SEV Biblia, Chapter 8:27
Y Gedeón hizo de ellos un efod, el cual hizo guardar en su ciudad de Ofra; y todo Israel fornicó tras de ese efod en aquel lugar; y fue por tropiezo a Gedeón y a su casa.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Judges 8:27
Verse 27. Gideon made an ephod thereof] That is, he made an ephod out of this mass of gold; but he could not employ it all in making this one garment, for it is not likely that any man could wear a coat of nearly one hundred pounds weight. It is likely that he made a whole tabernacle service in miniature out of this gold. All Israel went thither a whoring after it] This form of speech often occurs, and has been often explained. The whole Jewish nation is represented as being united to God as a wife is to her husband. Any act of idolatry is considered as a breach of their covenant with God, as an act of whoredom is the breach of the marriage agreement between man and wife.
God calls himself the husband of the Jewish nation, and their idolatries acts of whoredom, adultery, and fornication. All Israel paid idolatrous worship to the ephod or sacerdotal establishment made by Gideon at Ophrah, and this is called going a whoring after it; see on ver. 33. For a description of the ephod, see Exod. xxv. 7; and for the other garments of the priests, see Exodus xxviii. 4, &c.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 27. And Gideon made an ephod thereof , etc.] That is, of some of this gold; for such a quantity could never have been expanded on an ephod only, even taking it not for a linen ephod, but such an one as the high priest wore, made of gold, of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, with curious work, together with a curious girdle of the same work; unless we suppose such a breastplate with it, of twelve precious stones, as Aaron had; and with little images of teraphim or cherubim in it, as Dr. Spencer thinks f183 . The Jewish commentators generally understand this ephod to be made as a memorial of the great salvation God had wrought by his hands for Israel, and of the wonderful things done by him; so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Gersom; but such a garment, whether worn by him, or hung up in some certain place, seems not so proper and pertinent to perpetuate the memory of his victories, as a monument or pillar would have been; it looks therefore more likely to be done with a religious view, which afterwards was perverted to superstitious uses; and whereas Gideon had built an altar already by the command of God, and had sacrificed upon it, he might think himself authorized as a priest, and therefore provided this ephod for himself; or however for a priest he might think of taking into his family, and so use it as an oracle to consult upon special occasions, without going to Shiloh, the Ephraimites having displeased him in their rough expostulations with him; and so R. Isaiah interprets it of a kind of divination or oracle which gave answers: and put it in his city, even in Ophrah ; hung it up in some proper place as a monument of his victories, as is generally thought; or in a structure built on purpose for it, to which he might resort as to an oracle: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it : made an idol of it and worshipped it, and so committed spiritual fornication, which is idolatry.
Some render it, “after him” f184 ; not after the ephod, but after Gideon; that is, after his death, so Jarchi; no ill use was made of it in Gideon’s time, though he cannot be altogether excused from sin and weakness in making it; but after his death it was soon made an ill use of: which thing proved a snare to Gideon and to his house ; it was a snare to him if he consulted it as an oracle, which could not be without sin, since the only Urim and Thummim to be consulted were in the breastplate of the high priest at the tabernacle; and it was what led his family into idolatry, and was the ruin of it, as well as it reflected great discredit and disgrace upon so good and brave a man: some read the words f185 : “to Gideon, that is, to his house”; or family; he being so good a man himself, it is not thought that he could be ensnared into idolatry itself; though it is apparent that men as wise and as good have fallen into it, as particularly Solomon.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 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, a usual, a teraphim annexed to it, and Gideon intended this for an oracl to be consulted. Many are led into false ways by one false step of good man. It became a snare to Gideon himself, and it proved the rui 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!
Original Hebrew
ויעשׂ 6213 אותו 853 גדעון 1439 לאפוד 646 ויצג 3322 אותו 853 בעירו 5892 בעפרה 6084 ויזנו 2181 כל 3605 ישׂראל 3478 אחריו 310 שׁם 8033 ויהי 1961 לגדעון 1439 ולביתו 1004 למוקשׁ׃ 4170
