¹And the men of Ephraim said to him, What is this word you made to us, that you did not call us when you went to fight in Midian? And they contended with him in force.

²And he said to them, What have I made now as you have? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the grape of Abiezer?

³God has set the officials of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, in your hand; and what was I able to make as you have? Then their breath let go from over him when he spoke this word.

⁴And Gideon came to the Jordan and passed over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, exhausted yet running after.

⁵And he said to the men of Succoth, Set loaves of food for the people who are at my feet, for they are exhausted, and I am running after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.

⁶And the officials of Succoth said, Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give food to your host?

⁷And Gideon said, Therefore when Yahweh sets Zebah and Zalmunna in my hand, then I will thresh your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with the briers.

⁸And he came up from there to Penuel and spoke to them so, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth answered.

⁹And he also said to the men of Penuel, saying, When I return in wholeness, I will pull down this tower.

¹⁰And Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their camp with them, about fifteen thousand, all those who remained from all the camp of the children of the east; and those who fell were a hundred and twenty thousand men who drew the sword.

¹¹And Gideon came up the way of those who dwell in tents from the east, to Nobah and Jogbehah, and struck the camp; and the camp was off security.

¹²And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he ran after them; and he captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and all the camp shuddered.

¹³And Gideon the son of Joash returned from the war, from the ascent of the Heres.

¹⁴And he captured a boy from the men of Succoth and inquired of him; and he wrote down for him the officials of Succoth and her elders, seventy and seven men.

¹⁵And he came to the men of Succoth and said, Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you reproached me when you said, Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give food to your exhausted men?

¹⁶And he took the elders of the city, and the thorns of the wilderness and the briers, and with them he made the men of Succoth know.

¹⁷And the tower of Penuel he pulled down, and he killed the men of the city.

¹⁸And he said to Zebah and to Zalmunna, Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor? And they said, As you are, so were they, each one like the figure of the children of a king.

¹⁹And he said, They were my brothers, the children of my mother. As Yahweh lives, oh, if you had let them live, I would not have killed you.

²⁰And he said to Jether his firstborn, Rise, kill them. But the boy did not draw his sword, for he feared, for he was yet a boy.

²¹And Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise, you, and press upon us, for as the man, so is his victory. So Gideon rose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the ornaments which were on the neck of their camels.

²²And the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, you also, and also your son, also the son of your son, for you saved us from the hand of Midian.

²³And Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; Yahweh will rule over you.

²⁴And Gideon said to them, Let me inquire a request of you, and give to me, every man, the earrings of his plunder, the earrings of gold to them; for they were Ishmaelites.

²⁵And they said, We will surely set them. And they spread abroad a garment, and threw there, every man, the earrings of his plunder.

²⁶And the weight of the earrings of gold which he inquired was a thousand and seven hundred of gold, to the alone from the ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments which were over the kings of Midian, and to the alone from the necklaces which were on the neck of their camels.

²⁷And Gideon made it into an ephod and set it in his city, in Ophrah; and all Israel prostituted after it there, and it became a trap to Gideon and to his house.

²⁸So Midian was humbled to the face of the children of Israel, and did not repeat to lift up their head; and the land rested forty years in the days of Gideon.

²⁹And Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelled in his house.

³⁰And to Gideon were seventy sons who went forth from his thigh, for he had great women.

³¹And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a young one; and she put his name Abimelech.

³²And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was interred in the sepulchre of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Ezrite.

³³And it happened, as Gideon died, that the children of Israel returned and prostituted after the baals, and put Baal-berith to them as God.

³⁴And the children of Israel did not remember Yahweh their God, who delivers them from the hand of all their enemies round about.

³⁵And they made no loyal love with the house of Jerubbaal Gideon, as all the good which he made with Israel.