(25) We will willingly give.--Literally, giving, we will give.

They spread.--Perhaps the true reading should be "he spread," as in the LXX. (aneptuxe).

A garment.--Perhaps his own upper garment (Simlah), or "a large general's cloke" (Ewald, Gesch. ii. 506).

Verse 25. - A garment. Rather, the cloak. Probably Gideon's military cloak (see Isaiah 9:5), which lay in his tent ready for use as a cloak by day or a coverlet by night (Deuteronomy 22:17).

8:22-28 Gideon refused the government the people offered him. No good man can be pleased with any honour done to himself, which belongs only to God. Gideon thought to keep up the remembrance of this victory by an ephod, made of the choicest of the spoils. But probably this ephod had, as usual, a teraphim annexed to it, and Gideon intended this for an oracle to be consulted. Many are led into false ways by one false step of a good man. It became a snare to Gideon himself, and it proved the ruin of the family. How soon will ornaments which feed the lust of the eye, and form the pride of life, as well as tend to the indulgences of the flesh, bring shame on those who are fond of them!And they answered, we will willingly give them,.... Or, "in giving we will give" (d); give them with all their hearts, most freely and cheerfully:

and they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey; every man one, which would amount to no more than three hundred; though perhaps those who joined in the pursuit might take many more, or otherwise the weight of them would not amount to what in the next verse they are said to weigh.

(d) "dando dabimus", Pagninus, Montanus.