Explanation: Judges 8 contains the conclusion of the war against the Midianite confederation (including the capture and execution of Zebah and Zalmunna), together with a summary of Gideon's life and his death some years later, followed by the decline of Israel back into idolatry.
     As the war raged on, the men of Ephraim brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon (Judges 7:24-25); but they complained angrily to him for not inviting them to the battle initially. Gideon, however, pacified them by telling them that in comparison to their capture of Oreb and Zeeb (described in the previous chapter), his deeds were insignificant (1-3).
     As the fight continued, Gideon and his three-hundred men, faint though they were, pursued the fleeing troops. He asked for help from Succoth and from Penuel; but both cities refused (4-9).
     Gideon captured the kings Zebah and Zalmunna (10-12).
     He returned after sunup and captured a young man from Succoth from whom he learned the identity of the princes of the town. Gideon then chided those elders for not helping him and chastised them with briars and thorns. He then went to Penuel and beat down the tower that was there and slew the men of the city. Penuel may have been an ally of the Midianites and so received the greater punishment (13-17).
     Afterward, Gideon learned from his captives, Zebah and Zalmunna, that they had killed his brothers. So he commanded his son to execute them. But the youth was afraid; so Gideon himself carried out the execution; and he took the ornaments that were on the camel's necks (18-21).
     After these exploits, the men of Israel asked him to rule over them, but he refused, asking only for the gold earrings from the slain warriors. He also took other ornaments and the purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian. From these Gideon made an ephod and put it up in his city, Ophrah, where Israel treated it as an object of worship. The ephod may have been a statue; but the term is usually used for a priestly garment, especially the High Priest's garment (considering the gold and possibly the purple cloth used to make it). Whatever the case, it seems to have been a central object in a shrine (judging from the fact that it was "put," or "established") in his city and the people went whoring after it -- meaning that they used it for unlawful worship, which Scripture calls spiritual adultery. So Midian was subdued before Israel; and the land had rest for forty years (22-28).
     Gideon had seventy sons by his many wives. He also had a son, Abimelech, by his concubine in Shechem. Gideon lived a long life (29-32).
     But, when he was dead, the Israelites turned to the god Baalberith, forgot the LORD and his goodness, and were unkind to the house of Gideon in spite of the good things he did for them (33-35).
     [ Sermons: Vern Picknally. Various. ]
     [ Illustration: The painting above illustrates, in kind, the summary execution of Gideon's brothers by Zebah and Zalmunna (verses 18-21, below). ]

     ³³ And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god. ³⁴ And the children of Israel remembered not the LORD their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side: ³⁵ Neither shewed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel.

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