Day 298 of 939
JDG 8:18-35
JDG 8:18-35 · JHN 9:11-19
Not written yet
The reading for this day is below. The commentary has not been written and reviewed yet — it is added a book at a time, and every day is read by a person before it appears here.
JDG 8:18-35
18Next, Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” “Men like you,” they answered, “each one resembling the son of a king.” 19“They were my brothers,” Gideon replied, “the sons of my mother! As surely as the LORD lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.” 20So he said to Jether, his firstborn, “Get up and kill them.” But the young man did not draw his sword; he was fearful because he was still a youth. 21Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Get up and kill us yourself, for as the man is, so is his strength.” So Gideon got up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments from the necks of their camels. 22Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you and your son and grandson—for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The LORD shall rule over you.” 24Then he added, “Let me make a request of you, that each of you give me an earring from his plunder.” (For the enemies had gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites.) 25“We will give them gladly,” they replied. So they spread out a garment, and each man threw an earring from his plunder onto it. 26The weight of the gold earrings he had requested was 1,700 shekels, in addition to the crescent ornaments, the pendants, the purple garments of the kings of Midian, and the chains from the necks of their camels. 27From all this Gideon made an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household. 28In this way Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. So the land had rest for forty years in the days of Gideon, 29and he—Jerubbaal son of Joash—returned home and settled down. 30Gideon had seventy sons of his own, since he had many wives. 31His concubine, who dwelt in Shechem, also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. 32Later, Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33And as soon as Gideon was dead, the Israelites turned and prostituted themselves with the Baals, and they set up Baal-berith as their god. 34The Israelites failed to remember the LORD their God who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. 35They did not show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for Israel.
Secondary reading — JHN 9:11-19
11He answered, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and anointed my eyes, and He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12“Where is He?” they asked. “I do not know,” he answered. 13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath. 15So the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. The man answered, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.” 16Because of this, some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was division among them. 17So once again they asked the man who had been blind, “What do you say about Him, since it was your eyes He opened?” “He is a prophet,” the man replied. 18The Jews still did not believe that the man had been blind and had received his sight until they summoned his parents 19and asked, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he can now see?”