Judges 8:26

_AND THE WEIGHT OF THE GOLDEN EARRINGS THAT HE REQUESTED WAS A THOUSAND AND SEVEN HUNDRED SHEKELS OF GOLD; BESIDE ORNAMENTS, AND COLLARS, AND PURPLE RAIMENT THAT WAS ON THE KINGS OF MIDIAN, AND BESIDE THE CHAINS THAT WERE ABOUT THEIR CAMELS' NECKS._ Ornaments - crescent-like plates of gold suspended from the necks, or placed on the breasts, of the camels. COLLARS - necklaces of gold or pearl. PURPLE - a royal colour. The ancient as well as modern Arabs adorned the necks, breasts, and legs of their riding animals with sumptuous housing. See description of a similar dress in the ancient Persian (Xenophon, 'Cyrus,' lib. 1:, 100: 3; Quintus Curtius, lib. 3:, 100: 3), and in Assyrian kings (Layard, 'Nineveh and its Remains,' ii., p. 322)....

22-28 Gideon refused the government the people offered him. No good man can be pleased with any honour done to himself, which belongs only to God. Gideon thought to keep up the remembrance of this victory by an ephod, made of the choicest of the spoils. But probably this ephod had, as usual, a teraphim annexed to it, and Gideon intended this for an oracle to be consulted. Many are led into false ways by one false step of a good man. It became a snare to Gideon himself, and it proved the ruin of the family. How soon will ornaments which feed the lust of the eye, and form the pride of life, as well as tend to the indulgences of the flesh, bring shame on those who are fond of them!...

Verse Judges 8:26. _THE WEIGHT OF THE GOLDEN EAR-RINGS - WAS A THOUSAND AND_ _SEVEN HUNDRED SHEKELS OF GOLD_] Taking the shekel at _half an ounce_ weight, the sum of the gold collected in ear-rings was seventy pounds ten ounces; and worth, as gold now rates, about £3,100 sterling. This computation of the weight of the golden _ear-rings_, taken from the slaughtered Ishmaelites, will bring to the reader's mind the slaughter of the Roman knights by the Carthaginians at the battle of _Cannae_, from whose spoils Hannibal sent _three bushels_ of gold rings to the city of Carthage!...

If the Ishmaelite nose-rings were half a shekel in weight, then 1,700 shekels weight of gold implied that 3,400 persons wearing, gold rings had been slain. The “collars” were rather “ear-drops.”...

EXPOSITION JUDGES 8:22, JUDGES 8:23 RULE THOU, etc. The gratitude of Israel to their great deliverer, added to a sense that it would be for their own security, and to a desire, already perhaps beginning to he felt, to be like the nations around them (1 Samuel 8:5), naturally led to the offer, "Rule thou over us." But the time predicted by Moses (Deuteronomy 17:14, Deuteronomy 17:15) was not yet come. And so Gideon returned an answer replete with moderation an

AND THE WEIGHT OF THE GOLDEN EARRINGS HE REQUESTED WAS ONE THOUSAND AND SEVEN HUNDRED SHEKELS OF GOLD,.... Which, as Schcuchzer e computes, was eight hundred and ten ounces, five drachms, one scruple, and ten grains, of the weight of physicians; but as reckoned by Moatanus f amounted to eight hundred and fifty ounces, and were of the value of 6800 crowns of gold; and, according to Waserus g, it amounted to 3400 Hungarian pieces of gold, and of their money at Zurich upwards of 15,413 pounds, and of our money 2,380 pounds: BESIDES ORNAMENTS; such as were upon the necks of the camels, Judges 8:21 for the same word is used here as there: AND COLLARS; the Targum renders it a crown, and Ben Melech says in the Arabic language the word signifies clear crystal; but Kimchi and Ben Gersom take them to be golden vessels, in which they put "stacte", or some odoriferous

CHAPTER 8 INTERNAL STRIFE, GIDEON'S FAILURE AND END _ 1. The strife (Judges 8:1)_ 2. The complete deliverance (Judges 8:10) 3. Gideon's failure and end (Judges 8:22) 4. Israel's failure after Gideon (Judges 8:33) Internal strife follows. The two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, were slain (Judges 7:25). Oreb means “raven” and Zeeb means “wolf.” Oreb, the raven, is slain on the rock and Zeeb, the wolf, at the winepress. The raven, the bird which represents darkness and evil, is the type of corruption; the wolf is the destroyer o

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;...

_Gideon refuses the kingship: he sets up an ephod: conclusion_ 22 _.the men of Israel_ Not the 300 of Judges 8:4, but the men who formed the army Judges 7:14; Judges 9:55, the Israelites drawn from Ephraim, Manasseh, and the neighbouring tribes Judges 7:23. Thus Judges 8:22 are probably not the sequel of Judges 7:4-21, nor of Judges 7:1-3, for the Ephraimites shewed anything but a dispositio

_Gideon Captures and Slays Midian's Kings Judges 8:1-28_ And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites? And they did chide with him sharply. 2 And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? 3 God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that. 4 And Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them. 5 And he said unto the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me; for they be faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian. 6 An