New International Reader s Version - NIrV - 1996
Judges 8
1
The men of Ephraim spoke to Gideon. They asked, "Why have you treated us like this? Why didn't you ask us to help you when you went out to fight against Midian?" They spoke very sharply against Gideon.
Reference
Parallel theme
2 Samuel 19:41
2
But he answered them, "What I've done isn't anything compared to what you have done. After Ephraim's grapes have been gathered, isn't what is left over better than all of the grapes that have been gathered from Abiezer's vines?
📍 Abiezer
3
God handed Oreb and Zeeb over to you. They were Midianite leaders. So what was I able to do compared to what you did?" After Gideon had said that, they didn't feel angry with him anymore.
Reference
Parallel theme
Proverbs 15:1
4
Gideon and his 300 men were very tired. But they kept on chasing their enemies. They came to the Jordan River and went across it.
Reference
5
Gideon spoke to the men of Succoth. He said, "Give my troops some bread. They are worn out. And I'm still chasing Zebah and Zalmunna. They are the kings of Midian."
Reference
6
But the officials of Succoth objected. They said, "Have you already killed Zebah and Zalmunna? Have you cut their hands off and brought them back to prove it? If you haven't, why should we give bread to your troops?"
Reference
Parallel theme
1 Kings 20:11
7
Gideon replied, "The Lord will hand Zebah and Zalmunna over to me. When he does, I'll tear your skin with thorns from desert bushes."
8
From there Gideon went up to Peniel. He asked its men for the same thing. But they answered as the men of Succoth had.
Reference
Parallel theme
1 Kings 12:25
9
So he said to the men of Peniel, "I'll be back after I've won the battle. Then I'll tear down this tower."
Reference
Parallel theme
Judges 8:17
10
Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor. They had an army of about 15,000 men. That's all that was left of the armies of the tribes from the east. About 120,000 men who carried swords had died in battle.
Reference
📍 Karkor
Parallel theme
Judges 7:12
Word
2 Kings 3:26
Judges 20:15
Judges 20:2
Judges 20:17
Judges 20:46
Judges 20:35
Judges 20:25
11
Gideon went up the trail the people of the desert had made. It ran east of Nobah and Jogbehah. He attacked the army by surprise.
Reference
12
Zebah and Zalmunna ran away. They were the two kings of Midian. Gideon chased them and captured them. He destroyed their whole army.
Reference
Parallel theme
Psalm 83:11
13
Then Gideon, the son of Joash, returned from the battle. He came back through the Pass of Heres.
📍 Heres
14
He caught a young man from Succoth. He asked him about the elders of the town. The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth's 77 officials.
15
Then Gideon came and spoke to the men of Succoth. He said, "Here are Zebah and Zalmunna. You made fun of me because of them. You said, 'Have you already killed Zebah and Zalmunna? Have you cut their hands off and brought them back to prove it? If you haven't, why should we give bread to your tired men?' "
16
Gideon went and got the elders of the town. Then he taught the men of Succoth a lesson. He tore their skin with thorns from desert bushes.
Reference
Parallel theme
Judges 8:7
18
Then he spoke to Zebah and Zalmunna. He asked, "What were the men like that you killed at Tabor?" "Men like you," they answered. "Each one walked as if he were a prince."
Reference
Parallel theme
Judges 4:6
19
Gideon replied, "Those were my brothers. They were the sons of my own mother. You can be sure that the Lord lives. And you can be just as sure that if you had spared their lives, I wouldn't kill you."
20
Then Gideon turned to his oldest son Jether. He said, "Kill them!" But Jether didn't pull out his sword. He was only a boy. So he was afraid.
People
21
Zebah and Zalmunna said, "Come on. Do it yourself. 'The older the man, the stronger he is.' " So Gideon stepped forward and killed them. Then he took the moon-shaped necklaces off the necks of their camels.
Reference
22
The people of Israel spoke to Gideon. They said, "Rule over us. We want you, your son and your grandson to be our rulers. You have saved us from the power of Midian."
23
But Gideon told them, "I will not rule over you. My son won't rule over you either. The Lord will rule over you."
Reference
24
He continued, "I do ask one thing. I want each of you to give me an earring. I'm talking about the earrings you took from your enemies." It was the practice of the people in the family line of Ishmael to wear gold earrings.
Reference
25
The people of Israel said, "We'll be glad to give them to you." So they spread out a piece of clothing. Each man threw a ring on it from what he had taken.
26
The weight of the gold rings Gideon asked for was 43 pounds. That didn't include the moon-shaped necklaces the kings of Midian had worn. It didn't include their other necklaces or their purple clothes. And it didn't include the gold chains that had been on the necks of their camels.
27
Gideon made an object out of all of the gold. It looked like the linen apron the high priest of Israel wore. He placed it in Ophrah. That was his hometown. All of the people of Israel worshiped it there. They weren't faithful to the Lord. So the gold object became a trap to Gideon and his family.
Reference
Creation
Judges 17:5
Parallel theme
Psalm 106:39
Judges 18:14
Deuteronomy 7:16
Judges 18:17
Exodus 23:33
Judges 6:24
28
Israel brought Midian under their control. Midian wasn't able to attack Israel anymore. So the land was at peace for 40 years. The peace lasted as long as Gideon was living.
Reference
29
Jerub-Baal, the son of Joash, went back home to live. Jerub-Baal was another name for Gideon.
Reference
31
And he had a concubine who lived in Shechem. She also had a son by him. Gideon named that son Abimelech.
32
Gideon, the son of Joash, died when he was very old. His body was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah. Ophrah was in the territory that belonged to the family line of Abiezer.
Reference
33
As soon as Gideon had died, the people of Israel joined themselves to the gods that were named after Baal. Israel wasn't faithful to the Lord. They worshiped Baal-Berith as their god.
Reference
34
They forgot what the Lord their God had done for them. He had saved them from the power of their enemies who were all around them.
Reference
35
Jerub-Baal had done many good things for the people of Israel. But they weren't kind to his family. Jerub-Baal was another name for Gideon.
Summary of Judges 8
Judges chapter 8 contains the aftermath of Gideon's victory. This includes the pursuit of the fleeing kings of Midian, Gideon's disputes with others, the capture and killing of the kings of Midian, and the aftermath of Gideon as a great leader in Israel. It ends with the Israelites quickly going back to idolatry after Gideon's death.
The men of Ephraim complain to Gideon that he did not call them for the battle against Midian at the beginning of the fighting, saying that they were left out of the fighting. Gideon cleverly answers their complaint, reminding them that their work of capturing Oreb and Zeeb was important, and that the glory of their work and their strength was greater than what he had done. This calms their anger.
Gideon and his three hundred men continued the chase of the kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna. They were tired that they had been fighting and chasing throughout the day. But Gideon did not stop pursuing. They crossed the Jordan and continued to pursue.
When Gideon came to Succoth, he asked the leaders of Succoth for bread because the men were tired and hungry, but the leaders of Succoth refused. The leaders asked Gideon if he had already fought and won a battle against Zebah and Zalmunna, almost as if they doubted that Gideon would win. Gideon told them that when God gives him the two kings of Midian he would return and punish the people of Succoth for this insult.
Gideon went to the next city, Penuel, and asked the leaders there to give the men some food, but they said that Gideon did not yet have Zebah and Zalmunna, and Gideon warned them that when he returned victorious, he would destroy the city's tower.
Gideon pressed on after Zebah and Zalmunna, and was able to catch up to the two kings at Karkor. The two kings had their army of approximately fifteen thousand men that had been spared after the large battle. A vastly more significant force of the enemy already lay dead in the sands, but the small band of Gideon's pursuing forces was no match for Zebah and Zalmunna's fifteen thousand men. Gideon attacked and killed their army because the enemy was not yet properly prepared for a fight.
Zebah and Zalmunna escaped, but were caught by Gideon and brought back with him from the battle by the road of the people living in tents, past Nobah and Jogbehah. Gideon returned to Succoth and punished the leaders of the city for their discourtesy by taking some thorns and briers from the wilderness and punishing the city.
Gideon also went to Penuel, tore down their tower, and punished the men of the city. The incidents at Succoth and Penuel were part of the unfaithfulness of Israel. This was Israel's sin, who were not willing to help fight their enemies in order to defend their borders even though the enemy was right there.
Gideon questioned Zebah and Zalmunna about men they had killed on the hill of Tabor, and they admitted that they had killed men like Gideon himself, each of whom was like the son of a king. Gideon said that those men were his brothers, the sons of his mother, and if they had been spared by them he would have not killed them.
Gideon ordered his oldest son to kill the two kings. Jether, his oldest son, was afraid to do it because he was young and did not yet have a sword. Zebah and Zalmunna told Gideon to cut off their heads because a man was to be judged by his strength. Gideon killed the two kings of Midian and took the ornaments that were on their camels' necks.
After the victory over Midian, the Israelites asked Gideon to be their king, saying that he and his sons and his son's sons must rule over them because Gideon had saved them from the power of Midian. Gideon refused, saying that he would not be Israel's king, nor would his son, but that the Lord would be Israel's king.
But even as Gideon refused the Israelites' offer of the kingdom, he asked them to bring him the gold earrings that they had taken from Midian, and the Israelites gave him gold. Gideon made an ephod from the gold and placed it in his city of Ophrah.
The ephod became a snare to Israel. The chapter does not depict Gideon as intentionally setting up an idol of metal to take the place of God, but this became associated with the corrupt practices of the Israelites.
The land had peace in the days of Gideon, for forty years. Gideon had many wives, and seventy sons, and a son by a concubine from Shechem named Abimelech. Gideon died old, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father at Ophrah.
But Israel did not cease to do evil against the Lord, but they turned away from him and worshipped Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god. They forgot the Lord who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies, and from the power of Midian, and they did not give thanks to the family of Gideon for all the good things that he had done for Israel.
Judges chapter 8 shows that victory over an enemy does not necessarily make the Israelites faithful to God. Gideon was clearly an effective leader who led Israel in their victory against the Midianites, but as soon as the immediate threat to Israel was over Israel fell back into doing evil. The unfaithfulness of the Ephraimites and the discourtesy of Succoth and Penuel were signs that there would continue to be internal struggles between different peoples and families in Israel.
The chapter gives mixed messages about Gideon. He does not want to be king, but he demands that the wealth of Israel be given to him. He is victorious over a huge and powerful army, but the Israelites are not truly grateful for his leadership. After his victories, the Israelites fall back into their old corrupt ways of living. The last verses of the chapter set the stage for the continuation of the Israelites' unfaithfulness to God by their unending tendency to turn from God to other gods as the book of Judges continues.
The men of Ephraim complain to Gideon that he did not call them for the battle against Midian at the beginning of the fighting, saying that they were left out of the fighting. Gideon cleverly answers their complaint, reminding them that their work of capturing Oreb and Zeeb was important, and that the glory of their work and their strength was greater than what he had done. This calms their anger.
Gideon and his three hundred men continued the chase of the kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna. They were tired that they had been fighting and chasing throughout the day. But Gideon did not stop pursuing. They crossed the Jordan and continued to pursue.
When Gideon came to Succoth, he asked the leaders of Succoth for bread because the men were tired and hungry, but the leaders of Succoth refused. The leaders asked Gideon if he had already fought and won a battle against Zebah and Zalmunna, almost as if they doubted that Gideon would win. Gideon told them that when God gives him the two kings of Midian he would return and punish the people of Succoth for this insult.
Gideon went to the next city, Penuel, and asked the leaders there to give the men some food, but they said that Gideon did not yet have Zebah and Zalmunna, and Gideon warned them that when he returned victorious, he would destroy the city's tower.
Gideon pressed on after Zebah and Zalmunna, and was able to catch up to the two kings at Karkor. The two kings had their army of approximately fifteen thousand men that had been spared after the large battle. A vastly more significant force of the enemy already lay dead in the sands, but the small band of Gideon's pursuing forces was no match for Zebah and Zalmunna's fifteen thousand men. Gideon attacked and killed their army because the enemy was not yet properly prepared for a fight.
Zebah and Zalmunna escaped, but were caught by Gideon and brought back with him from the battle by the road of the people living in tents, past Nobah and Jogbehah. Gideon returned to Succoth and punished the leaders of the city for their discourtesy by taking some thorns and briers from the wilderness and punishing the city.
Gideon also went to Penuel, tore down their tower, and punished the men of the city. The incidents at Succoth and Penuel were part of the unfaithfulness of Israel. This was Israel's sin, who were not willing to help fight their enemies in order to defend their borders even though the enemy was right there.
Gideon questioned Zebah and Zalmunna about men they had killed on the hill of Tabor, and they admitted that they had killed men like Gideon himself, each of whom was like the son of a king. Gideon said that those men were his brothers, the sons of his mother, and if they had been spared by them he would have not killed them.
Gideon ordered his oldest son to kill the two kings. Jether, his oldest son, was afraid to do it because he was young and did not yet have a sword. Zebah and Zalmunna told Gideon to cut off their heads because a man was to be judged by his strength. Gideon killed the two kings of Midian and took the ornaments that were on their camels' necks.
After the victory over Midian, the Israelites asked Gideon to be their king, saying that he and his sons and his son's sons must rule over them because Gideon had saved them from the power of Midian. Gideon refused, saying that he would not be Israel's king, nor would his son, but that the Lord would be Israel's king.
But even as Gideon refused the Israelites' offer of the kingdom, he asked them to bring him the gold earrings that they had taken from Midian, and the Israelites gave him gold. Gideon made an ephod from the gold and placed it in his city of Ophrah.
The ephod became a snare to Israel. The chapter does not depict Gideon as intentionally setting up an idol of metal to take the place of God, but this became associated with the corrupt practices of the Israelites.
The land had peace in the days of Gideon, for forty years. Gideon had many wives, and seventy sons, and a son by a concubine from Shechem named Abimelech. Gideon died old, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father at Ophrah.
But Israel did not cease to do evil against the Lord, but they turned away from him and worshipped Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god. They forgot the Lord who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies, and from the power of Midian, and they did not give thanks to the family of Gideon for all the good things that he had done for Israel.
Judges chapter 8 shows that victory over an enemy does not necessarily make the Israelites faithful to God. Gideon was clearly an effective leader who led Israel in their victory against the Midianites, but as soon as the immediate threat to Israel was over Israel fell back into doing evil. The unfaithfulness of the Ephraimites and the discourtesy of Succoth and Penuel were signs that there would continue to be internal struggles between different peoples and families in Israel.
The chapter gives mixed messages about Gideon. He does not want to be king, but he demands that the wealth of Israel be given to him. He is victorious over a huge and powerful army, but the Israelites are not truly grateful for his leadership. After his victories, the Israelites fall back into their old corrupt ways of living. The last verses of the chapter set the stage for the continuation of the Israelites' unfaithfulness to God by their unending tendency to turn from God to other gods as the book of Judges continues.