Judges 8-9 - April 2

We have another story of what happens when power hungry, evil hearted people seek and gain control. And we have a very early version of a parable in 8:7-21. The trees ask decreasingly lower plants to rule over them. It seems fitting on a few levels. But my curiosity landed on Gideon’s ephod.

Judges 8: 27 Gideon made it into an ephod, and placed it in his city, Ophrah, and all Israel played the harlot with it there, so that it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

It seems that we do not have enough information about the ephod to be certain of what exactly it was and what exactly was its purpose. Originally, God had the Israelites make an ephod for the priest (Exodus 28:6-14). It was probably a vest or breastplate type of wearable. It was also mentioned several times in 1 Samuel. In this case however, some translations and scholars believe it to be an image of a god, perhaps due to the familiarity of the golden calf incident at Sinai.

 Regardless, this ephod - made from the gold awarded to Gideon for his victory – placed in his city - served as a snare for him and his family. I wonder if it may have been part of the cause of Abimelech's evil and the murder of Gideon’s 70 sons.