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. 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? 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.
Judges 8 begins right after the battle of Gideon. Once the battle was at hand, Gideon is challenged by Ephraim. Ephraim was probably angry that they weren’t called into the battle to help destroy the Midianites. Instead, they were called after the battle in order to secure the land for the Israelites.
This speaks of two problems the Ephraimites had. One: they wanted the recognition of the battle. In ancient times those who take down an oppressor are granted the glory and the spoils of the battle. Ephraim seemed to want, at the very least, the glory. Second, Ephraim had a limited understanding of what God was doing. In chapter 7, we saw that God whittled down Gideon’s army to 300 men. He did this to prove that the victory would be God’s victory. If Gideon had a gigantic contingent of men fighting behind him, it would be easy for the Israelites to claim victory themselves. Regardless, this causes problems in the future between Gideon and the tribe of Ephraim.
Gideon tries to smooth over the situation by comparing his fight with the many victories of Ephraim. As we see in the last verse, this works, at least for the moment.
4 Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan and crossed it. 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.” 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?” 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.” 8 From there he went up to Peniel and made the same request of them, but they answered as the men of Sukkoth had. 9 So he said to the men of Peniel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower.”
Gideon’s on a hunt for the kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna. But the troops are exhausted. In their pursuit of them, the troops go through two towns, Sukkoth and Penai. Sukkoth (also spelled Succoth) was a city east of the Jordan river. It is where Jacob built house and made booths for his cattle (Genesis 33:17). It is also where Saul and David are recorded in battle (1 Samuel 17:1) Peniel, named by Jacob, was the place where Jacob wrestled and angel (Genesis 32:30). These are both places in Israel, lived in by Israelites, yet they refused to help the very people who helped drive out the oppressing Midianites. Gideon’s threat is not unfounded. He will return and punish both of these towns, who weren’t obligated to fight, but were obligated to help.
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. 11 Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the unsuspecting army. 12 Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army.
Gideon, perhaps strengthened by the great miracle of the first battle, is emboldened to surprise attack the remaining army of the Midianites. Only fifteen thousand of their 135,000 army remains, among them the two kings.
13 Gideon son of Joash then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres. 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. 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?’” 16 He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Sukkoth a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briers. 17 He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town.
Gideon returns to Sukkoth and confronts the town. This town was not willing to help Gideon by faith. They were only willing to help him if the two kings of Midian were already in his possession. Because of this, Gideon would punish them as he had promised. He punishes them with a public flogging. Peniel has it worse. Their tower is destroyed and men killed. There isn’t enough context to support why this punishment was more harsh.
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.” 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.” 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. 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.
This passage reveals more information about the tyranny of the Midianites. Remember, the Midianites were a large band of scavengers, rolling in at the harvest and stealing all of the Israelite’s supplies. But they were also ruthless killers. Apparently some of the men who were killed were Gideon’s own brothers. Gideon himself bears the responsibility of their execution.
Ornaments off their camel’s necks: Isaiah 3:18 eludes to the idea that gold necklaces were worn around the necks of animals, possibly in honor of Astare, a goddess of the Phoenicians.
Gideon’s Ephod 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.” 23 But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” 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.)
Israel’s desire for a king comes long before Saul. Gideon, the new hero of the charge against the Midianites, would be put to the test. God’s plan for the Judges was simple in context: He will raise them, and in a single moment His spirit will come over them, equip them for battle. In that, the Judges would realign Israel, time and time again, and their safety would last as long as they lived. The people, and the Judge too, may not understand this.
As we continue through the stories of the Judges, you will notice that the Judges begin to morally slip. This is the first Judge to begin to slide, and you’ll see the subtle shift in his story, and the large implications of it, in the next.
Gideon answers wisely. He will not be their king. But before he turns and walks away from it, he has a request: an earring from each man’s share of the plunder. It doesn’t sound like much, but it amounts to a large fortune. Suddenly Gideon is rich. Gideon, quite strikingly, is now living above much of the people he is serving.
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. 26 The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, 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. 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 wealth is extraordinary. But what does he do with it? He makes an ephod (Exodus 28). An ephod is the ceremonial dress used by the priests in the temple. Worn outside the robe, it contained the Trim and Thummim, the casting sticks of the ancient world, of whose exact use is still not entirely known. By crafting an ephod, Gideon assumed a new role: he’s not quite king but some type of religious leader, or at least a guy with religious iconography. By absconding kingship, but requiring a payment is at best a murky choice, the ephod is an obvious wrong decision.
Why Gideon does this is unknown. But returning to the problematic relationship Gideon has with Ephraim could be a key. The tabernacle at this time was locate in Shiloh, which is in the territory of Ephraim. Could it be that Gideon did this as an alternative worship site?
In the book of Kings we see this same thing happen after the split of the kingdom. Jeroboam, the leader of the 10 northern tribes, realizes the people want to go to the temple to worship, but the temple is located in Jerusalem, Judah and Benjamin’s territory. So he sets up two places within the territory of the 10 tribes, one in Dan the other in Beersheba, and erects golden calfs to worship.
Whatever the misguided reason Gideon does this, it has a dire effect. Israel, on a whole, comes to worship the ephod. The Judge that saved Israel becomes a snare to Israel, and Israel wanders from God in a very different way.
Gideon’s Death 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.
Even though Gideon also called Jerub-Baal) does this damage to Israel, God honors His promise to heal the land. Midian remains broken and 40 years of peace continue under Gideon.
29 Jerub-Baal son of Joash went back home to live. 30 He had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives. 31 His concubine, who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelek. 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.
Even though Gideon wasn’t technically a king, he sure lived like one. He had many sons and many wives, concubines even. This is the behavior of a king who dabbled in the religious affectations of the land as well.
The concubine bears him a son named Abimalek. The name Abimalek means “my father, a king,” which gives us another aspect of how Gideon was viewed and perhaps how he ran his “kingdom”. Abimalek, as we will see in chapter 9, becomes a problem for Israel. He is known as the “Anti-Judge”.
33 No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god 34 and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. 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.
Perhaps part of why it was so easy for Israel to turn away from God was because they had already shifted away during Gideon’s time as Judge. In this, Gideon is also maligned, and the Israelites range away to follow a different God, this time Baal. Baal Berith means “Baal of the Covenant,” which probably means the Israelites regarded Baal as their covenant god. This is disturbing because God, the rescuer of Israel and the true God of the Covenant, is all but forgotten.