Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule you over us, both you, and your son, and your son's son also; for you have saved us out of the hand of Midian.
Gideon made this ephod from some of the jewelry the Israelites had taken from the Midianites. The writer called them "Ishmaelites" (Judges 8:24), a term that described loosely any trading nomadic group (cf. Genesis 37:25; Genesis 37:27-28; Genesis 39:1). [Note: See Kitchen, p. 119.] 