13 Then Gideon son of Jehoash returned from the battle ⌊by way of⌋m the ascent of Heres.n 14 He captured a young man ⌊from Succoth⌋o and questioned him. The young man listedp for him the commanders of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men. 15 He came to the men of Succoth, and he said, “Here is Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Is the palmq of Zebah and Zalmunna in your hand now, that we should give food to your weary men?’ ” 16 He took the elders of the city and the thorn bushes and briers of the wilderness, and ⌊he trampled⌋r the men of Succoth with them. 17 He broke down the tower of Penuel, and he killed the men of the city.

18 And he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “What type were the men whom you killed at Tabor?” And they said, “⌊They were like you⌋;s each one of them had the appearance of the sons of the king.” 19 He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As Yahweh lives, if you had kept them alive I would not kill you.” 20 And he said to Jether, his firstborn, “Get up, kill them.” But the boy did not draw his sword, for he was afraid because he was still a boy. 21 Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Get up yourself, and strike us, for as is the man, so is his power.”t So Gideon got up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.

22 The men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, both you and your sons, and your sons’ son, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian. 23 But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; Yahweh will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “⌊Let me make a request of you⌋,u that each of you give to me an ornamental ring from his plunder.” (They had ornamental rings of gold, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 They said, “We will gladly give them,” and they spread out a garment, and everyone threw there an ornamental ring of his plunder. 26 The weight of the ornamental rings of gold that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, apart from the crescents, pendants, and purple garments that were on the kings of Midian, and apart from the pendants that were on the necks of their camels. 27 Gideon made an ephod out of it, and he put it in his town in Ophrah, and all Israel prostituted themselves to it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family. 28 And Midian was subdued before the ⌊Israelites⌋,v and they did not again lift up their head, and the land rested for forty years in the days of Gideon.

The Death of Gideon

29 Jerub-Baal son of Joash lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, ⌊his own offspring⌋,w for he had many wives. 31 His concubine who was in Shechem also bore for him a son, and ⌊he named him⌋x Abimelech. 32 And Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age, and he was buried in the tomb of Jehoash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.y