Judges 8:22-35

Gideon Refuses a Kingdom, and Erects an Ephod. Long before the Israelites had any human kings. Yahweh was regarded as their Divine King, and Gideon, like Samuel (1 Samuel 8:7; 1 Samuel 10:19; 1 Samuel 12:12; 1 Samuel 12:17; 1 Samuel 12:19), expresses the view that the Divine kingship leaves no room for a human sovereignty. This view became prevalent in the eighth century B.C., when a succession of wicked kings was ruining the northern kingdom (Hosea 8:4; Hosea 13:11).

Judges 8:24. In gratitude to Yahweh, who had stood by him and given him victory, Gideon uses the spoils of war to make a golden ephod, which he sets up to Yahweh's glory at Ophrah. This act is spoken of without disapproval, except in Judges 8:27 b, which many scholars regard as an editorial addition. A later age, trained in more spiritual conceptions, took offence at Gideon's action, and saw in it the cause of the disaster which befell his house (G. A. Cooke). The nature and purpose of an ephod in the time of the Judges are not explicitly stated. It certainly was not a sacred vest, such as was worn by the High Priest in the second Temple. It was clearly an image of some kind, and it was used in the service of Yahweh (p. 100).

Judges 8:33 contains the familiar phrases of D, who is grieved at Israel's ingratitude, first to Yahweh their deliverer, and then to Gideon their earthly benefactor. [Observe also the characteristic generalisation of the purely local and Canaanite cult of Baal-berith (Judges 9:4; Judges 9:46) into a cult adopted by Israel as a whole. A. S. P.]