No King in Israel (19)

As we hinted in the introduction last week, this series of incidents in chapter 8 effectively illustrates the moral degradation characteristic of Israel during the period of the Judges. The end of the chapter gives us four more strong indications that all was not well in Israel, even in the home of the one man who had personal dealings with God.

Despite God’s undeserved blessing and a marvelous victory, the end of Gideon’s tale leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

II. Twelve Judges in Chronological Order (continued)

5. Gideon (continued)

Judges 8:18-21 — Bad Things, Good People

“Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, ‘Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?’ They answered, ‘As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.’ And he said, ‘They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the Lord lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.’ So he said to Jether his firstborn, ‘Rise and kill them!’ But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, ‘Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.’ And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.”

Unanswered Questions

Most of the time, the writers of Old Testament history tell their stories with great economy, giving us only spiritually relevant information rather than a lot of background detail such as we might find in popular fiction or secular histories. However, this practice sometimes leaves the reader with a handful of unanswered questions. That is certainly the case here.

These last two chapters recount Gideon’s battle with Midian and its allies. Information about Gideon’s family is all but absent from the text. We know his father’s name, but nothing about his brothers beyond the fact that Gideon claimed to be “the least in my father’s house”, suggesting he had siblings, probably older, and that these were alive when God called him to serve as judge of Israel. Now the text confirms he did, and that the Midianites had killed them, but the circumstances under which they met their fate are almost completely mysterious. They did not die at home in Ophrah. They died at Tabor, at the east end of the Jezreel valley, where Gideon first confronted the Midianite army by night, the east being the most logical direction for a panicked Midianite army to flee. So perhaps Gideon’s brothers followed him into battle and were among the unfortunate few Israelites who died that night, or in the subsequent pursuit. I cannot think of any other plausible reason they might have been in Tabor.

Finishing the Job

In any case, the act of killing Gideon’s brothers seems to have been deliberate and provocative. The kings of Midian knew the circumstances under which Gideon’s brothers died and what they looked like (or at least pretended to), so it was not a matter of Midianite soldiers striking down Israelites at random, but probably an act of revenge against Gideon while on the run.

In any case, it is for these murders that Gideon puts Zebah and Zalmunna to death. The morality and wisdom of his actions is certainly questionable. He swears in the name of the Lord (strongly suggesting this is the truth) that he would have let the two kings live had they not killed his brothers. This seems profoundly unwise, and it’s certainly not what other judges of Israel had done to date. It makes the executions an act of personal revenge rather than a judge doing God’s work on behalf of his nation. It’s sobering to consider that had Gideon not felt compelled to avenge his brothers, he may not have finished the job of dealing with Midian, and the forty years of peace that followed the deaths of Zebah and Zalmunna may not have happened at all.

So Gideon tells his firstborn son to execute the kings, only to find his son too immature to muster the courage to do so, which shows questionable judgment on the part of the father. The kings then taunt him with a proverb that implies his son’s inability to get the job done reflects poorly on Gideon. Gideon is compelled to kill them himself. The whole scenario is poorly thought-out and a bit embarrassing for a leader.

The Spoil of Battle

The total absence of backstory here suggests that the writer of Judges records the incident not so much for its historic importance or spiritual significance, but as insight into the flaws in Gideon’s character. He obeyed God and won a great victory, but he was also a perfectly ordinary man of his day, with all the failings and idiosyncrasies of his people during this period. We will see these failings again shortly.

Taking spoil from the dead to commemorate a victory in battle has always been standard practice not just in Israel, but everywhere throughout history. The crescent ornaments from the necks of the kings’ camels were Gideon’s evidence of the Lord’s faithfulness and the completion of his mission. Unlike Abraham, who would not touch the spoil of battle, Gideon was happy to indulge in the usual victory routine.

However, this too would have consequences.

Judges 8:22-28 — An Unexpected Swerve

“Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, ‘Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.’ Gideon said to them, ‘I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.’ And Gideon said to them, ‘Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.’ (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) And they answered, ‘We will willingly give them.’ And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.”

Gideon starts very well here, by refusing any sort of lofty rule, let alone the sort you pass on to your kin. Probably the men of Israel were looking for a king. Within a few years they would have one. But Gideon is uninterested in running the show, and determined that the Lord have his rightful rule over his people. There’s a lot to commend in his decision.

From here on, however, it’s all downhill. 1,700 shekels is something like seventy pounds of gold, a small tribute from each victorious soldier, but a significant total for Gideon. From these Gideon fashioned an ephod.

An ephod is a priestly garment something like an apron, usually worn by the high priest of Israel. It’s possible the Hebrew word has two different meanings, or perhaps Gideon melted the Midianite earrings and ornaments into a solid gold representation of a priestly garment. The text does not say that Gideon intended the end result to be an object of idolatrous worship. It may have been commemorative, or some sort of declaration concerning the power of YHWH over the gods of the Midianites. It’s also not impossible he was mimicking the paganism of Israel’s neighbors. This was a morally turbulent period. Either way, Gideon displayed this item in his hometown. Disaster ensued, as might be expected. Not only did it become a snare to Israel, but also to Gideon and his growing family over the next forty years.

Judges 8:29-32 — Setting Up the Next Chapter

“Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.”

The Last Years of Gideon

Earlier in the chapter, we learn that Gideon already had at least one wife and probably more than one child, so he was not a youth. However, his firstborn was too young to make an effective soldier, so probably his eldest child was no more than fifteen, perhaps less. Over the next forty years, Gideon wildly expanded his sexual horizons, accumulating wives, at least one concubine, and children in the manner of kings. Such are the advantages when a man unexpectedly rises in the socio-sexual hierarchy.

Seventy sons is an oddly specific number. You really would have to be very calculating to attain to precisely seventy, then stop having children at just the right time. Gideon was either deliberately making a statement or else the subject of a most unlikely coincidence. Unfortunately, he missed the mark. Between this chapter and the next, it appears he actually had seventy-two sons, and the seventy-first would all but wipe out Gideon’s legacy.

Seven and its Multiples in Scripture

Mind you, the number may not be quite as specific as it sounds. As early as Genesis 4, Lamech declares, “If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold”, meaning much more of the same. When the Lord Jesus told Peter to forgive his erring brother “seventy-seven times”, or “seventy times seven”, a similar idea is evidently in view. Basically, in Hebrew culture, the word “seventy” sometimes appears to amount to a euphemism for “lots and lots”. It’s possible the term “seventy sons” is Hebrew shorthand for “he produced a bunch”.

However, the number may also be quite literal. In between the former two events, the Lord put the spirit of Moses on seventy men. God dispensed judgment to both Judah and other nations in increments of seventy years. Let’s not even start with Daniel’s seventy weeks. There are many more of these, and they are all quite literal.

Two Perfect Factors

The number seventy has two perfect factors, seven (representing perfection, as in the seven days of creation) and ten (completeness, as in the Decalogue). If you wanted to start the rumor that God was blessing you, you might contrive to produce exactly seventy male offspring. Perhaps this is what Gideon did. Later on, King Ahab of Israel did the same. Possibly Ahab was trying to be ironic.

Either way, when you have seventy male children, expect things to go badly. They did, as we will see in the next chapter.

Judges 8:33-35 — Of Course They Did

“As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.”

Baal-berith means “Lord of the covenant”. The term only appears in this chapter and the next. Strong’s suggests this was the god of the Philistines. Gideon began his term as judge by contending with Baal. As soon as Gideon died, Israel covenanted with Baal instead. That’s an ugly turn. Gideon’s ephod became a snare to Israel, but this was much, much worse. God was completely forgotten.

Moreover, Israel did not show steadfast love to Gideon’s family, but that is getting ahead of ourselves.