Waamuzi 8

Gideon answers Ephraim

¹Then the men of Ephraim said to Gideon, “Why have you treated us like this? You did not call us when you went out to fight Midian!” And they argued with him sharply. ²He answered them, “What have I done, compared with you? Are not the grapes Ephraim gleans better than the whole harvest of Abiezer? ³God handed the commanders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, over to you. What was I able to do compared with you?” When he said this, their anger against him cooled. ⁴Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed it, he and the 300 men with him, exhausted but still pursuing. ⁵He said to the men of Succoth, “Please give some loaves of bread to the troops who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” ⁶But the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your grip, that we should give bread to your army?”^{a 7}Gideon said, “Very well. When the LORD hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will thresh your flesh with thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” ⁸From there he went up to Penuel and made the same request, and the men of Penuel gave him the same answer as the men of Succoth. ⁹So he said to the men of Penuel as well, “When I come back safe and sound, I will tear down this tower.”

Zebah and Zalmunna captured

¹⁰Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor with their forces, about 15,000 men. These were all that were left of the whole army of the eastern peoples; 120,000 swordsmen had fallen. ¹¹Gideon went up by the route of the tent dwellers, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the camp while it felt secure. ¹²Zebah and Zalmunna fled, but he chased after them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and threw their whole army into panic. ¹³Then Gideon son of Joash came back from the battle by the Heres pass.^{b 14}He caught a young man from Succoth and questioned him, and the young man wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. ¹⁵Then he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Look: Zebah and Zalmunna! You taunted me about them when you said, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your grip, that we should give bread to your exhausted men?’” ¹⁶He took the elders of the town, and with thorns of the wilderness and briers he taught the men of Succoth a lesson.^{c 17}He also tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the town. ¹⁸Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “What about the men you killed at Tabor?” They replied, “They were like you, every one of them with the look of a king’s son.” ¹⁹He said, “They were my brothers, my own mother’s sons. As surely as the LORD lives, had you spared their lives, I would not kill you.” ²⁰Then he said to Jether, his firstborn son, “Get up and kill them!” But the boy did not draw his sword. He was afraid, because he was still young. ²¹Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Get up and strike us down yourself, for as the man is, so is his strength.” Gideon rose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, then took the crescent ornaments from their camels’ necks. ²²Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson too, for you have saved us from the power of Midian.” ²³But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you. The LORD will rule over you.” ²⁴Then Gideon said to them, “I do have one request: let each of you give me a ring from his plunder.” The enemy had worn gold rings, because they were Ishmaelites. ²⁵“We will gladly give them,” they answered. So they spread out a cloak, and each man threw onto it a ring from his plunder. ²⁶The gold rings he had asked for weighed about 42 1/2 pounds. That was besides the crescent ornaments, the pendants and the purple clothing worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the chains on their camels’ necks. ²⁷Gideon made the gold into an ephod and set it up in his town, Ophrah. There all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it, and it became a trap for Gideon and his family.^{d 28}So Midian was humbled before the Israelites and did not raise its head again, and the land had peace for forty years in the days of Gideon.

Gideon’s last years

²⁹Jerubbaal son of Joash went back and lived in his own house. ³⁰Gideon had seventy sons who were his own offspring, for he had many wives. ³¹His concubine who lived in Shechem bore him a son as well, and he named him Abimelech. ³²Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in his father Joash’s tomb at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³As soon as Gideon was dead, the Israelites turned away again and prostituted themselves to the Baals. They made Baal-berith their god. ³⁴The Israelites did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the power of all the enemies around them. ³⁵Nor did they show faithful love to the family of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, in return for all the good he had done for Israel.