Part 151 (1/2)

8:14. He took a boy of the men of Soccoth: and he asked him the names of the princes and ancients of Soccoth, and he described unto him seventy- seven men.

8:15. And he came to Soccoth, and said to them: Behold Zebee, and Salmana, concerning whom you upbraided me, saying: Peradventure the hands of Zebee and Salmana are in thy hands, and therefore thou demandest that we should give bread to the men that are weary and faint.

8:16. So he took the ancients of the city, and thorns and briers of the desert, and tore them with the same, and cut in pieces the men of Soccoth.

8:17. And he demolished the tower of Phanuel, and slew the men of the city.

8:18. And he said to Zebee and Salmana: What manner of men were they, whom you slew in Thabor? They answered: They were like thee, and one of them as the son of a king.

8:l9. He answered them: They were my brethren, the sons of my mother. As the Lord liveth, if you had saved them, I would not kill you.

8:20. And he said to Jether, his eldest son: Arise, and slay them. But he drew not his sword: for he was afraid, being but yet a boy.

8:21. And Zebee and Salmana said: Do thou rise and run upon us: because the strength of a man is according to his age: Gedeon rose up, and slew Zebee and Salmana: and he took the ornaments and bosses, with which the necks of the camels of kings are wont to be adorned.

8:22. And all the men of Israel said to Gedeon: Rule thou over us, and thy son, and thy son's son: because thou hast delivered us from the hand of Madian.

8:23. And he said to them: I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, but the Lord shall rule over you.

8:24. And he said to them: I desire one request of you: Give me the earlets of your spoils. For the Ismaelites were accustomed to wear golden earlets.

8:25. They answered: We will give them most willingly. And spreading a mantle on the ground, they cast upon it the earlets of the spoils.

8:26. And the weight of the earlets that he requested, was a thousand seven hundred sicles of gold, besides the ornaments, and jewels, and purple raiment, which the kings of Madian were wont to use, and besides the golden chains that were about the camels necks.

8:27. And Gedeon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city Ephra.

And all Israel committed fornication with it, and it became a ruin to Gedeon, and to all his house.

An ephod... A priestly garment which Gedeon made with a good design; but the Israelites, after his death, abused it by making it an instrument of their idolatrous wors.h.i.+p.

8:28. But Madian was humbled before the children of Israel, neither could they any more lift up their heads: but the land rested for forty years, while Gedeon presided.

8:29. So Jerobaal, the son of Joas, went and dwelt in his own house:

8:30. And he had seventy sons, who came out of his thigh, for he had many wives.

8:31. And his concubine, that he had in Sichem, bore him a son, whose name was Abimelech.

His concubine... She was his servant, but not his harlot: and is called his concubine, as wives of an inferior degree are commonly called in the Old Testament, though otherwise lawfully married.

8:32. And Gedeon, the son of Joas died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father, in Ephra, of the family of Ezri.

8:33. But after Gedeon was dead, the children of Israel turned again, and committed fornication with Baalim. And they made a covenant with Baal, that he should be their G.o.d:

8:34. And they remembered not the Lord their G.o.d, who delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies round about:

8:35. Neither did they shew mercy to the house of Jerobaal Gedeon, according to all the good things he had done to Israel.

Judges Chapter 9