22 The Israelites said, "Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson. You have saved us from Midian's tyranny." 23 Gideon said, "I most certainly will not rule over you, nor will my son. God will reign over you." 24 Then Gideon said, "But I do have one request. Give me, each of you, an earring that you took as plunder." Ishmaelites wore gold earrings, and the men all had their pockets full of them. 25 They said, "Of course. They're yours!" 26 The gold earrings that Gideon had asked for weighed about forty-three pounds - and that didn't include the crescents and pendants, the purple robes worn by the Midianite kings, and the ornaments hung around the necks of their camels. 27 Gideon made the gold into a sacred ephod and put it on display in his hometown, Ophrah. All Israel prostituted itself there. Gideon and his family, too, were seduced by it. 28 Midian's tyranny was broken by the Israelites; nothing more was heard from them. The land was quiet for forty years in Gideon's time.
29 Jerub-Baal son of Joash went home and lived in his house. 30 Gideon had seventy sons. He fathered them all - he had a lot of wives! 31 His concubine, the one at Shechem, also bore him a son. He named him Abimelech. 32 Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age. He was buried in the tomb of his father Joash at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 Gideon was hardly cool in the tomb when the People of Israel had gotten off track and were prostituting themselves to Baal - they made Baal-of-the-Covenant their god. 34 The People of Israel forgot all about God, their God, who had saved them from all their enemies who had hemmed them in. 35 And they didn't keep faith with the family of Jerub-Baal (Gideon), honoring all the good he had done for Israel.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Judges 8:22-35
Commentary on Judges 8:22-28
(Read Judges 8:22-28)
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!
Commentary on Judges 8:29-35
(Read Judges 8:29-35)
As soon as Gideon was dead, who kept the people to the worship of the God of Israel, they found themselves under no restraint; then they went after Baalim, and showed no kindness to the family of Gideon. No wonder if those who forget their God, forget their friends. Yet conscious of our own ingratitude to the Lord, and observing that of mankind in general, we should learn to be patient under any unkind returns we meet with for our poor services, and resolve, after the Divine example, not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good.