16. He then took thorns and briars from the desert and used them to punish the leaders of Sukkoth.
17. He also tore down the tower at Penuel and killed the men of that city.
18. Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What about the men you killed at Tabor?”They answered, “They looked like you — every one of them like the son of a king.”
19. Gideon said, “They were my brothers, my own mother's sons. I solemnly swear that if you had not killed them, I would not kill you.”
20. Then he said to Jether, his eldest son, “Go ahead, kill them!” But the boy did not draw his sword. He hesitated, because he was still only a boy.
21. Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, “Come on, kill us yourself. It takes a man to do a man's job.” So Gideon killed them and took the ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.
22. After that, the Israelites said to Gideon, “Be our ruler — you and your descendants after you. You have saved us from the Midianites.”
23. Gideon answered, “I will not be your ruler, nor will my son. The Lord will be your ruler.”
24. But he went on to say, “Let me ask one thing of you. Every one of you give me the earrings you took.” (The Midianites, like other desert people, wore gold earrings.)
25. The people answered, “We'll be glad to give them to you.” They spread out a cloth, and everyone put on it the earrings that he had taken.
26. The gold earrings that Gideon received weighed nearly twenty kilogrammes, and this did not include the ornaments, necklaces, and purple clothes that the kings of Midian wore, nor the collars that were round the necks of their camels.
27. Gideon made an idol from the gold and put it in his home town, Ophrah. All the Israelites abandoned God and went there to worship the idol. It was a trap for Gideon and his family.
28. So 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 own home and lived there.
30. He had seventy sons, because he had many wives.
31. He also had a concubine in Shechem; she bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.
32. Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, at Ophrah, the town of the clan of Abiezer.
33. After Gideon's death the people of Israel were again unfaithful to God and worshipped the Baals. They made Baal-of-the-Covenant their god,
34. and no longer served the Lord their God, who had saved them from all their enemies round them.
35. They were not grateful to the family of Gideon for all the good that he had done for Israel.