Judges 8:27

_AND GIDEON MADE AN EPHOD THEREOF, AND PUT IT IN HIS CITY, EVEN IN OPHRAH: AND ALL ISRAEL WENT THITHER A WHORING AFTER IT: WHICH THING BECAME A SNARE UNTO GIDEON, AND TO HIS HOUSE._ Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city ... Ophrah. That no idolatrous use was in view, nor any divisive course from Shiloh contemplated, is manifest from Judges 8:33. Gideon proposed with the gold he received to make an ephod for his use only as a civil magistrate or ruler, as David did (1 Chronicles 15:27), and a magnificent pectoral or breastplate also. It would seem, from the history, that he was not blameable in making this ephod. etc., as a civil robe or ornament merely, but that it afterward became an object to which religious ideas were attached; whereby it proved a snare, and cons

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 8:27. _GIDEON MADE AN EPHOD THEREOF_] That is, he made an ephod _out of this_ mass of gold; but he could not employ it _all_ in making this one garment, for it is not likely that any man could wear a coat of nearly one hundred pounds weight. It is likely that he made a whole tabernacle service in miniature out of this gold. _ALL ISRAEL WENT THITHER A WHORING AFTER IT_] This form of speech often occurs, and has been often explained. The whole Jewish nation is represented as being _united to God_ as a _wife is to her_ _husband_. Any act of _idolatry_ is considered as a _breach of their_ _covenant_ with God, as an act of _whoredom_ is the breach of the _marriage agreement_ between man and wife. God calls himself the _husband_ of the Jewish nation, and their _idolatries_ acts of whoredom, a

The ephod was that particular part of the high priest’s dress which was necessary to be worst when he inquired of God by Urim and Thummim. It seems that Gideon being now the civil ruler, desired to have an ephod of his own, kept in his own city, to he worn by the priest whenever Gideon might summon him to inquire of the Lord for him. His relations with the tribe of Ephraim probably made him unwilling to resort to Shiloh. Compare the act of Jeroboam 1 Kings 12:28....

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 GIDEON MADE AN EPHOD THEREOF,.... That is, of some of this gold; for such a quantity could never have been expanded on an ephod only, even taking it not for a linen ephod, but such an one as the high priest wore, made of gold, of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, with curious work, together with a curious girdle of the same work; unless we suppose such a breastplate with it, of twelve precious stones, as Aaron had; and with little images of teraphim or cherubim in it, as Dr. Spencer thinks i. The Jewish commentators generally understand this ephod to be made as a memorial of the great salvation God had wrought by his hands for Israel, and of the wonderful things done by him; so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Gersom; but such a garment, whether worn by him, or hung up in some certain place, seems not so proper and pertinent to perpetuate the memory of his victories, as a monu...

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;...

EPHOD. Probably the priests were lax in restoring the worship of the true God. So that Gideon would have meant well and desired to judge well. Compare Judges 17:5, where Micah made another. The reason given being that "there was no king, and every man did what was right in his own eyes", Judges 17:6. and Judges 18:5, where it was used to "ask counsel"; and for the same reason, Judges 18:1....

_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