Judges 8:33 - Printer Friendly

ESV: As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god.

NIV: No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god

NASB: Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again committed infidelity with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god.

CSB: When Gideon died, the Israelites turned and prostituted themselves by worshiping the Baals and made Baal-berith their god.

NLT: As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping the images of Baal, making Baal-berith their god.

KJV: And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god.

NKJV: So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god.

After forty years of peace in Israel, Gideon has died (Judges 8:32). As is the case with many of the judges, the loss of Israel's latest deliverer frees the people to immediately return to worshiping the false gods of the land of Canaan (Judges 2:11–19). Although Gideon led the people to worship the golden ephod he had created (Judges 8:27), he must also have restrained the people from returning to worship of the gods of the land. These false gods were referred to using the term baal, which broadly refers to a "lord."

Here, again, the writer uses the Old Testament metaphor of infidelity when speaking of idolatry. The Hebrew term zanah refers to fornication and prostitution. The imagery is of something debased, vile, shameful, and wicked. The disgust that God applies to idolatry is reflected in the pungent English word "whoring." Israel once again became unfaithful to their God, parallel to someone being sexually unfaithful to a spouse. Even more embarrassing, idolatry made the people comparable to a prostitute: serving other gods in search of personal profit.

This time, the focus of Israel's worship is a god called Baal-berith, which may mean "Master of the covenant." This betrayal of the Lord God might have been especially outrageous: the text suggests Israel made that false god their only god. They literally replaced the Lord with this version of Baal (Exodus 20:1–6). The worship of Baal-berith may have been centered in the Canaanite town of Shechem (Judges 8:30–31). It is there where much of the following chapter will take place.

Judges 8:29–35 describes Gideon's enormous family after God's power defeated Midianite raiders. Wealthy and influential, Gideon takes many wives and has seventy sons. This includes one son by a Canaanite concubine. Unrestrained by a deliverer after Gideon's death, the people of Israel dive deeper into worshiping false idols. They abandon God and worship Baal-berith. They also stop caring for Gideon's family. This sudden change factors into the sordid events recorded in chapter 9.

Gideon soothes the anger of the men of Ephraim. Then, with his 300 fighting men, he chases the remnant of the Midianite army. After a difficult pursuit, he finally catches and defeats them in the wilderness. Gideon then returns to two Israelite towns who refused to help him along the way. He flogs the leaders of one town and kills the men of the other. He then executes the captured enemy kings. Gideon collects tribute from Israel but declines to become their official king. He lives to gain seventy sons, many wives, and at least one Canaanite concubine. When Gideon dies, Israel immediately returns to idol worship.

Judges 8 follows the great victory described at the end of the previous chapter. This passage begins with Gideon awkwardly soothing the anger of Ephraimites while trying to chase down an escaping enemy. After capturing the Midianite kings, Gideon punishes two towns for failing to aid their fellow Israelites. Gideon refuses to become a literal king but collects tribute from the people and lives like a king all his days, with many wives and sons. The people return to idol worship after his death. Soon after, the concubine's son, Abimelech, murders Gideon's other sons and briefly rules before meeting a gruesome death.

The Book of Judges describes Israel's history from the death of Joshua to shortly before Israel's first king, Saul. Israel fails to complete God's command to purge the wicked Canaanites from the land (Deuteronomy 7:1–5; 9:4). This results in a centuries-long cycle where Israel falls into sin and is oppressed by local enemies. After each oppression, God sends a civil-military leader, labeled using a Hebrew word loosely translated into English as "judge." These appointed rescuers would free Israel from enemy control and govern for a certain time. After each judge's death, the cycle of sin and oppression begins again. This continues until the people of Israel choose a king, during the ministry of the prophet-and-judge Samuel (1 Samuel 1—7).