4And Gideon came to the Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing them. 5And he said to the men of Succoth, “Give, I pray you, loaves of bread to the people who follow me; for they are faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian”. 6And the princes of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7And Gideon said, “Therefore when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers”. 8And he went up from there to Penuel, and spoke to them likewise; and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered him. 9And he spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower”.

10Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, with their hosts of about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of all the hosts of the children of the east; for there fell a hundred twenty thousand men who drew sword. 11And Gideon went up by the way of them who dwelt in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and struck the host; for the host was secure. 12And when Zebah and Zalmunna fled, he pursued them, and took those two Midian kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, and vanquished all their men.

13And Gideon, the son of Joash, returned from battle before the sun was up, 14And caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and interrogated him: and the young man wrote down for him the names of the princes of Succoth, and their elders, even seventy-seven men. 15And he came to the men of Succoth, and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, with whom you did upbraid me, saying, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men that are weary?”” 16And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth. 17And he beat down the tower of Penuel, and slew the men of the city. 18Then said he to Zebah and Zalmunna, “What manner of men were they whom you slew at Tabor?” And they answered, “As you are, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king.” 19And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother; as the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not slay you”. 20And he said to Jether, his firstborn, “Up, and slay them”. But the youth drew not his sword; for he feared, because he was yet a youth. 21Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise, and fall upon us; for as the man is, so is his strength”. And Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks.

22Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, both you, and your son, and your son's son also; for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian”. 23And Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the LORD shall rule over you”. 24And Gideon said to them, I would desire a request of you, that you would give me every man the earrings of his spoil. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25And they answered, “We will willingly give them”. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his spoil. 26And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand 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. 27And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went there playing the harlot with it, which thing became a snare to Gideon, and to his house.

28Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.

29And Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went and dwelt in his own house. 30And Gideon had seventy sons of his body begotten; for he had many wives. 31And his concubine, who was in Shechem, she also bore him a son, whose name he called Abimelech. 32And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulcher of Joash, his father, in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites. 33And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and played the harlot with Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god. 34And the children of Israel remembered not the LORD their God, Who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side; 35Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had showed to Israel.