14. He captured a young man from the people of Succoth and interrogated him. He listed for Gideon the seventy-seven officials and elders of Succoth.
15. So Gideon went to the people of Succoth and said, "Here are Zebah and Zalmunna! You made fun of me because of them by saying, ‘Haven’t you already almost gotten your hands on Zebah and Zalmunna? Why should we give food to your exhausted men now?’"
16. Then he seized the city’s elders, and he beat the people of Succoth with desert thorns and briars.
17. He also broke down Penuel’s tower, and killed the city’s people.
18. Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, "What kind of men were those whom you killed at Tabor?"They replied, "They were just like you; each one looked like a king’s son."
19. "They were my brothers," Gideon said, "my own mother’s sons. As surely as the Lord lives, I promise that if you had let them live, I wouldn’t kill you!"
20. So he ordered his oldest son Jether, "Stand up and kill them." But the young man didn’t draw his sword because he was afraid, since he was still young.
21. So Zebah and Zalmunna said, "You stand up and strike us yourself, because as they say, ‘A man is measured by his strength!’" So Gideon stood up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels’ necks.
22. Then the Israelites said to Gideon, "Rule over us, you and then your son and then your grandson, because you’ve rescued us from Midian’s power."
23. Gideon replied to them, "I’m not the one who will rule over you, and my son won’t rule over you either. The Lord rules over you."
24. But Gideon said to them, "May I make one request of you? Everyone give me the earrings from their loot"; the Midianites had worn gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites.
25. "We’ll gladly give them," they replied. And they spread out a piece of cloth, and everyone pitched in the earrings from their loot.
26. The weight of the gold earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, not counting the crescents, the pendants, and the purple robes worn by the Midianite kings, or the collars that were on their camels’ necks.
27. Gideon fashioned a priestly vest out of it, and put it in his hometown of Ophrah. All Israel became unfaithful there because of it, and it became a trap for Gideon and his household.