Gideon Is Made an Hereditary Prince and Makes An Ephod (Judges 8:22-28).
‘ Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “You rule over us, both you and your son, and your son's son also. For you have saved us out of the hand of Midian.” '
As a Judge of Israel Gideon did have authority over them, but this was basically an offer of hereditary rulership, as is evidenced by the fact that his sons and grandsons were to follow him as rulers. They saw in Gideon and his family leaders who could bring them peace and security, and leaders in whom justice was tempered with mercy. They could think of no better choice. Gideon was their deliverer who had made life bearable for them again. ‘The men of Israel.' This was unlikely to mean the whole of Israel. As regularly ‘the men of Israel' means a representative group of them, and it refers only to those in his area. Certainly Judah would not have participated in the request, nor probably Ephraim and the tribes Beyond Jordan.