⁴ So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears,^(A) and Jacob buried them under the oak^(B) at Shechem.^(C)

⁶ Then all the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo^(A) gathered beside the great tree^(B) at the pillar in Shechem to crown Abimelek king.

²⁵ On that day Joshua made a covenant^(A) for the people, and there at Shechem^(B) he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws.^{(C) 26} And Joshua recorded^(D) these things in the Book of the Law of God.^(E) Then he took a large stone^(F) and set it up there under the oak^(G) near the holy place of the Lord.

²² Then you will desecrate your idols^(A) overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold;^(B) you will throw them away like a menstrual^(C) cloth and say to them, “Away with you!^(D)”

²⁴ And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring^(A) from your share of the plunder.^(B)” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites^(C) to wear gold earrings.)

²⁵ They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each of them threw a ring from his plunder onto it. ²⁶ The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels,^[a] not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains^(D) that were on their camels’ necks. ²⁷ Gideon made the gold into an ephod,^(E) which he placed in Ophrah,^(F) his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare^(G) to Gideon and his family.^(H)

²⁵ The images of their gods you are to burn^(A) in the fire. Do not covet^(B) the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared^(C) by it, for it is detestable^(D) to the Lord your God.

⁵ This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles^[a](A) and burn their idols in the fire.^(B)