Gideon said to them, I would make a request of you, that you would give me every man the ear-rings of his spoil. (For they had golden ear-rings, because they were Ishmaelites.)
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).