8:24 And Gideon said unto them, {n} I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they [were] Ishmaelites.)
(n) His intent was to show himself thankful for this victory by restoring religion, which because it was not according to God's command, turned to their destruction.
8:24 Ishmaelites - A mixture of people all called by one general name, Ishmaelites or Arabians, who used to wear ear - rings; but the greatest, and the ruling part of them were Midianites.
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!
