Judges 8:22-35 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Gideon Refuses a Kingdom, and Erects an Ephod. Long before the Israelites had any human kings. Yahweh was regarded as their Divine King, and Gideon, like Samuel (1 Samuel 8:7; 1 Samuel 10:19; 1 Samuel 12:12; 1 Samuel 12:17; 1 Samuel 12:19), expresses the view that the Divine kingship leaves no room for a human sovereignty. This view became prevalent in the eighth century B.C., when a succession of wicked kings was ruining the northern kingdom (Hosea 8:4; Hosea 13:11).

Judges 8:24-27. In gratitude to Yahweh, who had stood by him and given him victory, Gideon uses the spoils of war to make a golden ephod, which he sets up to Yahweh's glory at Ophrah. This act is spoken of without disapproval, except in Judges 8:27 b, which many scholars regard as an editorial addition. A later age, trained in more spiritual conceptions, took offence at Gideon's action, and saw in it the cause of the disaster which befell his house (G. A. Cooke). The nature and purpose of an ephod in the time of the Judges are not explicitly stated. It certainly was not a sacred vest, such as was worn by the High Priest in the second Temple. It was clearly an image of some kind, and it was used in the service of Yahweh (p. 100).

Judges 8:33-35 contains the familiar phrases of D, who is grieved at Israel's ingratitude, first to Yahweh their deliverer, and then to Gideon their earthly benefactor. [Observe also the characteristic generalisation of the purely local and Canaanite cult of Baal-berith (Judges 9:4; Judges 9:46) into a cult adopted by Israel as a whole. A. S. P.]

Related Commentaries of Judges 8:22

Judges 8:22-35

22 Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son's son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian.

23 And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you.

24 And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)

25 And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey.

26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside ornaments, and collars,h and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about their camels' necks.

27 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.

28 Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.

29 And Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house.

30 And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives.

31 And his concubine that was in Shechem, she also bare him a son, whose name he calledi Abimelech.

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

33 And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god.

34 And the children of Israel remembered not the LORD their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side:

35 Neither shewed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel.