6. But the leaders in Succoth said, “You’re on a wild goose chase; why should we help you on a fool’s errand?”
7. Gideon said, “If you say so. But when God gives me Zebah and Zalmunna, I’ll give you a thrashing, whip your bare flesh with desert thorns and thistles!”
10. Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with an army of about fifteen companies, all that was left of the fighting force of the easterners—they had lost 120 companies of soldiers.
18. He then addressed Zebah and Zalmunna: “Tell me about the men you killed at Tabor.”“They were men much like you,” they said, “each one like a king’s son.”
19. Gideon said, “They were my brothers, my mother’s sons. As God lives, if you had let them live, I would let you live.”
20. Then he spoke to Jether, his firstborn: “Get up and kill them.” But he couldn’t do it, couldn’t draw his sword. He was afraid—he was still just a boy.
21. Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Do it yourself—if you’re man enough!” And Gideon did it. He stepped up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna. Then he took the crescents that hung on the necks of their camels.
22. The Israelites said, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson. You have saved us from Midian’s tyranny.”
23. Gideon said, “I most certainly will not rule over you, nor will my son. God will reign over you.”
24. Then Gideon said, “But I do have one request. Give me, each of you, an earring that you took as plunder.” Ishmaelites wore gold earrings, and the men all had their pockets full of them.
27. Gideon made the gold into a sacred ephod and put it on display in his hometown, Ophrah. All Israel prostituted itself there. Gideon and his family, too, were seduced by it.