Judges 8 · a question people ask
Gideon said, "I will not rule over you" (8:23). Did he mean it?
His words are plain: "I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. The LORD shall rule over you" (8:23). The chapter goes on to tell what he asked for and what he had (8:24-31), without comment. Both readings below agree on his words, that "The land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon" (8:28), and that the chapter speaks of "all the goodness which he had shown to Israel" (8:35). Christians read his refusal in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A true refusal
Those who hold this view take his words as they stand, a refusal for himself and his son (8:23). They note that after the victory "Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house" (8:29), that the chapter never calls him king, and that it was the men of Shechem who later "made Abimelech king" (9:6), not Gideon.
Judges 8:23 · Judges 8:29 · Judges 9:6
Refused the word, not the way
Those who hold this view note what follows the refusal: the gold he asked for, "one thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold" (8:26), and "he had many wives" (8:30). The law for a king had said, "He shall not multiply wives to himself" and "He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold" (Deuteronomy 17:17). And after his death Abimelech asks the men of Shechem whether it is better that "all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you" (9:2).
Judges 8:24-26 · Judges 8:30 · Deuteronomy 17:17 · Judges 9:2
The verses
“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.”
“neither did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shown to Israel.”