The unusual use of the term calls attention to it, suggesting further implications. Earlier in the narrative, Gideon was clothed with Yahweh’s Spirit; here “ephod” suggests he symbolically clothes the idol (and perhaps, by extension, himself) with another “value”: gold. Klein argues: The Yahwist value, his spirit, is not truly within Gideon and he drops the Yahwist mantle for one of gold. Furthermore, though Gideon refuses the title of leader, the object he has made from the gold is one associated with kingship. Most telling is the reference to “all Israel” playing the harlot after the ephod,
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