Judgeschapter 8
35 verses · Samuel, by tradition · 11th century BC · History
And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house.
Introduction
Samuel, by tradition, History, Judges Overview.
Samuel, by tradition · Narrative · Judges, the Former Prophets · [The book of Judges](/book/judges) This chapter follows Gideon after his victory, and it shows that a man can win a battle and then lose his way. The writer is unnamed. It was written for Israelites who knew the pull of kingship and the cost of a ruler's household. Listen for how Gideon treats his own countrymen as well as his enemies. Notice what he refuses and what he asks for in the same breath. The chapter closes his story and asks the reader to weigh a life by its end as well as its beginning.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who had seen what a rescuer can become once the fighting stops
- What
- Gideon's pursuit of Midian east of the Jordan, his punishment of two towns, his refusal of the crown and the ephod he made.
- Where
- East of the Jordan at Succoth, Penuel and Karkor in the desert, and then home at Ophrah.
- When
- About 1160 to 1120 BC on the traditional reckoning, which takes the judgeships one after another.
- Why
- To show a deliverer's life ending in compromise and Israel forgetting the LORD as soon as he died.
Historical context
The account belongs to Gideon of the clan of Abiezer in Manasseh, who at the start of it is a farmer with three hundred men and at the end of it is the head of a household with many wives and seventy sons. The book gives no author's name anywhere.
Show the rest of the historical context, 7 more paragraphs
The events fall in the fourth of the book's six deliverer cycles, about 1160 to 1120 BC on the traditional reckoning, which takes the judgeships one after another. The reckoning is contested, and readers who take the judgeships as overlapping local offices place the period differently.
The chapter moves east of the Jordan and stays there for eighteen verses. Succoth and Penuel are Israelite towns in Gilead, and Karkor is far out in open desert, so three hundred exhausted men are chasing a broken army well beyond their own country.
The occasion is a pursuit that has outrun its supply. Gideon asks two towns of his own nation for bread and is refused by both.
A first hearer knew why the refusals were calculated. Midian's raiders came through that country every season, and a town that fed a man who then lost would pay for it, which is why the leaders of Succoth demand proof of victory before they commit anything.
He also knew what the threats meant in practice. Dragging desert thorns and briers over people describes the sledge that was dragged over grain at threshing, and a town's tower was the keep its people fled to when the walls failed.
He knew what an ephod was. Exodus 28 makes it a garment of the high priest, carrying the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim, so an object of that name made of gold and set up in a private town is an instrument for enquiring of God away from the tabernacle at Shiloh.
And he knew what killing the two kings was. In a society with no police force and no central court, the nearest kinsman was the man charged with avenging a killing, and Gideon says at verse 19 that these men had killed his brothers.
Significance
Israel offers Gideon a dynasty three generations deep and he refuses it in the only terms the nation's own constitution allowed, saying the LORD would rule them. Hearers living under later kings knew exactly what that sentence had been worth.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
The chapter then refuses to leave him there. He declines the crown, asks for the gold in the same breath, keeps the household of a ruling man, and names a son Abimelech.
For people who had watched a generation turn, verses 33 to 35 were the point. Israel took up Baal-berith as soon as the man was buried, and showed no kindness to his house.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The kept notes on this chapter are the shortest in the ten, thirteen of Rashi and none of anyone else, in the Metsudah Tanach series of Lakewood, New Jersey, under CC-BY. He reads Gideon's answer to the men of Ephraim as a comparison meant to end the quarrel, asking what his own opening actions were beside theirs at the close (Rashi on Judges 8:2:1 and 8:3:1). The crossing of the Jordan he explains as a pursuit with a second purpose. Zebah and Zalmunna had already crossed and destroyed in the territory of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, and Gideon crossed to take revenge for that as well (Rashi on Judges 8:4:1).
On the refusal at Succoth Rashi makes one thing plain that an English reader can miss. "They were Yisroelites", so the men who refused bread to the three hundred were of Israel themselves (Rashi on Judges 8:5:1). He paraphrases their taunt as a demand for the captured kings before any help is given (Rashi on Judges 8:6:1). The thorns Gideon promises he glosses in old French (Rashi on Judges 8:7:1), and the word for what he did with them he renders from Targum Jonathan as breaking apart (Rashi on Judges 8:16:1). The place Karkor is a place name (Rashi on Judges 8:10:1). The route by the tent dwellers runs through the lands of Kedar and Arabia, where the people lived in tents because they were shepherds (Rashi on Judges 8:11:1). The ascent named in the thirteenth verse he reads as a time rather than a place, before sunset with the sun still high (Rashi on Judges 8:13:1).
The exchange at Tabor Rashi handles carefully. Targum Jonathan reads that one of the men killed there had a princely look, and Rashi offers the other reading beside it, that they all had it (Rashi on Judges 8:18:1). Of Jether he says only that the boy would not draw his sword "for he was afraid of them" (Rashi on Judges 8:20:1). The ornaments taken from the camels he identifies as crescent chains of gold, and gives the old French word for them (Rashi on Judges 8:21:1).
The ephod at the end of the chapter is the point a Christian reader is likely to want, and the corpus keeps no commentary on it. What the corpus does carry is the weight of rabbinic attention on that verse, which is set out below. Eleven further notes stand on this chapter with no English text and are cited here unquoted. They are Metzudat David on Judges 8:1:1, 8:8:1, 8:9:1, 8:12:1, 8:15:1, 8:22:1 and 8:23:1, Radak on Judges 8:14:1, 8:17:1 and 8:24:1, and Malbim on Judges 8:19:1. Two of those sit on the offer of the crown and Gideon's refusal of it, and one on his request for the gold. The classical commentary on the turn of the chapter is present in the corpus and waits on a fetch that carries its text.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-six rabbinic locators on this chapter, twenty-seven Midrash and nine Talmud, and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. They gather almost entirely at the end of the chapter. The camp at Karkor is taken up at Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 33:17:7, Sifrei Devarim 353:13 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 959:2, and the punishment of the elders of Succoth at Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 25:11. The men killed at Tabor draw Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 27:33:3 and 30:34:2, and the crescent ornaments draw Bava Metzia 84a:4 and Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 6:4:4. The offer of the crown to Gideon and to his son and grandson draws Aggadat Bereshit 26:3, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayeshev 5, and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 29:1 and 29:2. The gold earrings he asked for draw Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 45:5.
The ephod draws the heaviest run in the chapter, eleven locators on one verse. Six of them are Bereshit Rabbah 44:20 and 62:1, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 7, Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 3:6:4, Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 9:1:4 and Kohelet Rabbah 9:16:1. The other five are Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 15:21:18, Otzar Midrashim, Pesikta, Pesikta Chadata 51, Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 1:8:1, Ruth Rabbah 1:2 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 77:11. The rabbinic tradition treats the snare Gideon made at length, and a reader who wants the Jewish reading of that verse will find it at those eleven places rather than in a commentary.
Gideon's seventy sons draw Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 17:1 and his burial Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 43:27. The turn to Baal-berith after his death draws the last ten. Five of them are Berakhot 12b:22, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 9:3, Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 2:1, Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 9:2 and Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 3:6:2. The other five are Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 9:1:2, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 15:39:2, Shabbat 83b:3, Sifrei Bamidbar 115:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 750:9. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Judges 8:2:1 to 8:21:1, thirteen notes, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Judges 8:1:1, 8:8:1, 8:9:1, 8:12:1, 8:15:1, 8:22:1 and 8:23:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Judges 8:14:1, 8:17:1 and 8:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Judges 8:19:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/judges/8.json, the 36 rabbinic locators of this chapter, 27 Midrash and 9 Talmud.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Ephraim's complaint; Succoth refuses bread
Judges 8:1-3
Ephraim, called in at 7:24, took Oreb and Zeeb, yet complains that the call came late. Gideon rates their work above his whole campaign, "the gleanings of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer", and their anger subsides. The tribe brings the same charge to Jephthah at 12:1, who answers differently, and Matthew Henry reads verse 3 against Proverbs 15:1, "A gentle answer turns away wrath".
Judges 8:1
“The success of Gideon’s enterprise mortified the pride of Ephraim, as the chief tribe, seeing that they had played a subordinate part. Compare Jdg 12:1.”
Adam Clarke reads the proverb as a plain judgment of fact: Ephraim did the greater service, because it took the two Midianite generals at the passes of Jordan. Gideon's question sets the tone. He asks what he has done, and he answers with their deeds.
Judges 8:2
“Is not the gleaning, etc. - That is, The Ephraimites have performed more important services than Gideon and his men; and he supports the assertion by observing that it was they who took the two Midianitish generals, having discomfited their hosts at the passes of Jordan.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adam Clarke notes that Gideon had a ready charge to hand, since twenty-two thousand of his own men had gone home through fear, and he passed it by. He names God as the one who gave Oreb and Zeeb into Ephraim's hand. The quarrel ends there.
Judges 8:3
“Then their anger was abated - A soft answer turneth away wrath. He might have said that he could place but little dependence on his brethren when, through faint-heartedness, 22,000 left him at one time; but he passed this by, and took a more excellent way.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:3
“15 And he came unto the men of Succoth, and said, Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, with whom ye did upbraid me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges 8:4-6
The three hundred are still the whole force, and verse 4 gives their state in one phrase, "exhausted yet still in pursuit". Succoth lies east of the Jordan, named by Jacob at Genesis 33:17, so bread is asked of a town inside Israel's own story. Its leaders ask whether the kings are "already in your possession", refusing to back a man still chasing.
Judges 8:4
Faint, yet pursuing - The Vulgate paraphrases this, et prae lassitudine, fugientes persequi non poterant; “and, through fatigue, unable to pursue the fugitives.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes places Succoth in the tribe of Gad, east of the Jordan, and judges that Gideon could fairly expect help from a town of its size. The request is modest. Gideon asks food for exhausted men and names the two kings he is still chasing, so the town knows the war is unfinished.
Judges 8:5
“Succoth was in the tribe of Gad which was entirely trans-Jordanic Jos 13:27; and the ruins are at Sukkot, on the east of Jordan, a little south of Bethshan. Give, I pray you etc. - Gideon might fairly expect so much aid from the trans-Jordanic tribes, and from so considerable a town as Succoth Jdg 8:14.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown find two motives in the answer. It taunted Gideon with a victory they expected him to lose, and it spared the town the vengeance of the Midianite chiefs who lived close by. Succoth chose the side it thought would win.
Judges 8:6
“It was insolent because it implied a bitter taunt that Gideon was counting with confidence on a victory which they believed he would not gain; and it was time-serving, because living in the near neighborhood of the Midianite sheiks, they dreaded the future vengeance of those roving chiefs.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Judges 8:7-9
I will tear your flesh with the thorns: Both threats are carried out later, the thorns and briers at verse 16 and the tower at verse 17, so the text plants them to be collected. Penuel is where Jacob wrestled and became Israel at Genesis 32:30, so both towns that refuse Gideon carry Jacob's own names. No word from God is recorded over either threat, and the narrative gives neither approval nor blame.
Judges 8:7
“I will tear your flesh - What this punishment consisted in I cannot say; it must mean a severe punishment: as if he had said, I will thresh your flesh with briers and thorns, as corn is threshed out with threshing instruments; or, Ye shall be trodden down under the feet of my victorious army, as the corn is trodden out with the feet of the ox. Succoth was beyond Jordan, in the tribe of Gad. Penuel was also in the same tribe, and not far distant from Succoth.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes places Succoth in the Jordan valley and Penuel up in the hills south of the Jabbok. Gideon climbs from one to the other along Jacob's road, travelling it in the reverse direction. John Gill hears the same jeer repeated in the second town.
Judges 8:8
“And he went up thence to Penuel,.... A place not far from Succoth, and to which also Jacob gave name, from the Lord's appearing to him there face to face, Gen 32:30 but here was nothing of God in this place now: and spoke unto them likewise; desired bread for his men, as he had of the inhabitants of Succoth: and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered him; denied him his request in the same jeering manner.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:8
“Succoth was in the valley or Ghor of the Jordan Jdg 8:5, and Penuel apparently in the mountain. No identification of Penuel has taken place. It was south of the Brook Jabbok, and on Jacob’s way to Succoth. Gideon, journeying in the opposite direction to Jacob, comes from Succoth to Penuel.”
Gideon names the tower because, as Adam Clarke supposes, the men of Penuel pointed to it as their defence. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read the words when I return in triumph as a sign of strong faith, spoken while the two kings were still free. The threat assumes the victory.
Judges 8:9
“In a threatening way, as he had spoken to the men of Succoth: saying, when I come again in peace: having conquered all his enemies, and delivered Israel from their bondage, and restored peace and prosperity to them, of which he had no doubt: I will break down this tower; pointing to it and which stood in their city, and in which they placed their confidence; and when he threatened them, boasted of it as their security.”
2 more voices on this verse
Judges 8:9
“I will break down this tower - Probably they had not only denied him, but insultingly pointed to a tower in which their chief defense lay; and intimated to him that he might do his worst, for they could amply defend themselves.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Judges 8:9
“His confident anticipation of a triumphant return evinces the strength of his faith; and his specific threat was probably provoked by some proud and presumptuous boast, that in their lofty watchtower the Penuelites would set him at defiance.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Judges 8:10-12
Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor: Karkor lies far east of Jezreel, so three hundred exhausted men have gone deep into the desert after a broken army. About fifteen thousand remain, and "A hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had already fallen", the loss of the panic at 7:22. The Hebrew of verse 11 says the camp was secure, reckoning itself past pursuit, and the same idea returns of Laish at 18:7 and 18:27.
Judges 8:10
“Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor..... Jerom (u) under this word says, there was in his time a castle called Carcuria, a day's journey from Petra, which was the metropolis of Idumea; but whether the same with this is not clear: and their host with them, about fifteen thousand men; to which number Gideon and his three hundred men were very unequal; and yet, faint and weary as they were, closely pursued them, attacked and conquered them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:10
“Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor - If this were a place, it is nowhere else mentioned in Scripture. Some contend that קרקר karkor signifies rest; and thus the Vulgate understood it: Zebah and Zalmunna requiescebant, rested, with all their army. And this seems the most likely, for it is said, Jdg 8:11, that Gideon smote the host, for the host was secure.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown identify Jogbehah with Ramoth-gilead, which would put the last Midianite camp deep in Gilead. The army that reckoned itself past pursuit is struck where it rested. Surprise does the work of numbers.
Judges 8:11
Jogbehah is supposed to be Ramoth-gilead; and, therefore, the Midianites must have found refuge at or near Abela, "Abel-cheramim," "the plain of the vineyards."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
John Gill supposes the second attack went like the first, with a sudden alarm that scattered the host and left the two kings alone and easily taken. Matthew Henry draws the lesson that a man who flees from the judgment of God only runs into it. The kings Succoth doubted are now in Gideon's hand.
Judges 8:12
“And when Zebah and Zalmunna fled,.... Their host being smitten and thrown into confusion by the sudden approach of Gideon's army; and who probably attacked them in somewhat like manner as before, blowing their trumpets, and calling out the sword of the Lord and of Gideon; which were such terrifying sounds to them, that they fled at once: he pursued after them, and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and discomfited all the host; or terrified them, so that they fled some one way and some another, and the kings being left alone were easily taken.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:12
“Those that think to run from the sword of the Lord and of Gideon do but run upon it. If he flee from the iron weapon, yet the bow of steel shall strike him through; for evil pursueth sinners. Here is Gideon, as a righteous judge, chastising the insolence of the disaffected Israelites, the men of Succoth and the men of Penuel, both in the tribe of Gad, on the other side Jordan.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Zebah and Zalmunna answer for Tabor
Judges 8:13-14
Where the King James says the young man described the leaders, the Hebrew verb is the ordinary word for writing, and the Berean reads "wrote down for him". Keil and Delitzsch take it that he wrote the seventy-seven names down, putting reading and writing in an ordinary townsman's hands in the Judges period. Gideon reaches Succoth holding a list of every man who refused him.
Judges 8:13
“Before the sun was up - The translation of the words is doubtful, because of the rarity of the word rendered “sun” (חרס cheres). Many suppose it to be the name of a mountain pass, and render it from the ascent of Heres.”
Albert Barnes reads the seventy-seven as a council of seventy elders, on the pattern of Numbers 11:16, with perhaps seven princes above them. The written list, he notes, let Gideon punish the guilty and spare the rest of the town. The judgment falls on named men.
Judges 8:14
“He described unto him the princes of Succoth - The young man probably gave him the names of seventy persons, the chief men of Succoth, who were those who were most concerned in refusing him and his men the refreshment he requested.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:14
“The written (see the margin) list would enable Gideon to punish the guilty and spare the innocent people. Succoth was governed by a sanhedrim or council of seventy elders (compare Num 11:16), with perhaps seven others of superior rank called princes.”
Judges 8:15-17
Verse 15 throws the taunt of verse 6 back at Succoth, marking the reckoning as exact. Verse 16 does what verse 7 threatened, and where the Berean reads "he disciplined the men of Succoth", the King James keeps the Hebrew idiom with the verb taught, treating the thorns as instruction. Penuel loses its tower and its men, more than verse 9 named, and the text gives no reason.
Adam Clarke reports Houbigant's reading he tore, a one-letter change in the Hebrew supported by the Latin, Greek, Chaldee and Syriac versions. Clarke adds that tore fits the threat of verse 7. Matthew Henry keeps the received word and takes the thorns as correction meant to make the elders know who Gideon was.
Judges 8:16
“He taught the men of Succoth - Instead of וידע he taught, Houbigant reads וידש he tore; and this is not only agreeable to what Gideon had threatened, Jdg 8:7, but is supported by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. The Hebrew text might have been easily corrupted in this place by the change of ש shin into ע ain, letters very similar to each other.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:16
“The correction he gave them was intended, not for destruction, but wholesome discipline, to make them wiser and better for the future. He made them know (so the word is), made them know themselves and their folly, God and their duty, made them know who Gideon was, since they would not know by the success wherewith God had crowned him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Albert Barnes takes the men of the city to be its rulers, who held the tower and could lord it over the people. On that reading Gideon killed the great men and left the townsfolk unharmed. The tower and its holders fell together.
Judges 8:17
“The men of the city - Perhaps the rulers; who, it is likely, had possession of the tower or citadel, and so could tyrannize over the people. Gideon killed the great men, and beat down their towers, but did not injure the inhabitants.”
Judges 8:18-19
The pursuit now shows its held-back cause: these kings had killed Gideon's brothers at Tabor. Their answer, "each one resembling the son of a king", sits oddly beside 6:15, where Gideon called his clan the weakest in Manasseh. His oath that he would have spared them places the killing under the avenger of blood of Numbers 35:19 and Deuteronomy 19:12, carried out by a judge on foreign kings.
Judges 8:18
“What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? - We have no antecedent to this question; and are obliged to conjecture one: it seems as if Zebah and Zalmunna had massacred the family of Gideon, while he was absent on this expedition. Gideon had heard some confused account of it, and now questions them concerning the fact. They boldly acknowledge it, and describe the persons whom they slew, by which he found they were his own brethren. This determines him to avenge their death by slaying the Midianitish kings, whom he otherwise was inclined to save.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:18
“It is noticed now for the first time when their fate was about to be determined. each one resembled the children of a king--An Orientalism for great beauty, majesty of appearance, uncommon strength, and grandeur of form.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the sons of my mother: Albert Barnes notes that the phrase marks full brothers. He adds that the killing at Tabor is mentioned only here, and it may have come before the war of 6:33 or in the flight of 7:22. John Wesley observes that these kings were no Canaanites, so only the brothers' blood made their death due.
Judges 8:19
“The sons of my mother - A much closer relation than that of brothers by the father only. (Compare Gen 43:29; Deu 13:6; Psa 69:8). This is the only hint preserved of the transaction. We cannot say exactly when the slaughter of Gideon’s brethren on Mount Tabor took place, whether before the outbreak of the war Jdg 6:33, or in the retreat and flight of the Midianites Jdg 7:22.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:19
“I would not slay - For being not Canaanites, he was not obliged to kill them; but they having killed his brethren, and that in cool blood, he was by law the avenger of their blood.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Judges 8:20-21
Gideon lays the execution on his firstborn, making the boy an avenger of blood, and Jether "did not draw his sword". The kings ask Gideon to strike them himself, "for as the man is, so is his strength", asking to fall by a soldier's hand. The "crescent ornaments" are moon shapes worn as jewellery, and Isaiah 3:18 lists them among the finery taken from Zion's daughters.
Judges 8:20
“He said unto Jether his first-born - By the ancient laws of war, prisoners taken in war might be either slain, sold, or kept for slaves. To put a captive enemy to death no executioner was required. Gideon slays Zebah and Zalmunna with his own hand. So Samuel is said to have hewn Agag in pieces, 1Sa 15:33. Benaiah slew Joab, 1Ki 2:25. Saul orders his guards to slay the priests who had contributed to the escape of David, 1Sa 22:17; and David caused one of his attendants to slay the Amalekite who pretended to have slain Saul, 2Sa 1:15.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
as the man is, so is his strength: Matthew Henry gives two readings of the proverb. The kings may mean that their own strength needs a grown man's hand to end quickly, or that Gideon is at full strength where Jether has not yet come to it. Albert Barnes adds that Arabs still hung gold on the necks of their camels in the time of Muhammad.
Judges 8:21
“Either they mean it of themselves (they were men of such strength as called for a better hand than that young man's to overpower quickly) or of Gideon, "Thou art at thy full strength; he has not yet come to it; therefore be thou the executioner." From those that are grown up to maturity, it is expected that what they do in any service be done with so much the more strength.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:21
“The ornaments - See marg. and compare Isa 3:18. The custom of adorning the necks of their camels with gold chains and ornaments prevailed among the Arabs so late as the time of Mahomet.”
Gideon refuses a crown and makes an ephod
Judges 8:22-23
Israel offers a dynasty three generations deep and credits the deliverance from Midian to Gideon himself. That credit is what 7:2 cut the army to three hundred to prevent, lest Israel say "My own hand has saved me". Gideon answers, "The LORD shall rule over you", the ground Samuel stands on at 1 Samuel 8:7, when Israel asks for a king and is told it has rejected God.
Judges 8:22
“Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son - That is, Become our king, and let the crown be hereditary in thy family. What a weak, foolish, and inconstant people were these! As yet their government was a theocracy; and now, dazzled with the success of a man who was only an instrument in the hands of God to deliver them from their enemies, they wish to throw off the Divine yoke, and shackle themselves with an unlimited hereditary monarchy!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the Lord shall rule over you: Jamieson, Fausset & Brown draw the line Gideon draws: he would act as judge, but the Lord alone was King of Israel. Adam Clarke contrasts the refusal with Oliver Cromwell's speech when the Commons offered him the crown of England. The refusal covers his son as well.
Judges 8:23
“The Lord shall rule over you - Few with such power at their command would have acted as Gideon. His speech calls them back to their first principles, and should have excited in them both shame and contrition. How different is this speech from that of Oliver Cromwell when the commons offered him the crown of England!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:23
“But Gideon knew too well, and revered too piously the principles of the theocracy, to entertain the proposal for a moment. Personal and family ambition was cheerfully sacrificed to a sense of duty, and every worldly motive was kept in check by a supreme regard to the divine honor. He would willingly act as judge, but the Lord alone was King of Israel.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Judges 8:24-26
The request follows the refusal in the same breath, and it asks for gold. The verse calls the enemy Ishmaelites where the chapter says Midianites, as Genesis 37:25-28 does of the traders who carried Joseph off. Israel "spread out a garment" and gave gladly, as for the tabernacle at Exodus 35:22 and the calf at Exodus 32:2-3, and 1,700 shekels come near fifty pounds weight.
Judges 8:24
“Give me every man the ear-rings of his prey - The spoils taken from their enemies in this warfare. This is a transaction very like to that of the Israelites and Aaron; when they brought him their golden ear-rings, out of which he made the molten calf, Exo 32:2, etc. Whether Gideon designed this ephod for an instrument of worship, or merely as a trophy, is not very clear. It is most likely that he had intended to establish a place of worship at Ophrah; and he took this occasion to provide the proper sacerdotal vestments.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:24
“Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you--This was the contribution of an earring (singular). As the ancient Arabians (Ishmaelites and Midianites being synonymous terms, Ge 37:25, 28) were gorgeously adorned with barbaric pearl and gold, an immense amount of such valuable booty had fallen into the hands of the Israelitish soldiers.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
John Gill renders the Hebrew in giving we will give, a doubled verb that marks a free and hearty gift. He also reckons that one earring from each of three hundred men could never reach the weight of verse 26, so he supposes the men who joined the pursuit carried far more. The spoil of the war becomes Gideon's gold.
Judges 8:25
“And they answered, we will willingly give them,.... Or, "in giving we will give" (d); give them with all their hearts, most freely and cheerfully: and they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey; every man one, which would amount to no more than three hundred; though perhaps those who joined in the pursuit might take many more, or otherwise the weight of them would not amount to what in the next verse they are said to weigh. (d) נתון נתן "dando dabimus", Pagninus, Montanus.”
Adam Clarke reckons the shekel at half an ounce and arrives at seventy pounds ten ounces of gold, worth about 3,100 pounds sterling in his day. He sets it beside the three bushels of gold rings Hannibal sent to Carthage after Cannae. The kings' purple and the camels' chains came on top.
Judges 8:26
“The weight of the golden ear-rings - was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold - Taking the shekel at half an ounce weight, the sum of the gold collected in ear-rings was seventy pounds ten ounces; and worth, as gold now rates, about £3,100 sterling. This computation of the weight of the golden ear-rings, taken from the slaughtered Ishmaelites, will bring to the reader’s mind the slaughter of the Roman knights by the Carthaginians at the battle of Cannae, from whose spoils Hannibal sent three bushels of gold rings to the city of Carthage!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Gideon made an ephod: An ephod in Exodus 28 is the high priest's garment bearing the Urim and Thummim, so a gold one at Ophrah serves to enquire of God away from Shiloh. The verb "prostituted themselves" is the book's word for Baal worship and returns at verse 33. The angel called the nations' gods a "snare" at 2:3, and this snare is made from the spoil of a victory God gave.
Judges 8:27
“Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, . . . Ophrah--That no idolatrous use was in view, nor any divisive course from Shiloh contemplated, is manifest from Jud 8:33.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:27
“The ephod was that particular part of the high priest’s dress which was necessary to be worst when he inquired of God by Urim and Thummim. It seems that Gideon being now the civil ruler, desired to have an ephod of his own, kept in his own city, to he worn by the priest whenever Gideon might summon him to inquire of the Lord for him. His relations with the tribe of Ephraim probably made him unwilling to resort to Shiloh. Compare the act of Jeroboam 1Ki 12:28.”
Seventy sons, and Israel back to the Baals
Judges 8:28-29
Midian is put down here, "did not raise its head again", and troubles Israel nowhere else in the book. Verse 29 uses Gideon's other name, Jerubbaal, which 6:32 explains as "Let Baal contend with him", and it is the name chapter 9 keeps for his house.
Judges 8:28
“Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel--This invasion of the Arab hordes into Canaan was as alarming and desolating as the irruption of the Huns into Europe. It was the severest scourge ever inflicted upon Israel; and both it and the deliverance under Gideon lived for centuries in the minds of the people (Ps 83:11).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:28
“Lifted up their head - That is, recovered not their former strength or courage, so as to conquer or oppress others. Forty years - To the fortieth year, from the beginning of the Midianitish oppression.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Matthew Henry sees modesty in the move, since Gideon asked for no palace and went back to the house he had lived in before, like the Roman called from the plough. John Gill places the house at Ophrah and holds that he went on judging Israel from there. Verse 30 shows the household that grew there.
Judges 8:29
“And Jerubbaal the son of Joash,.... That is, Gideon, Jerubbaal being another name of his; see Jdg 6:32 went and dwelt in his own house; which was at Ophrah, as appears from Jdg 9:5 the war being ended, he disbanded his army, and retired to his own house; not that he lived altogether a private life there, but as a judge in Israel.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:29
“He was not puffed up with his great honours, did not covet a palace or castle to dwell in, but retired to the house he had lived in before his elevation. Thus that brave Roman Who was called from the plough upon a sudden occasion to command the army when the action was over returned to his plough again.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges 8:30-31
Seventy sons and many wives is the household of a ruling man, kept by the one who said he would not rule. The son borne by the concubine at Shechem is named Abimelech, which carries the word for king inside it, and the naming stands eight verses after the crown was declined. Shechem is where Joshua 24 set the covenant renewal, and it is where chapter 9 has this son kill the seventy upon one stone.
Albert Barnes takes the mother to be one of the Canaanite people of Shechem, outside the ranks of the wives, and notes that her son is counted apart from the seventy. John Wesley renders the name my father the king and thinks it was given to please the concubine. Chapter 9 turns on both points.
Judges 8:31
“Shechem - She dwelt there, and he often came thither, either to execute judgment, or upon other occasions. Abimelech - That is, my father the king; so he called him, probably, to gratify his concubine, who desired it either out of pride, or design.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Judges 8:31
“Abimelech’s mother was not reckoned among the wives, being, probably, one of the Canaanite population in Shechem Jdg 9:28: neither was Abimelech himself reckoned with the 70 other sons of Jerubbaal (Jdg 9:24. Compare Jdg 11:1-2).”
Judges 8:31
“And his concubine that was in Shechem,.... Which was not an harlot, but a secondary or half wife; such were generally taken from handmaids, and of the meaner sort, and were not in such esteem as proper wives, had not the management of household affairs, only a share in the bed, and their children did not inherit.”
Judges 8:32-35
Gideon dies "at a ripe old age", the phrase Genesis 15:15 and 25:8 use of Abraham, and lies in his father's tomb at Ophrah, where chapter 6 began. The turn comes "as soon as Gideon was dead", the descent of 2:19, and Israel takes up Baal-berith, lord of the covenant, whose temple pays Abimelech's men at 9:4. The chapter ends charging Israel with no kindness to Jerubbaal's house.
Judges 8:32
“And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age,.... Having lived it seems forty years after his war with Midian, blessed with a large family, much wealth and riches, great credit and esteem among his people, and in favour with God and men: and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites; a city which belonged to the family of the Abiezrites, who were of the tribe of Manasseh, in which Gideon lived, and his father before him; and where there was a family vault, in which he was interred.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 8:32
“Gideon - died in a good old age - Supposed to have been A.M. 2799; b.c. 1205.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes lays part of the blame on Gideon, whose unauthorised ephod prepared the way for this turning. He holds that the single priesthood and altar of the Law of Moses were Israel's guard against idolatry. He places the centre of the new worship at Shechem.
Judges 8:33
“Turned again - Doubtless Gideon himself had no doubt prepared the way for this apostacy by his unauthorized ephod. The Law of Moses, with its strict unity of priesthood and altar, was the divinely-appointed and only effectual preservative from idolatry. Baal-bereth - The god of covenants or sworn treaties, corresponding to the Zeus Orkius of the Greeks. The center of this fresh apostacy was at Shechem.”
John Gill reports the Targum's reading, that they forgot the worship of the LORD their God. He takes on every side to reach past Midian, since Edom, Moab and Ammon also left Israel in peace in Gideon's days. The Targum turns memory into worship.
Judges 8:34
“And the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God,.... Or, as the Targum, the worship of the Lord their God; they forgot him, and forsook him, which showed base ingratitude: who had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies on every side; not only out of the hands of Midian, but all other nations round about them, as Edom, Moab, Ammon, &c. not one attempting to oppress them.”
Adam Clarke links the two failures of verses 34 and 35: once Israel became foes to God, it could not stay friends to man. Matthew Henry notes that kindness owed to a benefactor is paid to his family after he is in the grave. Chapter 9 shows the debt repaid with murder.
Judges 8:35
“Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely Gideon,.... But, on the contrary, great unkindness and cruelty, slaying his seventy sons, as related in the following chapter: according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel; in exposing his life to danger for their sake, in delivering them out of the hands of their oppressors, in administering justice to them, in protecting them in their civil and religious liberties, and leaving them in the quiet and peaceable possession of them.”
2 more voices on this verse
Judges 8:35
“Neither showed they kindness to the house of - Gideon - They were both unthankful and unholy. Though they had the clearest proofs of God’s power and goodness before their eyes, yet they forgot him. And although they were under the greatest obligations to Gideon, and were once so sensible of them that they offered to settle the kingdom on him and his family, yet they forgot him also; for, becoming foes to God, they could not be friends to Man.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Judges 8:35
“A great deal of goodness he had shown unto Israel, as a father to his country, for which they ought to have been kind to his family when he was gone, for that is one way by which we ought to show ourselves grateful to our friends and benefactors, and may be returning their kindnesses when they are in their graves.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative prose closing a deliverer cycle, carrying a pursuit, two reprisals, a refusal of kingship and an obituary, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The taunt of Succoth given back word for word | The leaders of Succoth refuse bread at verse 6 by asking whether the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna are already in Gideon's possession. At verse 15 he arrives with the two kings and quotes that sentence back to them. The narrative marks the reckoning as exact by repeating the words rather than summarising them.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on Judges 8:15 to 17. | Judges 8:6, Judges 8:15 |
| Two threats planted and two threats carried out | Verse 7 promises the thorns and briers of the wilderness to Succoth and verse 9 promises Penuel its tower pulled down. Verse 16 does the first and verse 17 does the second, and verse 17 adds the killing of the men of the city, which verse 9 had not named. No word from God is recorded over either threat or either act.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Judges 8:7 to 9. | Judges 8:7, Judges 8:9, Judges 8:16, Judges 8:17 |
| The crown declined and the king named | Gideon refuses a three generation dynasty at verse 23 and says the LORD shall rule over Israel. Eight verses later he names the son born at Shechem Abimelech, a name carrying the word for king inside it. The chapter also keeps his other name, Jerubbaal, which Judges 6:32 explains as a challenge to Baal, and chapter 9 uses that name for the house Abimelech destroys.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, on Judges 8:30 to 31. | Judges 8:23, Judges 8:29, Judges 8:31 |
| The spoil listed piece by piece | Verse 26 weighs the earrings at 1,700 shekels of gold and then lists the crescent ornaments, the pendants, the purple garments of the kings of Midian and the chains from the necks of their camels. The list is the inventory of the ephod of verse 27, so the reader is told what the object was made of before being told what it became.John Gill, Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Judges 8:24 to 26. | Judges 8:24, Judges 8:25, Judges 8:26, Judges 8:27 |
The structure
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The pursuit and the reprisals take eighteen verses and the war with Midian ends inside them. The rest of the chapter is about what Israel and Gideon did after the victory, which is where this cycle differs from the three before it.
The narrative withholds a motive and then supplies it. Gideon crosses the Jordan at verse 4 and chases two kings across open desert, and only at verse 18 does the reader learn that these men had killed his brothers at Tabor. Verse 19 puts the killing under the office of the avenger of blood set out at Numbers 35:19 and Deuteronomy 19:12.
The formula the Berean carries here
The phrase the land had rest stands four times in Judges in the Berean text, at 3:11, 3:30, 5:31 and 8:28, and this chapter carries the fourth and last of them. The King James renders 8:28 as the country was in quietness and keeps the phrase the land had rest for the three earlier cycles alone. The counts were made over the store's own Berean and King James text for this lane and are printed in its report.
Across the canon
Jacob built booths at Succoth and gave the place its name at Genesis 33:17, and Jacob was renamed Israel at Penuel at Genesis 32:30, so the two towns that refuse Gideon bread both carry his own ancestor's names.
The reason given at Judges 7:2 for cutting the army to three hundred was that Israel should not say its own hand had saved it. At verse 22 Israel offers Gideon a crown on the ground that he saved them. His answer, that the LORD shall rule over Israel, is the ground Samuel stands on at 1 Samuel 8:7 when the nation asks for a king and is told whom it has rejected.
The word for what Israel does with the ephod at verse 27 returns six verses later at verse 33 of the Baals, and the word snare was used by the angel at Judges 2:3 of the nations left in the land. Israel takes up Baal-berith at verse 33, and Judges 9:4 says the silver that hires Abimelech's men comes out of that shrine.
Gideon dies in a good old age at verse 32, a phrase used of Abraham at Genesis 15:15 and Genesis 25:8.
In the New Testament
Hebrews 11:32 names Gideon first in its list of the judges, with Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel, and says nothing of the ephod. The site's Evidence Standard holds the commendation and the record of this chapter together as they are written, without either softening the other.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Barry G. Webb, The Book of Judges, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2012; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Judges 8 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on Judges 8:22 to 27.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.