23. But Gideon told the Israelites, “The Lord will be your ruler. I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you.”
24. Some of the people who the men of Israel defeated were Ishmaelites. And the Ishmaelite men wore gold earrings. So Gideon said to the Israelites, “I want you to do this one thing for me. I want each of you to give me a gold earring from the things you took in the battle.”
25. The Israelites said to Gideon, “We will gladly give you what you want.” So they put a coat down on the ground, and each man threw an earring onto the coat.
26. When the earrings were gathered up, they weighed about 43 pounds. This did not include the other gifts the Israelites gave to Gideon. They also gave him jewelry shaped like the moon and jewelry shaped like teardrops. And they gave him purple robes. The kings of the Midianites had worn these things. They also gave him the chains from the camels of the Midianite kings.
27. Gideon used the gold to make an ephod, which he put in his hometown, the town called Ophrah. All the Israelites worshiped the ephod. In this way the Israelites were not faithful to God—they worshiped the ephod. The ephod became a trap that caused Gideon and his family to sin.
28. The Midianites were forced to be under the rule of the Israelites. The Midianites did not cause trouble anymore. And the land was at peace for 40 years, as long as Gideon was alive.
29. Gideon son of Joash went home.
30. Gideon had 70 sons of his own. He had so many sons because he had many wives.
31. He had a slave woman who lived in the city of Shechem. He had a son by her. He named that son Abimelech.
32. So Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age. He was buried in the tomb that Joash, his father, owned. That tomb is in the city of Ophrah, where the family of Abiezer lives.
33. As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites again were not faithful to God—they followed Baal. They made Baal Berith their god.
34. The Israelites did not remember the Lord their God, who had saved them from all their enemies living around them.
35. The Israelites were not loyal to the family of Jerub-Baal (Gideon), even though he had done many good things for them.