Judges 8:10-27

10By this time Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with about 15,000 warriors—all that remained of the allied armies of the east, for 120,000 had already been killed.

11Gideon circled around by the caravan route east of Nobah and Jogbehah, taking the Midianite army by surprise.

12Zebah and Zalmunna, the two Midianite kings, fled, but Gideon chased them down and captured all their warriors.

13After this, Gideon returned from the battle by way of Heres Pass.

14There he captured a young man from Succoth and demanded that he write down the names of all the seventy-seven officials and elders in the town.

15Gideon then returned to Succoth and said to the leaders, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna. When we were here before, you taunted me, saying, ‘Catch Zebah and Zalmunna first, and then we will feed your exhausted army.’”

16Then Gideon took the elders of the town and taught them a lesson, punishing them with thorns and briers from the wilderness.

17He also tore down the tower of Peniel and killed all the men in the town.

18Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “The men you killed at Tabor—what were they like?” “Like you,” they replied. “They all had the look of a king’s son.”

19“They were my brothers, the sons of my own mother!” Gideon exclaimed. “As surely as the Lord lives, I wouldn’t kill you if you hadn’t killed them.”

20Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, “Kill them!” But Jether did not draw his sword, for he was only a boy and was afraid.

21Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, “Be a man! Kill us yourself!” So Gideon killed them both and took the royal ornaments from the necks of their camels.

22Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Be our ruler! You and your son and your grandson will be our rulers, for you have rescued us from Midian.”

23But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The Lord will rule over you!

24However, I do have one request—that each of you give me an earring from the plunder you collected from your fallen enemies.” (The enemies, being Ishmaelites, all wore gold earrings.)

25“Gladly!” they replied. They spread out a cloak, and each one threw in a gold earring he had gathered from the plunder.

26The weight of the gold earrings was forty-three pounds, not including the royal ornaments and pendants, the purple clothing worn by the kings of Midian, or the chains around the necks of their camels.

27Gideon made a sacred ephod from the gold and put it in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping it, and it became a trap for Gideon and his family.