Juízes 8 - Bíblia Online

Então lhe disseram os homens de Efraim: Que é isso que nos fizeste, em não nos chamares, quando foste pelejar contra Midiã? Repreenderam-no asperamente. 
Respondeu-lhes: Que fiz eu comparável com o que vós fizestes? Não são os rabiscos de Efraim melhores do que a vindima de Abiezer? 
Deus vos entregou nas mãos os príncipes de Midiã, Orebe e Zeebe; que pude eu fazer de comparável com o que vós fizestes? Então se lhes aplacou a ira, depois que ele dissera isso. 
Veio Gideão ao Jordão que passou juntamente com os trezentos homens que estavam com ele, desfalecidos, mas perseguindo. 
Disse aos homens de Sucote: Dai uns pães ao povo que me segue, pois estão desfalecidos, e eu vou perseguindo a Zeba e a Zalmuna, reis de Midiã. 
Responderam os príncipes de Sucote: Porventura já se acham no teu poder as mãos de Zeba e Zalmuna, para que déssemos pão ao teu exército? 
Tornou-lhes Gideão: Pois, quando Jeová me tiver entregado nas mãos a Zeba e a Zalmuna, hei de vos rasgar as carnes com os espinhos do deserto e com os abrolhos. 
Dali subiu a Penuel, e falou-lhes da mesma maneira. Os homens de Penuel responderam-lhe como os homens de Sucote lhe haviam respondido. 
Disse também aos homens de Penuel: Quando eu voltar em paz, derrubarei esta torre. 
Estavam Zeba e Zalmuna em Carcor, com as suas hostes, uns quinze mil homens, os restantes de todo o exército dos filhos do Oriente: pois caíram cento e vinte mil homens que puxavam da espada. 
Subiu Gideão pelo caminho dos nômades, ao oriente de Noba e Jogbeá, e feriu a hoste inimiga, porque ela se dava por segura. 
Fugiram Zeba e Zalmuna: Gideão perseguiu-os, prendeu os dois reis de Midiã, Zeba e Zalmuna, e desbaratou toda a hoste. 
Gideão, filho de Joás, voltou da peleja desde a subida de Heres. 
Tendo prendido a um moço dos homens de Sucote, o inquiriu. Este lhe deu por escrito os nomes dos príncipes de Sucote, e dos seus anciãos, setenta e sete homens. 
Veio aos homens de Sucote, e disse: Eis aqui Zeba e Zalmuna, a respeito dos quais me motejastes, dizendo: Porventura se acham no teu poder as mãos de Zeba e Zalmuna, para que déssemos pão aos teus homens que estão desfalecidos? 
Tomou os anciãos da cidade, e espinhos do deserto e abrolhos, e com eles ensinou aos homens de Sucote. 
Derrubou também a torre de Penuel, e matou os homens da cidade. 
Disse a Zeba e Zalmuna: Que sorte de homens eram os que matastes em Tabor? Responderam eles: Como és tu, assim eram eles; cada um parecia filho de rei. 
Gideão tornou: Eles eram meus irmãos, filhos de minha mãe: por Jeová, que se vós tivésseis poupado a vida a eles, eu não vos mataria! 
Então disse a Jeter, seu primogênito: Levanta-te, e mata-os. O mancebo, porém, não puxou da espada; pois temia, porque ainda era moço. 
Disseram Zeba e Zalmuna: Levanta-te, e lança-te sobre nós, porque qual o homem, tal a sua força. Levantando-se Gideão, matou a Zeba e a Zalmuna, e tirou os colares que estavam aos pescoços dos seus camelos. 
Então disseram os homens de Israel a Gideão: Domina sobre nós, tanto tu, e teu filho, bem como o filho de teu filho; porque nos livraste do poder de Midiã. 
Gideão respondeu-lhes: Eu não dominarei sobre vós, nem sobre vós dominará meu filho; Jeová vos dominará. 
Disse-lhes mais Gideão: Permiti-me fazer-vos um pedido: dá-me cada um as arrecadas do seu despojo. (Porque os ismaelitas usavam arrecadas de ouro.) 
Eles responderam: De boa vontade as daremos. Estenderam uma capa, e cada um deles deitou ali as arrecadas do seu despojo. 
O peso das arrecadas de ouro, que pediu, foi mil e setecentos siclos de ouro (afora os colares, e os pendentes, e os vestidos de púrpura que os reis de Midiã trajavam, e afora as cadeias que estavam aos pescoços dos seus camelos). 
Dele fez Gideão um efode, e colocou-o na sua cidade de Ofra: ali ia todo o Israel a idolatrá-lo; e foi um laço para Gideão e sua casa. 
Foram abatidos os midianitas diante dos filhos de Israel, e nunca mais levantaram a cabeça. A terra teve descanso quarenta anos nos dias de Gideão. 
Retirou-se Jerubaal, filho de Joás, e habitou em sua casa. 
Gideão teve setenta filhos que saíram da sua coxa, porque tinha muitas mulheres. 
A sua concubina que morava em Siquém deu-lhe à luz também um filho; e ele lhe pôs por nome Abimeleque. 
Morreu Gideão, filho de Joás, numa boa velhice, e foi sepultado no sepulcro de seu pai Joás, em Ofra dos abiezritas. 
Logo que morreu Gideão, tornaram os filhos de Israel a idolatrarem os baalins, e fizeram a Baal-Berite o seu deus. 
Os filhos de Israel não se lembraram de Jeová seu Deus, que os havia libertado da mão de todos os seus inimigos ao redor; 
nem usaram de beneficência para com a casa de Jerubaal, o qual é Gideão, segundo toda a bondade que ele havia mostrado para com Israel. 

And the men of Ephraim came and said to him, Why did you not send for us when you went to war against Midian? And they said sharp and angry words to him. 
And he said to them, What have I done in comparison with you? Is not that which Ephraim took up after the grape-cutting better than all the grapes which Abiezer got in from the grape-cutting? 
God has given into your hands the chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; what have I been able to do in comparison with you? And when he said this, their feeling about him became kinder. 
Then Gideon came to Jordan and went over it with his three hundred, overcome with weariness and in need of food. 
And he said to the men of Succoth, Give bread cakes to my people, for they are overcome with weariness, and I am going on after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. 
But the chiefs of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna even now in your hand that we are to give bread to your army? 
Then Gideon said, Because of this, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I will have you stretched on a bed of thorns of the waste land and on sharp stems, and have you crushed as grain is crushed on a grain-floor. 
So he went up from there to Penuel and made the same request to the men of Penuel; but they gave him the same answer as the men of Succoth had given. 
So he said to the men of Penuel, When I come back in peace, I will have this tower broken down. 
Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, those of all the army of the children of the east who were still living; for a hundred and twenty thousand of their swordsmen had been put to death. 
And Gideon went up by the way used by the people living in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and made an attack on the army when they had no thought of danger. 
And Zebah and Zalmunna went in flight; and he went after them, and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and put all the army to the curse. 
Then Gideon, the son of Joash, went back from the fight: 
And taking prisoner a young man of the people of Succoth, he got from him, in answer to his questions, a list of the chiefs of Succoth and the responsible men, seventy-seven men. 
So he came to the men of Succoth and said, Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, on account of whom you made sport of me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna even now in your hand, that we are to give bread to your army who are overcome with weariness? 
Then he took the responsible men of the town and had them crushed on a bed of thorns and sharp stems. 
And he had the tower of Penuel broken down and the men of the town put to death. 
Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, Where are the men whom you put to death at Tabor? And they gave answer, As you are, so were they; every one of them was like a king's son. 
And he said, They were my brothers, my mother's sons: by the life of the Lord, if you had kept them safe, I would not put you to death. 
Then he said to Jether, his oldest son, Up! Put them to death. But the boy did not take out his sword, fearing because he was still a boy. 
Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Up! Put an end to us yourself: for you have a man's strength. Then Gideon got up and put Zebah and Zalmunna to death and took the ornaments which were on their camels' necks. 
Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Be our ruler, you and your son and your son's son after him; for you have been our saviour from the hands of Midian. 
But Gideon said to them, I will not be a ruler over you, and my son will not be a ruler over you: it is the Lord who will be ruler over you. 
Then Gideon said to them, I have a request to make to you; let every man give me the ear-rings he has taken. (For they had gold ear-rings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 
And they gave answer, We will gladly give them. So they put down a robe, every man dropping into it the ear-rings he had taken. 
The weight of the gold ear-rings which he got from them was one thousand, seven hundred shekels of gold; in addition to the moon-ornaments and jewels and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and the chains on their camels' necks. 
And Gideon made an ephod from them and put it up in his town Ophrah; and all Israel went after it there and were false to the Lord; and it became a cause of sin to Gideon and his house. 
So Midian was broken before the children of Israel and the Midianites never got back their strength. And the land had peace for forty years, in the days of Gideon. 
And Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went back to his house and was living there. 
Gideon had seventy sons, the offspring of his body; for he had a number of wives. 
And the servant-wife he had in Shechem had a son by him, to whom he gave the name Abimelech. 
And Gideon, the son of Joash, came to his end when he was very old, and his body was put in the resting-place of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 
And after the death of Gideon, the children of Israel again went after the gods of Canaan and were false to the Lord, and made Baal-berith their god. 
And the children of Israel did not keep in their minds the Lord their God, who had been their saviour from all their haters on every side; 
And they were not kind to the house of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, in reward for all the good he had done to Israel. 

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