Chapter Eight

1–3. The displeasure of the Ephraimites against Gideon. 4–9. The refusal of the people of Succoth and Penuel to give bread to Gideon. 10–12. The capture of the kings Zebah and Zalmunna. 13–17. The punishment of the elders of Succoth and Penuel. 18–21. The execution of the kings Zebah and Zalmunna. 22–23. The proposal of the Israelites to make Gideon king over them and his answer. 24–27. Gideon’s making of an ephod and its setting up in Ophrah. 28–29. The condition of the Israelites under Gideon. 30–35. The descendants of Gideon and the Israelites’ attitude toward him.

Judges 8:1. The men of Ephraim said to him: What is this you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against the Midianites? And they complained bitterly against him. Judges 8:2. He said to them: What have I done now compared with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? Judges 8:3. God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and what have I been able to do compared with you? Then their anger against him subsided, when he had spoken this word to them. The Ephraimites, who stood at the head of the other tribes during the time of the Judges, since one of their cities, namely Shiloh, held the sanctuary of the Lord at that time (Judg 18:31), arrogantly and unjustly expressed their displeasure to Gideon for what seemed to them a slight (see Judg 12:1). But Gideon, by his courteous answer, softened their irritation against him.

Judges 8:4. Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, exhausted and hungry, pursuing the enemy. Judges 8:5. So he said to the people of Succoth: Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me; for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. Judges 8:6. But the officials of Succoth said: Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your possession, that we should give bread to your army? Judges 8:7. Gideon replied: Very well; when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers. Judges 8:8. From there he went up to Penuel, and made the same request of them; and the people of Penuel answered him as the people of Succoth had answered. Judges 8:9. So he said to the people of Penuel: When I come back victorious, I will break down this tower. The people of Succoth and Penuel refused bread to Gideon, who was fighting for Israel’s salvation, and thus brought upon themselves his righteous anger. See Succoth: (Gen 33:17); see Penuel: (Gen 32:30-32).

Judges 8:10. Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of all the army of the people of the east; for one hundred twenty thousand men had fallen. Judges 8:11. Gideon went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the army; for the army was off its guard. Judges 8:12. Zebah and Zalmunna fled; and he pursued them and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and threw all the army into a panic. Regarding Nobah, see (Num 32:42); regarding Jogbehah, see (Num 32:35). Karkor, or Karkar, Eusebius and Jerome place north of Petra, at a day’s journey distance (Onom 272, 62), and Burckhardt identifies it with Karkageysh (Syrie, p. 612).

Judges 8:13. When Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres, The height of Heres (according to the LXX, Ares) is placed somewhere around Succoth. The Targum and the Vulgate translate: “before the sun rise” (ante solis ortum), understanding the word hechares through heharim (that is, “mountains”), and so translates: “from the summit of the mountains,” that is, the Gilead Mountains.

Judges 8:14. He caught a young man of the people of Succoth and questioned him; and the young man wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven people. Judges 8:15. Then he came to the people of Succoth and said: Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, “Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna, that we should give bread to your exhausted men? Judges 8:16. And he took the elders of the city and the thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he trampled the people of Succoth. Judges 8:17. He also broke down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the city. After the capture of the Midianite kings, Gideon punished the elders of Succoth and Penuel for their lack of sympathy with the people’s cause (see above, verses 7–8).

Judges 8:18. Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna: What about the men whom you killed at Tabor? They answered: As you are, so were they, each one resembling the children of a king. Judges 8:19. He replied: They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the Lord lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you. Judges 8:20. So he said to his firstborn son Jether: Kill them. But the youth did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a boy. Judges 8:21. Then Zebah and Zalmunna said: You come and fall upon us; for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon rose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on the necks of their camels. According to the law of blood revenge for a slain kinsman, widely practiced among the peoples of the East (see Deut 19:5-6; Exod 21:12-14), Gideon put to death the kings Zebah and Zalmunna for the killing of his kinsmen, after which he took chains that were on the necks of their camels, made of precious metal, similar to those which, according to travelers, are still often seen on the necks of Arab camels.

Judges 8:22. Then the Israelites said to Gideon: Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also; for you have delivered us out of the hand of Midian. Judges 8:23. Gideon said to them: I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you. Strict in his observance of the theocratic principle, Gideon recognized as the ruler of Israel the Lord alone, to whom the people of Israel owed their salvation.

Judges 8:24. And Gideon said to them: Let me make one request of you; each of you give me an earring from the spoil. [For the enemy had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.] Judges 8:25. They answered: We will willingly give them. So they spread out a garment, and each one threw an earring from the spoil into it. Judges 8:26. The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred gold shekels, besides the crescents and the pendants and the purple robes that were on the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were on the necks of their camels. Judges 8:27. And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah; and all Israel went astray after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his household. From the golden earrings given to Gideon by the Israelites, taken by them from the killed enemy, in total weighing about 1700 gold shekels (more than 70 pounds), as well as chains, necklaces and precious garments, Gideon made an ephod similar to the high priest’s ephod (see Exod 28:6-12), or, as some conjecture, a vestment for the altar he erected in Ophrah called “The Lord is Peace” (Judg 6:24), to which, instead of Shiloh, where the Tabernacle was, the people began to go for worship.

Judges 8:28. So Midian was subdued before the Israelites, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. Judges 8:29. Jerubbaal son of Joash went to live in his own house. Judges 8:30. Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. Judges 8:31. His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. Judges 8:32. Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Judges 8:33. As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites again went astray after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god; Judges 8:34. and the Israelites did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hand of all their enemies on every side; Judges 8:35. and they did not show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. After Gideon’s death, the Israelites again fell into idolatry, worshiping Baal-berith (Baal, the protector of the covenant, see Judg 9:4), did not remember the Lord, and did not show kindness to Gideon’s descendants, who were quite numerous. Among Gideon’s descendants was Abimelech, born of a concubine, a native of Shechem, who later became the cause of the destruction of nearly all of Gideon’s other descendants.