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, 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, and they did not again lift up their head, and the land rested for forty years in the days of Gideon.
29. Jerub-Baal son of Joash lived in his own house.
30. Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives.
31. His concubine who was in Shechem also bore for him a son, and he named him 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.
33. And it happened, as soon as Gideon died, the Israelites returned and prostituted themselves after the Baals, and they made for themselves Baal-Berith as god.
34. The Israelites did not remember Yahweh their God, who had delivered them from the hand of their enemies from all around,
35. nor did they show favor to the house of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in accordance with all the good that he did for Israel.