8:28 the days of Gideon. For a man who started out so well, Gideon’s heritage was disappointing and tragic. His merciless revenge on his own countrymen, then his demand for an exorbitant reward, followed by his making a golden ephod which soon became an idol, plus taking many wives and fathering seventy sons (who knows how many daughters) all left a bad memory in the minds of his people. Even though he had delivered them from the Midianites and kept the land in peace for forty years, the children of Israel returned to idolatry as soon as Gideon died. Most tragic of all, one of the sons conspired to make himself king by getting most of the others killed.