Judges 8

The men of Ephraim are mad because Gideon did not call them to fight the Midianites. I wonder if these were people that God dismissed from the 32,000 to 300. Their complaint indicates that they were not called, but Gideon did send out messengers. Who knows. But Gideon tells them that two Midianite princes are now dead and this satisfies them.

Gideon is still leading the 300, who are now exhausted from pursuing. The prior chapter was a little unclear as to how many Israelites were doing the pursuing, but at least the core 300 were. They ask for food from the men of Succoth, who refuse because Gideon has not defeated Zebah and Zalmunna, two Midianite rulers. I guess the men of Succoth either pay allegiance to Zebah and Zalmunna or just do not fear Gideon’s little band of 300. This makes Gideon mad and he vows to destroy Succoth.

A similar series of events occurs at Penuel and Gideon makes a similar vow of destruction.

Gideon finds the Midianite camp of 15,000 (down from 120,000) and attacks. I assume he is attacking with his 300, but this time he seems to forego the trumpet and torch strategy and just attacks. He routes the army and takes Zebah and Zalmunna prisoner.

He goes back to Succoth, captures and interrogates (water-boarding?) the captive to get the names of the 77 elders of Succoth. He fulfills his vow and destroys Succoth and the tower or Penuel before interrogating Zebah and Zalmunna, who seem to state that they may have killed Gideon’s brothers. I’m not sure how literally we should read that part as this is the first reference to Gideon having any brothers. Regardless if they are literal or figurative brothers, this inspires Gideon to tell his son to kill the captives. He refuses since he is a little boy, so Gideon does it.

The men of Israel offer to make Gideon king, which he refuses. Instead, he wants all the gold earrings from the plunder. It says that they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites. That is unclear since I thought they were Midiniates, unless it is referring to Succoth. Or, perhaps there were Midianite kings who led an army of Ishmaelites.

Gideon uses the gold to make an ephod (priest ornamental garment), with which the Israelites end up “playing the harlot”. So, perhaps they worshipped it or otherwise defiled it.

There was 40 years of peace after Gideon. Gideon ended up having 70 sons with many wives, lived to an old age, and was buried in the tomb of his father.

Final thoughts on Gideon - he comes across well from the text. The text does not record to make any major blunders to God (unlike Samson and David). He was not immune from letting the power get to his head - he did decline becoming king, but he did have 70 sons from many women. It took him a while for his faith to get going, but once it did, it was a steamroll. It also took him a while for the Israelites to be comfortable with his leader/ for him to assert leadership of the people, as evidenced by the men of Ephraim saying "why didn't you call for us?"