²⁶ The weight of the golden earnings he had asked for was one thousand, seven hundred golden shekels, not counting the ornaments, the necklaces, the purple garments that had been worn by the kings of Midian, and the chains that had been on the necks of their camels.

²⁷ Gideon had the gold made into an ephod^[a] which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. All of Israel prostituted itself by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household. ²⁸ This is how Midian was subjected to the Israelites, so that they did not lift up their heads again. During Gideon’s lifetime there was peace in the land, for forty years.