23. And he said to them: "I will not rule over you. Neither shall my son rule over you. Instead, the Lord shall rule over you."
24. And he said to them: "I petition one request from you. Give me the earrings from your spoils." For the Ishmaelites were accustomed to wear gold earrings.
25. They responded, "We are very willing to give them." And spreading a cloak on the ground, they cast upon it the earrings from the spoils.
26. And the weight of the earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, aside from the ornaments, and necklaces, and purple garments, which the kings of Midian were accustomed to use, and aside from the gold chains on the camels.
27. And Gideon made an ephod from these, and he kept it in his city, Ophrah. And all of Israel committed fornication with it, and it became a ruin to Gideon and to all his house.
28. But Midian was humbled before the sons of Israel. Neither were they able any longer to lift up their necks. But the land rested for forty years, while Gideon presided.
29. And so Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went and lived in his own house.
30. And he had seventy sons, who went forth from his own thigh. For he had many wives.
31. But his concubine, whom he had in Shechem, bore him a son named Abimelech.
32. And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age, and he was buried in the sepulcher of his father, at Ophrah, of the family of Ezri.
33. But after Gideon died, the sons of Israel turned away, and they committed fornication with the Baals. And they struck a covenant with Baal, so that he would be their god.
34. And they did not remember the Lord their God, who rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on all sides.