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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Judges 8 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/judges/8.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/judges/8-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > Judges 8</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../judges/7.htm" title="Judges 7">◄</a> Judges 8 <a href="../judges/9.htm" title="Judges 9">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/judges/8.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">Zebah and Zalmunna</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, “Why have you treated us like this? Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian?” And they challenged him vigorously.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>But he answered them, “What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren’t the gleanings of Ephraim’s grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>God gave Oreb and Zeeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you?” At this, their resentment against him subsided.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan and crossed it. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>He said to the men of Sukkoth, “Give my troops some bread; they are worn out, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>But the officials of Sukkoth said, “Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your troops?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Then Gideon replied, “Just for that, when the <span class="name">Lord</span> has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>From there he went up to Peniel <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel; also in verses 9 and 17">a</a></sup></span> and made the same request of them, but they answered as the men of Sukkoth had. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>So he said to the men of Peniel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the unsuspecting army. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>Gideon son of Joash then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>He caught a young man of Sukkoth and questioned him, and the young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Sukkoth, the elders of the town. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>Then Gideon came and said to the men of Sukkoth, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me by saying, ‘Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’ ” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Sukkoth a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briers. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?”</p><p class="reg">“Men like you,” they answered, “each one with the bearing of a prince.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>Gideon replied, “Those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the <span class="name">Lord</span> lives, if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, “Kill them!” But Jether did not draw his sword, because he was only a boy and was afraid.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Come, do it yourself. ‘As is the man, so is his strength.’ ” So Gideon stepped forward and killed them, and took the ornaments off their camels’ necks.</p> <p class="sectionhead">Gideon’s Ephod</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The <span class="name">Lord</span> will rule over you.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each of them threw a ring from his plunder onto it. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="That is, about 43 pounds or about 20 kilograms">b</a></sup></span> not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels’ necks. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.</p> <p class="sectionhead">Gideon’s Death</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>Thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. During Gideon’s lifetime, the land had peace forty years.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>Jerub-Baal son of Joash went back home to live. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>He had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>His concubine, who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelek. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>and did not remember the <span class="name">Lord</span> their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/judges/8-35.htm"><b>35</b></a></span>They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them.</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">8</span> <span class="footnotebot">Hebrew <i>Penuel,</i> a variant of <i>Peniel</i>; also in verses 9 and 17</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">26</span> <span class="footnotebot">That is, about 43 pounds or about 20 kilograms</span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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