15. When he came to the men of Succoth, he said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna—about whom you mocked me saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’”
16. Then he seized the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he punished the men of Succoth.
17. He also tore down the tower of Penuel and slew the men of the city.
18. Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” “As you are, so they were,” they answered. “Each one looked like the children of a king.”
19. “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother,” he said. “As Adonai lives, if only you had let them live, I would not kill you.”
20. Then he said to Jeter his first-born, “Arise, kill them!” But the boy could not draw his sword, for he was afraid, since he was still a youth.
21. Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise up yourself and fall on us—for as the man is, so is his strength.” So Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescent ornaments that were on their camels’ necks.
22. Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son, and your grandson as well. For you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.”
23. But Gideon replied to them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. Adonai alone will rule over you.”
24. Yet Gideon said to them, “I would make a request of you, that you would give me every man an earring from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)
25. “We’ll certainly give them!” they replied. So they spread out a robe, and each one of them threw an earring from his spoil.
26. So the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold—besides the crescent ornaments, the pendants and the purple robes that were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were on their camels’ necks.
27. Gideon made it into an ephod, and put it in his town Ophrah. But all Israel prostituted themselves after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.