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Judges 8 :: New International Version (NIV)

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Zebah and Zalmunna

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:1 - Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, “Why have you treated us like this? Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian?” And they challenged him vigorously.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:2 - But he answered them, “What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren’t the gleanings of Ephraim’s grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer?
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:3 - God gave Oreb and Zeeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you?” At this, their resentment against him subsided.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:4 - Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan and crossed it.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:5 - He said to the men of Sukkoth, “Give my troops some bread; they are worn out, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:6 - But the officials of Sukkoth said, “Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your troops?”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:7 - Then Gideon replied, “Just for that, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:8 - From there he went up to Peniel[fn] and made the same request of them, but they answered as the men of Sukkoth had.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:9 - So he said to the men of Peniel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:10 - Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:11 - Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the unsuspecting army.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:12 - Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:13 - Gideon son of Joash then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:14 - He caught a young man of Sukkoth and questioned him, and the young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Sukkoth, the elders of the town.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:15 - Then Gideon came and said to the men of Sukkoth, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me by saying, ‘Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’ ”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:16 - He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Sukkoth a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briers.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:17 - He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:18 - Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” “Men like you,” they answered, “each one with the bearing of a prince.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:19 - Gideon replied, “Those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the LORD lives, if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:20 - Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, “Kill them!” But Jether did not draw his sword, because he was only a boy and was afraid.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:21 - Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Come, do it yourself. ‘As is the man, so is his strength.’ ” So Gideon stepped forward and killed them, and took the ornaments off their camels’ necks.

Gideon’s Ephod

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:22 - The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:23 - But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The LORD will rule over you.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:24 - And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:25 - They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each of them threw a ring from his plunder onto it.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:26 - The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels,[fn] not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels’ necks.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:27 - Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.

Gideon’s Death

Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:28 - Thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. During Gideon’s lifetime, the land had peace forty years.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:29 - Jerub-Baal son of Joash went back home to live.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:30 - He had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:31 - His concubine, who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelek.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:32 - Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:33 - No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:34 - and did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.
Unchecked Copy BoxJdg 8:35 - They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them.
NIV Footnotes
Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel; also in verses 9 and 17
That is, about 43 pounds or about 20 kilograms
NIV

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For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.

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