Judges 8: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Gideon answers Ephraim's complaint about being left out of the fight, then crosses the Jordan with three hundred exhausted men and captures the Midianite kings Zebah and Zalmunna. On the way back he punishes the towns of Succoth and Penuel for refusing his men food, and he kills the two kings because they had killed his brothers. He turns down Israel's offer to make him and his sons rulers, but asks for gold from the plunder and makes an ephod that becomes a trap for him and his household. The chapter ends with forty years of peace, Gideon's death, his seventy sons and the son named Abimelech, and Israel turning to the Baals.

Claim by Claim

1. 8:1
   • The men of Ephraim spoke to Gideon.
   • The men of Ephraim asked Gideon why he had done this thing to them.
   • The men of Ephraim asked why he did not call them when he went to fight against Midian.
   • The men of Ephraim quarreled with Gideon fiercely.
2. 8:2
   • Gideon answered them.
   • Gideon asked what he had now done in comparison with them.
   • Gideon asked whether the gleaning of Ephraim was not better than the grape harvest of Abiezer.
3. 8:3
   • Gideon said God had delivered the princes of Midian into their hand.
   • The princes of Midian were Oreb and Zeeb.
   • Gideon asked what he had been able to do in comparison with them.
   • Their anger toward Gideon subsided when he said this.
4. 8:4
   • Gideon came to the Jordan.
   • Gideon crossed over the Jordan.
   • The three hundred men who were with him crossed over with him.
   • Gideon and his men were exhausted.
   • Gideon and his men were still pursuing.
5. 8:5
   • Gideon said to the men of Succoth to give loaves of bread to the people who followed him.
   • Gideon said his men were exhausted.
   • Gideon said he was pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna.
   • Zebah and Zalmunna were kings of Midian.
6. 8:6
   • The princes of Succoth answered.
   • The princes of Succoth asked whether the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna were already in Gideon's hand.
   • The princes of Succoth questioned why they should give bread to Gideon's army.
7. 8:7
   • Gideon said that when the LORD delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into his hand, he would thresh their flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.
8. 8:8
   • Gideon went up from there to Penuel.
   • Gideon spoke to the men of Penuel in the same way.
   • The men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered.
9. 8:9
   • Gideon also spoke to the men of Penuel.
   • Gideon said that when he returned in peace he would tear down that tower.
10. 8:10
    • Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor.
    • Their armies were with them.
    • Their armies numbered about fifteen thousand.
    • These were all who remained of the whole army of the children of the east.
    • One hundred and twenty thousand men who drew the sword had fallen.
11. 8:11
    • Gideon went up by the route of those who dwelt in tents.
    • That route was east of Nobah and Jogbehah.
    • Gideon struck the camp.
    • The camp was off its guard.
12. 8:12
    • Zebah and Zalmunna fled.
    • Gideon pursued them.
    • Gideon captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna.
    • Gideon threw the whole army into panic.
13. 8:13
    • Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle.
    • The Hebrew says he returned by the ascent of Heres, while the King James says he returned before the sun was up.
14. 8:14
    • Gideon captured a young man from the men of Succoth.
    • Gideon questioned him.
    • The young man wrote down for him the princes of Succoth and its elders.
    • The princes and elders numbered seventy-seven men.
15. 8:15
    • Gideon came to the men of Succoth.
    • Gideon said, Behold Zebah and Zalmunna.
    • Gideon said they had taunted him concerning Zebah and Zalmunna.
    • Gideon quoted their words asking whether the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna were already in his hand.
    • Gideon quoted their words questioning why they should give bread to his weary men.
16. 8:16
    • Gideon took the elders of the city.
    • Gideon took thorns of the wilderness and briers.
    • Gideon used them to punish the men of Succoth.
17. 8:17
    • Gideon tore down the tower of Penuel.
    • Gideon killed the men of the city.
18. 8:18
    • Gideon said to Zebah and Zalmunna.
    • Gideon asked what kind of men they had killed at Tabor.
    • They answered that the men were like Gideon.
    • They said each one resembled the sons of a king.
19. 8:19
    • Gideon said the men were his brothers.
    • Gideon said they were the sons of his mother.
    • Gideon swore by the life of the LORD.
    • Gideon said that if they had let them live, he would not kill them.
20. 8:20
    • Gideon said to Jether his firstborn.
    • Gideon told Jether to get up and kill them.
    • The youth did not draw his sword.
    • The youth was afraid.
    • The youth was still a boy.
21. 8:21
    • Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon to rise and fall upon them himself.
    • Zebah and Zalmunna said that as the man is, so is his strength.
    • Gideon arose.
    • Gideon killed Zebah and Zalmunna.
    • Gideon took the crescent ornaments that were on their camels' necks.
22. 8:22
    • The men of Israel said to Gideon.
    • The men of Israel asked Gideon to rule over them.
    • They asked that his son also rule over them.
    • They asked that his son's son also rule over them.
    • They said Gideon had saved them from the hand of Midian.
23. 8:23
    • Gideon said to them that he would not rule over them.
    • Gideon said his son would not rule over them.
    • Gideon said the LORD would rule over them.
24. 8:24
    • Gideon said to them that he would make a request of them.
    • Gideon asked that each man give him an earring from his plunder.
    • The defeated had golden earrings.
    • The defeated had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites.
25. 8:25
    • They answered that they would gladly give them.
    • They spread out a garment.
    • Each man threw onto it an earring from his plunder.
26. 8:26
    • The weight of the golden earrings Gideon requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold.
    • This was apart from the crescent ornaments.
    • This was apart from the pendants.
    • This was apart from the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian.
    • This was apart from the chains that were on their camels' necks.
27. 8:27
    • Gideon made an ephod from it.
    • Gideon set it up in his city, Ophrah.
    • All Israel prostituted themselves after it there.
    • It became a snare to Gideon and to his house.
28. 8:28
    • Midian was subdued before the children of Israel.
    • Midian did not lift up its head again.
    • The land had rest for forty years.
    • This rest was in the days of Gideon.
29. 8:29
    • Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house.
30. 8:30
    • Gideon had seventy sons who came from his own body.
    • Gideon had many wives.
31. 8:31
    • Gideon's concubine was in Shechem.
    • She also bore him a son.
    • Gideon named him Abimelech.
32. 8:32
    • Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age.
    • Gideon was buried in the tomb of Joash his father.
    • The tomb was in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
33. 8:33
    • As soon as Gideon was dead, the children of Israel turned back.
    • The children of Israel prostituted themselves after the Baals.
    • The children of Israel made Baal-berith their god.
34. 8:34
    • The children of Israel did not remember the LORD their God.
    • The LORD had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side.
35. 8:35
    • The children of Israel did not show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, who is Gideon.
    • They did not show kindness according to all the good that Gideon had done for Israel.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

8:1

Ephraim was the largest and most influential tribe in central Israel. Being summoned to a battle mattered practically as well as socially: those who fought shared in the plunder. Gideon's own clan was from Manasseh, Ephraim's neighbor and rival.

8:2

Gideon answers with a farming proverb. "Gleaning" is the picking over of a vineyard after the main harvest has been carried off, the scraps left on the vines. He is saying that Ephraim's leftovers outdo his family's full crop, i.e. their small share of the fighting achieved more than his whole campaign. Abiezer was Gideon's own clan.

8:3

Oreb and Zeeb were the two Midianite commanders whom the men of Ephraim had captured and killed at the Jordan crossings in the previous chapter. Gideon is pointing to a victory that was entirely theirs.

8:4

The Jordan is the river running down the middle of the country. Crossing it took Gideon out of Israel's settled western heartland and into the drier open land on the east side, which is where the Midianite raiders came from and where they had the advantage.

8:5

Succoth was an Israelite town east of the Jordan, in the territory of Gad. Gideon is asking fellow Israelites for supplies, which is why the refusal is treated as a betrayal rather than ordinary caution. The town lay directly on his line of pursuit.

8:6

"Do you have them in your hands" is an idiom for having captured or killed an enemy. Severed hands were sometimes taken from the slain as proof of a kill, which gives the taunt its edge. The men of Succoth are saying they will not back a man who has not yet won, since the Midianites could return and punish them for helping.

8:7

Beating or dragging a person with desert thorn branches was a recognized punishment; the spines tear the skin open. Gideon is promising a slow public humiliation, not a quick execution.

8:8

Penuel was another Israelite town east of the Jordan, further up the Jabbok valley. Its "tower" was a fortified stone stronghold, the town's refuge and strongpoint; destroying it left the settlement defenseless, which is why the threat was a serious one.

8:9

Towns built one strong tower where people could shelter when enemies came. Tearing it down left the town with no safe place.

8:10

"The peoples of the east" is a standing phrase for the nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes of the desert beyond the settled land, raiders who came in with their herds and camels. The Hebrew word translated "thousand" can also mean a clan or a military unit of unfixed size, so the figures may be smaller than they appear in English.

8:11

The route "used by the people who live in tents" is the caravan track through the eastern desert margin, away from the settled roads. Gideon came at the camp from the open desert side, the direction no attack was expected from.

8:12

The King James "discomfited" does not mean made uncomfortable. In 1611 it meant utterly defeated and scattered, which is what happens to an army that breaks and runs.

8:13

The Hebrew here is uncertain. The word can be read as a place name, "the ascent of Heres" (a mountain pass), or taken as the ordinary word for sun, which is how the King James got "before the sun was up." Both readings are defensible.

8:14

That an ordinary young man could write out a list of names is worth noticing: writing was not confined to scribes and officials in this period. "Elders" were the senior heads of families who governed a town collectively.

8:16

The thorns are an instrument of punishment, probably dragging or beating the men across the desert thorn bushes, in the way grain was threshed by dragging a spiked sledge over it. The King James "he taught them" reflects a Hebrew wording that reads either "made them know" or, on a small change of one letter, "threshed them"; ancient and modern translators divide over which.

8:18

Mount Tabor stands in the north, in the Jezreel valley region where the Midianite raids fell. The killing referred to had not been mentioned before now.

8:19

"As surely as the LORD lives" is the standard form of a binding oath, staking the speaker's word on God's own existence. As the nearest male relative of the dead men, Gideon is acting as the one obliged to avenge them; the custom made blood vengeance a family duty rather than a personal choice.

8:20

Having his eldest son carry out the execution was an honor offered to the boy and a calculated humiliation for the captives, to die at the hand of a child, rather than a warrior, was a disgrace.

8:21

The kings ask for a clean death from a grown fighter. The crescent ornaments were moon-shaped gold or silver pendants hung on the harness of prized camels, a mark of wealth and rank; the crescent was also a symbol associated with moon worship among desert peoples.

8:22

This is an offer of hereditary kingship, rule passing from father to son to grandson, which was how Israel's neighbors were governed. Israel at this point had no permanent ruler; leaders like Gideon rose for a crisis and their authority died with them.

8:24

"Ishmaelites" is used here as a broad term for the desert traders and nomads of the region, overlapping with "Midianites" rather than naming a separate people. Gold earrings worn by men were characteristic of them, which is why the writer explains the detail.

8:25

The garment is a large outer cloak, spread flat on the ground so it could serve as a collecting sheet.

8:26

A shekel was a weight, not a coin, roughly two fifths of an ounce (about 11.5 grams). Seventeen hundred shekels of gold is therefore something like forty-three pounds, or twenty kilograms. Purple cloth was dyed with a costly extract from sea snails and was worn by rulers because almost no one else could afford it.

8:27

An ephod was normally a priest's garment, worn over the chest and used in some way for seeking answers from God by lot. Made from a mass of gold, this one is more likely to have been a large standing object, perhaps a covered image or a robe draped on a frame. The Hebrew for what Israel then did with it is the verb for prostitution, used throughout the Old Testament for turning from the LORD to other objects of worship; the rendering gives its sense rather than the image.

8:28

"Forty years" is a round figure used repeatedly in Judges for a full generation of peace, rather than a precise count.

8:29

Jerubbaal was the second name given to Gideon earlier in the story, after he pulled down his father's altar to Baal; it was explained then as meaning "let Baal contend with him." The book uses the two names interchangeably.

8:30

Seventy is a round number meaning a complete set. A household with many wives and dozens of sons was how a king in that world displayed his power and secured his line, which is worth holding beside Gideon's answer in verse 23.

8:31

A concubine was a legally recognized secondary wife of lower standing than a full wife; her children had weaker claims on the inheritance. This one stayed with her own family in Shechem rather than joining Gideon's household. The name Abimelech means "my father is king", a pointed detail, given what Gideon has just refused, and given what this son does in the next chapter.

8:32

A sepulchre is a family tomb, usually a cave or a chamber cut into rock where the bones of earlier generations already lay. Being buried with your father, old and at home, was the picture of an honorable death.

8:33

"The Baals" is the plural of Baal, the Canaanite storm and fertility god, worshiped in many local forms, each with its own shrine and title. Baal-berith means "lord of the covenant" or "Baal of the treaty," the god of the shrine at Shechem, where agreements between parties were sworn.

8:35

The word behind "kindness" is hesed: the loyalty owed within a standing relationship or obligation, not warm feeling. The charge is that Israel defaulted on a debt to Gideon's family.