25. The Israelite soldiers replied, “Of course we will give you the earrings.” Then they spread out a robe on the ground and tossed the earrings on it.
26. The total weight of this gold was nearly twenty kilogrammes. In addition, there was the gold from the camels' ornaments and from the beautiful jewellery worn by the Midianite kings. Gideon also took their purple robes.
27-29. Gideon returned to his home in Ophrah and had the gold made into a statue, which the Israelites soon started worshipping. They became unfaithful to God, and even Gideon and his family were trapped into worshipping the statue.The Midianites had been defeated so badly that they were no longer strong enough to attack Israel. And so Israel was at peace for the remaining forty years of Gideon's life.
30. Gideon had many wives and seventy sons.
31. He even had a wife who lived at Shechem. They had a son, and Gideon named him Abimelech.
32. Gideon lived to be an old man. And when he died, he was buried in the family tomb in his home town of Ophrah, which belonged to the Abiezer clan.