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23 But Gideon answered them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. The Lord must rule over you.”(A)

24 Gideon went on to say, “Let me make a request of you. Give me, each of you, a ring from his spoils.” (Since they were Ishmaelites,[a] the enemy had gold rings.) 25 “We will certainly give them,” they replied, and they spread out a cloak into which everyone threw a ring from his spoils.

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Footnotes

  1. 8:24 Ishmaelites: evidently used here as a general term for nomads, whose wealth was in the form of gold and flocks. The genealogies in Genesis place the Midianites as descendants of Abraham and his wife Keturah (Gn 25:1–2), and the Ishmaelites as the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave (Gn 25:12–16).