So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.
Gideon perceived in his popular appreciation by the Israelites an opportunity to do something that he may have believed would be a help to his people. Unfortunately it became a spiritual snare to them (cf. Judges 2:3). He decided to make an ephod (cf. Judges 17:5; Judges 18:14-20; Exodus 28:6-35).