16. Gideon made a whip from thorn plants and used it to beat the town officials.
17. Afterwards he went to Penuel, where he tore down the tower and killed all the town officials there.
18. Then Gideon said, “Zebah and Zalmunna, tell me about the men you killed at Tabor.”“They were a lot like you,” the two kings answered. “They were dignified, almost like royalty.”
19. “They were my very own brothers!” Gideon said. “I swear by the living Lord that if you had let them live, I would let you live.”
20. Gideon turned to Jether, his eldest son. “Kill them!” Gideon said.But Jether was young, and he was too afraid even to pull out his sword.
21. “What's the matter, Gideon?” Zebah and Zalmunna asked. “Do it yourself, if you're not too much of a coward!”Gideon jumped up and killed them both. Then he took the fine gold ornaments from the necks of their camels.
22. After the battle with the Midianites, the Israelites said, “Gideon, you rescued us! Now we want you to be our king. Then after your death, your son and then your grandson will rule.”
23. “No,” Gideon replied, “I won't be your king, and my son won't be king either. Only the Lord is your ruler.
24. But I will ask you to do one thing: give me all the earrings you took from the enemy.”The enemy soldiers had been Ishmaelites, and they wore gold earrings.
25. The Israelite soldiers replied, “Of course we will give you the earrings.” Then they spread out a robe on the ground and tossed the earrings on it.
26. The total weight of this gold was nearly twenty kilogrammes. In addition, there was the gold from the camels' ornaments and from the beautiful jewellery worn by the Midianite kings. Gideon also took their purple robes.
27-29. Gideon returned to his home in Ophrah and had the gold made into a statue, which the Israelites soon started worshipping. They became unfaithful to God, and even Gideon and his family were trapped into worshipping the statue.The Midianites had been defeated so badly that they were no longer strong enough to attack Israel. And so Israel was at peace for the remaining forty years of Gideon's life.
30. Gideon had many wives and seventy sons.
31. He even had a wife who lived at Shechem. They had a son, and Gideon named him Abimelech.
32. Gideon lived to be an old man. And when he died, he was buried in the family tomb in his home town of Ophrah, which belonged to the Abiezer clan.
33. Soon after Gideon's death, the Israelites turned their backs on God again. They set up idols of Baal and worshipped Baal Berith as their god.
34. The Israelites forgot that the Lord was their God, and that he had rescued them from the enemies who lived around them.
35. Besides all that, the Israelites were unkind to Gideon's family, even though Gideon had done so much for Israel.