Judges 8:35

Study note

Setting — The narrator records the Israelites' collective response following Gideon's military victory. This statement immediately follows the declaration that Israel failed to remember the LORD who delivered them from their enemies.

The words — The Hebrew construction לֹא־עָשׂוּ חֶסֶד (lo'- 'a.Su Che.sed) literally renders "they did not do loyalty." The verb עָשָׂה ('a.Su) normally means "to do" or "to make," paired here with חֶסֶד (Che.sed) to denote covenantal faithfulness or steadfast love.

The thread — This omission of loyalty resurfaces in Judges 9:16, which questions whether the people acted faithfully toward Jerubbaal and his family, and is fulfilled in Judges 9:5 when Abimelech murders Gideon’s sons.

Why it lands — The text states plainly that deliverance does not guarantee gratitude. It requires the reader to confront the pattern of forgetting faithfulness and to decide whether to repay loyalty with action or indifference.

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.