Judges
Chapter 8
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Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
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1The men of Ephraim said to him, What is this thing you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight Midian? And they contended with him fiercely.
2He said to them, What have I done now compared with you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?
3God has given into your hand the chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What was I able to do compared with you? Then their spirit relaxed from him when he spoke this word.
4Gideon came to the Jordan, crossing over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, weary and still chasing.
5He said to the men of Succoth, Please give loaves of bread to the people who are at my feet, for they are weary, and I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.
6The chiefs of Succoth said, Is the palm of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?
7Gideon said, For that, when God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. gives Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will thresh your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with the briers.
8He went up from there to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way. The men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered.
9He said also to the men of Penuel, When I return in peace, I will tear down this tower.
10Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their camp with them, about fifteen thousand, all who were left of the whole camp of the sons of the east. Those who had fallen were one hundred and twenty thousand men who drew a sword.
11Gideon went up by the way of those who dwell in tents, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and he struck the camp. The camp was feeling secure.
12Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he chased them. He captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw the whole camp into a panic.
13Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres.
14He captured a young man of the men of Succoth and questioned him. He wrote down for him the chiefs of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.
15He came to the men of Succoth and said, Look, Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, Is the palm of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your weary men?
16He took the elders of the city, and the thorns of the wilderness and the briers, and with them he made the men of Succoth know.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Vayyoda is “he made them know.” The line does not use the verb for threshing here. The threat in verse 7 used that other verb.
17He tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.
18He said to Zebah and to Zalmunna, Where are the men you killed at Tabor? They said, As you are, so were they. Each one had the look of a king’s son.
19He said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.
20He said to Jether his firstborn, Get up, kill them. But the young man did not draw his sword, because he was afraid, for he was still a boy.
21Zebah and Zalmunna said, You get up and strike us, for as the man is, so is his strength. Gideon got up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescents that were on the necks of their camels.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Saharonim are the crescent ornaments on the camels’ necks.
22The men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, you, and your son, and your son’s son, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.
23Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you. God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. will rule over you.
24Gideon said to them, Let me ask a request of you. Each man, give me the ring from his spoil. For they had gold rings, because they were Ishmaelites.
25They said, We will give them, give them. They spread out a cloak, and each man threw there the ring from his spoil.
26The weight of the gold rings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred gold, apart from the crescents, the pendants, and the purple garments that were on the kings of Midian, and apart from the necklaces that were on the necks of their camels.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
The line says one thousand seven hundred gold. It does not name the unit.
27Gideon made it into an A special vest the priest wore. and set it up in his city, in Ophrah. All Israel prostituted themselves after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his house.
28Midian was brought down before the sons of Israel, and they did not lift their heads again. The land was quiet forty years in the days of Gideon.
29Jerubbaal son of Joash went and lived in his house.
30Gideon had seventy sons, who came out from his own body, for he had many wives.
31His A woman who lives with a man as a wife but does not have a wife’s full place. who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he set his name as Abimelech.
32Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age, and he was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrite.
33When Gideon died, the sons of Israel turned back and prostituted themselves after the Local gods called by the name Baal., and they set up Baal-berith for themselves as a god.
34The sons of Israel did not remember God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. their God, who had rescued them from the hand of all their enemies around them.
35They did not deal in loyalty with the house of Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, according to all the good that he had done for Israel.