Judges 8:22-35 - Gideon's Legacy
22 The Israelites said to Gideon: Be our ruler, you and your descendants after you. You saved us from the Midianites.
23 Gideon answered: I will not be your ruler, nor will my son. Jehovah will be your ruler! 24 He also said: Let me ask one thing of you. Every one of you must give me the earrings you took. (The Midianites wore gold earrings.)
25 They answered: We will gladly give them to you. They spread out a cloth, and everyone put the earrings that he had taken on it. 26 The gold earrings that Gideon got weighed over forty pounds. This did not include the ornaments, necklaces, and purple clothes that the kings of Midian wore. It also did not include the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 Gideon made an idol from the gold and placed it in his hometown, Ophrah. The Israelites abandoned God and went there to worship the idol. It was a trap for Gideon and his family.
28 Midian was defeated by the Israelites and was no longer a threat. The land was at peace for forty years, until Gideon died. 29 Gideon went back to his home and lived there.
30 He had many wives and seventy sons. 31 He also kept a concubine in Shechem. She bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. 32 Gideon son of Joash died at an old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, at Ophrah. Ophrah was the town of the clan of Abiezer.
33 After Gideon's death the people of Israel were unfaithful to God again. They worshiped the Baals. They made Baal-Berith their god. 34 They no longer served Jehovah their God, who had saved them from all their enemies around them. 35 They did not show kindness to the family of Gideon for all the good that he had done for Israel.