Judges 8

CHAPTER 8

¹And the men of Ephraim said to Gideon, What is this thing, that thou wouldest do, that thou calledest not us, when thou wentest to battle against Midian? And they chided with him strongly, and well-nigh they did to him violence.

²To whom he answered, And what such thing might I have done, what manner thing ye have done? Whether a raisin of Ephraim is not better than the vintages of Abiezer?

³And the Lord hath betaken into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What such thing might I have done, what manner thing ye have done? And when he had spoken this thing, the spirit of them rested, by which they swelled against him.

⁴And when Gideon had come to Jordan, he passed it with three hundred men, that were with him; and for weariness they might not pursue them that fled.

⁵And he said to the men of Succoth, I beseech, give ye loaves to the people, that is with me; for they failed greatly, that we may then pursue Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.

⁶And the princes of Succoth answered in scorn , In hap the palms of the hands of Zebah and of Zalmunna be in thine hands, and therefore thou askest, that we give loaves to thine host.

⁷To whom Gideon said, Therefore, when the Lord shall betake Zebah and Zalmunna into mine hands, and when I shall turn again overcomer in peace, I shall rend your flesh with thorns and briars of the desert.

⁸And Gideon went up from thence, and came into Penuel; and he spake like things to men of that place, to whom also they answered, as the men of Succoth had answered.

⁹And so he said to them, When I shall turn again overcomer in peace, I shall destroy this tower.

¹⁰Forsooth Zebah and Zalmunna rested with all their host; for fifteen thousand men left of all the companies of the peoples of the east, when an hundred and twenty thousand of fighters and of men drawing out sword were slain.

¹¹And Gideon ascended or went up by the way of them that dwelled in tabernacles at the east coast of Nobah and of Jogbehah, and smote the tents of [the] enemies, that were secure, and supposed not anything of adversity.

¹²And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, whom Gideon pursued, and took, when all their host was troubled.

¹³And he turned again from battle before the rising of the sun,

¹⁴and he took a young man of the men of Succoth; and he asked him the names of the princes, and of the elder men of Succoth; and he described seven and seventy men in number.

¹⁵And he came to Succoth, and said to them, Lo, Zebah and Zalmunna! of which ye upbraided me, and said, In hap the hands of Zebah and of Zalmunna be in thine hands, and therefore thou askest, that we give loaves to men, that be weary and failed.

¹⁶Therefore Gideon took the elder men of the city, and thorns and briars of desert, and he rent with those [or them] , and all-brake the men of Succoth;

¹⁷also he destroyed the tower of Penuel, when the dwellers of the city were slain.

¹⁸And he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner men were they, that ye killed in Tabor? Which answered, They were like thee, and one of them was as the son of a king.

¹⁹To whom Gideon said, They were my brethren, the sons of my mother; the Lord liveth, if ye had saved them, I would not slay you.

²⁰And he said to Jether, his first begotten son, Rise thou, and slay them. And Jether drew not his sword; for he dreaded, for he was yet a child.

²¹And Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise thou, and fall on us; for thou art by the age and strength of [a] man. Gideon rose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the ornaments, and bells, with which the necks of kings’ camels be wont to be made fair.

²²And all the men of Israel said to Gideon, Be thou lord of us, thou, and thy son, and the son of thy son; for thou deliveredest us from the hand of Midian.

²³To whom he said, I shall not be lord of you, neither my son shall be lord on you, but the Lord shall be lord on you.

²⁴And Gideon said to them, I ask one asking of you, give ye to me the earrings of your prey; for Ishmaelites were wont to have golden earrings.

²⁵Which answered, We shall give most gladly. And they spreaded forth a mantle on the earth, and casted forth therein [the] earrings of the prey;

²⁶and the weight of the earrings that he asked was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold, without [the] ornaments, and brooches, and clothes of purple, which the kings of Midian were wont to use, and besides [the] golden bies of camels.

²⁷And Gideon made thereof ephod, that is, a priest’s cloth , and he put it in his city Ophrah; and all Israel did fornication, that is, idolatry , therein; and it was made to Gideon, and to all his house, into falling.

²⁸But Midian was made low before the sons of Israel, and they might no more raise up their nolls; and the land rested forty years, in which Gideon was sovereign.

²⁹And so Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went, and dwelled in his house;

³⁰and he had seventy sons, that went out of his thigh, for he had many wives.

³¹And a concubine, that is, second-ary wife , of him, whom he had in Shechem, engendered to him a son, Abimelech by name.

³²And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in [a] good eld [age] , and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash, his father, in Ophrah, of the meine of Abiezrites.

³³And after that Gideon was dead, the sons of Israel turned away, and they did fornication, that is, idolatry , with Baalim; and they smote bond of peace with Baalberith, that he should be to them into God,

³⁴neither Israel had mind of their Lord God, that had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies by compass or about;

³⁵neither they did mercy to the meine of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, after all the good things that he did to Israel.