Bible Strands
Judges 8:30
Gideon had seventy sons of his own, since he had many wives.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Gideon’s family status immediately after he returns to his home in Ophrah following the defeat of Midian. This statement functions as a genealogical and political footnote before the narrative shifts to his concubine’s son.
The words — The phrase יְרֵכִי/וֹ (ye.re.Kh/i) literally means “from his thigh,” serving as a Hebrew idiom for offspring or descendants. It appears alongside שִׁבְעִים בָּנִים (shiv.'Im ba.Nim), “seventy sons,” to quantify his progeny.
The thread — This count of seventy sons directly sets up the succession conflict in Judges 9:2 and Judges 9:5, where Abimelech murders them. The proliferation of wives also echoes the warning in Deuteronomy 17:17 against leaders accumulating many spouses.
Why it lands — The text states a factual count of Gideon’s children before detailing the violent fratricide that follows. It requires the reader to observe how unchecked polygamy creates the conditions for political fracture and bloodshed.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives.
Cross-references
- Judges 9:2 “Please ask all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember that I am your own flesh and blood.”
- Judges 9:5 He went to his father’s house in Ophrah, and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, survived, because he hid himself.
- Deuteronomy 17:17 He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.
- 1 Kings 11:3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away.
- Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
- Genesis 7:7 And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
- Genesis 46:26 All those belonging to Jacob who came to Egypt—his direct descendants, besides the wives of Jacob’s sons—numbered sixty-six persons.
- Exodus 1:5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt.
- Judges 10:4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys. And they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which to this day are called Havvoth-jair.
- Judges 12:9 He had thirty sons, as well as thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage to men outside his clan; and for his sons he brought back thirty wives from elsewhere. Ibzan judged Israel seven years.