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 worship.

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
year