Judges 8:29

The Final Days of Gideon (Judges 8:29).

Judges 8:29

‘ And Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house.'

He was now accepted as a ruler in his own right and set up his own household, no longer subject directly to his father. He was of course already a married man of some years as witness his teenage son (Judges 8:20).

The judges had no palace, no royal court, they obtained no taxes (except for indirect maintenance of the system of tithes which were collected by the Levites), they ruled by divine favour and recognition by the people. But they had the right to call to arms the tribal confederacy when the need arose, and to seek God's will through Urim and Thummim at the central sanctuary, (which may have been where the ephod came in, a convenient means of doing something similar without the hassle), and arbitrated on behalf of the people in accordance with custom and the law of God.

The switch to Jerubbaal rather than Gideon may be to remind us that he was the conqueror of Baal, a man once maligned, but now made a prince among his people.