Judges 8

¹And the men of Ephraim said to him: What is this that thou didst mean to do, that thou wouldst not call us when thou didst go to fight against Madian? Chiding bitterly and almost offering violence.

²To whom he answered: What could I have done like to that, which you have done? Is not the cluster of Ephraim better than the vintages of Abiezer?

³Into your hands hath our Lord delivered the Princes of Madian, Oreb and Zeb, what could I have done the like as you have done? Which when he had spoken, their spirit rested, wherewith they did swell against him.

⁴And when Gedeon was come to Jordan, he passed over it with the three hundred men that were with him: and for weariness, they could not pursue them that fled.

⁵And he said to the men of Soccoth: Give, I beseech you, bread to the people that is with me, because they are very faint: that we may pursue Zebee and Salmana the kings of Madian.

⁶The Princes of Soccoth answered: Peradventure the palms of the hands of Zebee and Salmana are in thy hand, & therefore thou requirest that we give bread to thy army.

⁷To whom he said: When our Lord therefore shall have delivered Zebee and Salmana into my hands, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the desert.

⁸And going up from thence, he came into Phanuel: & he spake to the men of that place the like things. To whom they also answered, as the men of Soccoth had answered.

⁹He said therefore to them also: When I shall be returned conqueror in peace, I will destroy this tower.

¹⁰But Zebee and Salmana rested with all their army. For fifteen thousand men were remaining of all the troops of the East peoples, and hundred and twenty thousand fighting men and those that drew sword, being slain.

¹¹And Gedeon going up by the way of them, that dwelt in tabernacles, on the East side of Nobe, & Iegbaa, struck the camp of the enemies which were secure, and suspected no mischance.

¹²And Zebee and Salmana fled, whom Gedeon pursuing apprehended, all their host being put out of array.

¹³And returning from the battle before sun rising,

¹⁴he took a boy of the men of Soccoth: and he asked him the names of the Princes and ancients of Soccoth, and he described seventy seven men.

¹⁵And 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 desirest that we give bread to the men that be weary, and are faint.

¹⁶He took therefore the ancients of the city, and thorns and briers of the desert, and tore them with the same, and cut the men of Soccoth into pieces.

¹⁷The tower also of Phanuel he overthrew, killing the inhabitants of the city.

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

¹⁹To whom he answered: They were my brethren, the sons of my mother. Our Lord liveth, that if you had saved them I would not kill you.

²⁰And he said to Jether his eldest son: Arise, and kill them. Who drew not out his sword: for he was afraid, because he was yet a boy.

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

²²And 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.

²³To whom he said: I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, but our Lord shall rule over you.

²⁴And he said to them: One petition I request of you: Give me the earlets of your prey. For the Ismalites were accustomed to have golden earlets.

²⁵Who answered: we will give them most willingly. And spreading a mantle on the ground, they cast on it the earlets of the prey:

²⁶and the weight of the earlets that he desired, was a thousand seven hundred sicles of gold, besides the ornaments, and jewels, and purple vesture, which the kings of Madian were wont to use, & besides the golden chains of the camels.

²⁷And Gedeon made thereof an Ephod, and put it in his city Ephra. And all Israel did fornicate in it, and it became a ruin to Gedeon and to all his house.

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

²⁹Jerobaal therefore the son of Joas went, and dwelt in his own house:

³⁰and he had seventy sons, which came out of his thigh, because he had many wives.

³¹And his concubine, which he had in Sichem, bare him a son named Abimelec.

³²And 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.

³³But after that Gedeon was dead, the children of Israel were averted, and did fornicate with Baalim. And they made a covenant with Baal, that he should be their God:

³⁴neither did they remember our Lord their God, which delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies round about:

³⁵neither did they mercy with the house of Jerobaal Gedeon, according to all the benefits that he had done to Israel.