Judges 8:22-9:6

8:22 And the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson as well; for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.
8:23 But Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. Jehovah will rule over you.
8:24 And Gideon said to them, Let me make a request of you, that each of you give me an earring from his spoil. (The Midianites had golden earrings, for they were Ishmaelites.)
8:25 And they said, We will willingly give it. And they spread out a garment, and each of them threw an earring from his spoil there.
8:26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold. This was besides the crescents and the pendants and the purple garments that were upon the kings of Midian and besides the chains that were on their camels’ necks.
8:27 And Gideon made an ephod with it and placed it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel went as harlots to it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his house.
8:28 So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.
8:29 Then Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelt in his house.
8:30 And Gideon had seventy sons, the issue of his loins, for he had many wives.
8:31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.
8:32 And Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age, and he was buried in the tomb of Joash his father in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
8:33 And as soon as Gideon died, the children of Israel turned again and went as harlots after the Baals. And they made Baal-berith their god.
8:34 And the children of Israel did not remember Jehovah their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies all around;
8:35 Nor did they show mercy to the house of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, for all the good he had done to Israel.

9:1 Then Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers; and he spoke to them and to all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying,
9:2 Speak now in the hearing of all the lords of Shechem, What is better for you, that all the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, rule over you, or that one man rule over you? Now remember that I am your bone and your flesh.
9:3 And his mother’s brothers spoke of him in the hearing of all the lords of Shechem with all these words; and their heart inclined toward Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother.
9:4 And they gave him seventy pieces of silver from the house of Baal-berith. And with it Abimelech hired worthless and wanton men, and they followed after him.
9:5 And he went to his father’s house in Ophrah and slew his brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone; but Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, was left, for he hid himself.
9:6 Then all the lords of Shechem and all the house of Millo gathered, and they went and made Abimelech king at the terebinth of the pillar that was in Shechem.