it cometh to pass, when Gideon [is] dead, that the sons of Israel turn back and go a-whoring after the Baalim, and set over them Baal-Berith for a god;
34and the sons of Israel have not remembered Jehovah their God, who is delivering them out of the hand of all their enemies round about,
35neither have they done kindness with the house of Jerubbaal — Gideon — according to all the good which he did with Israel.
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