Discovery BoxJudges 8:24-27 
Context8:24 Gideon continued, 1 “I would like to make one request. Each of you give me an earring from the plunder you have taken.” 2 (The Midianites 3 had gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites.) 8:25 They said, “We are happy to give you earrings.” 4 So they 5 spread out a garment, and each one threw an earring from his plunder onto it. 8:26 The total weight of the gold earrings he requested came to seventeen hundred gold shekels. 6 This was in addition to the crescent-shaped ornaments, jewelry, 7 purple clothing worn by the Midianite kings, and the necklaces on the camels. 8 8:27 Gideon used all this to make 9 an ephod, 10 which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites 11 prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it 12 there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.
1 tn Heb “said to them.”
2 tn Heb “Give to me, each one, an earring from his plunder.”
3 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Midianites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Heb “We will indeed give.”
5 tc In the LXX the subject of this verb is singular, referring to Gideon rather than to the Israelites.
6 sn Seventeen hundred gold shekels would be about 42.7 pounds (19.4 kilograms) of gold.
7 tn Or “pendants.”
8 tn Heb “the ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.”
9 tn Heb “made it into.”
10 sn In Exod 28:4-6 and several other texts an ephod is described as a priestly or cultic garment. In some cases an ephod is used to obtain a divine oracle (1 Sam 23:9; 30:7). Here the ephod is made of gold and is described as being quite heavy (70-75 lbs?). Some identify it as an idol, but it was more likely a cultic object fashioned in the form of a garment which was used for oracular purposes. For discussion of the ephod in the OT, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 236-43, and R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 349-52.
11 tn Heb “Israel” (a collective singular).
12 tn The words “by worshiping it” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
