The Judges & Ruth

And he took the leaders of the city and desert thorns and thistles, and used them to teach the people of Sukkot a lesson!

He also broke down the tower of P'nu'el and put the men of the city to death.

Then he said to Zevach and Tzalmuna, "Tell me about the men you killed at Tavor." They answered, "They looked like you, like a king's sons."

Gid'on replied, "They were my brothers, my mother's sons. As surely as ADONAI is alive, I swear that if you had spared them, I would not kill you."

Then he ordered his oldest son, Yeter, "Get up, and kill them!" But the boy didn't draw his sword; being still a boy, he was afraid.

Then Zevach and Tzalmuna said, "You, do it. You, kill us. Let a grown man do what takes a grown man's strength." So Gid'on got up and killed Zevach and Tzalmuna; then he took the ornamental crescents from around their camels' necks.

The men of Isra'el said to Gid'on: "Rule over us, you, your son and your grandson, because you saved us from the power of Midyan.

Gid'on replied, "Neither I nor my son will rule over you; ADONAI will rule over you."

Then he added, "But I have this request to make of you, that each of you would give me the earrings from the booty you have taken." For the enemy soldiers had worn gold earrings, like all the other tribes descended from Yishma'el.

They replied, "We're glad to give them to you." They spread out a robe, and each man threw in the earrings from his booty.

The gold earrings he requested weighed more than forty-two pounds; and this doesn't include the crescents, pendants and purple cloth worn by the kings of Midyan and the chains around their camels' necks.

Out of these things Gid'on made a ritual vest, which he located in his city, 'Ofrah. But all Isra'el turned it into an idol there, and it thus became a snare to Gid'on and his family.

This is how Midyan was defeated by Isra'el, so that they ceased to be a threat. The land had rest forty years during the lifetime of Gid'on;

Yeruba'al the son of Yo'ash returned to his home and stayed there.

Gid'on became the father of seventy sons, because he had many wives.

He also had a concubine in Sh'khem, and she too bore him a son, whom he called Avimelekh.

Gid'on the son of Yo'ash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Yo'ash, in 'Ofrah of the Avi'ezri.

But as soon as Gid'on was dead, the people of Isra'el again went astray after the ba'alim and made Ba'al-B'rit their god.

They forgot ADONAI their God, who had saved them from the power of all their enemies on every side;

and they showed no kindness toward the family of Yeruba'al, that is, Gid'on, to repay them for all the good he had done for Isra'el.

Avimelekh the son of Yeruba'al went to Sh'khem, to his mother's brothers, and spoke with them and with the whole clan of his maternal grandfather. He said,

"Please ask all the men of Sh'khem, 'Which is better for you - that all seventy sons of Yeruba'al rule over you, or that one person rule over you? And remember that I am your blood relative.'"

His mother's brothers spoke to all the men of Sh'khem and said all this about him, so that they followed their feelings and supported Avimelekh, arguing, "After all, he's our brother."

They also gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Ba'al-B'rit; and he used these to pay good-for-nothing thugs to follow him.

He went back to his father's house in 'Ofrah and killed his brothers the sons of Yeruba'al, all seventy of them, on a single rock, except for Yotam Yeruba'al's youngest son, who stayed alive because he hid himself.