But after Gideon died, the sons of Israel turned away, and they committed fornication with the Baals. And they struck a covenant with Baal, so that he would be their god.
They want to cause my people to forget my name, by means of their dreams, which each of them describes to his neighbor, just as their fathers forgot my name for the sake of Baal.
And Israel served the Lord during all the days of Joshua, and of the elders who lived for a long time after Joshua, and who had known all the works of the Lord that he had accomplished in Israel.
But the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, joining new sins to old, and they served idols, the Baals and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria and Sidon, and of Moab and the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines. And they abandoned the Lord, and they did not worship him.
And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had led them away from the land of Egypt. And they followed foreign gods and the gods of the peoples who were living around them, and they adored them. And they provoked the Lord to wrath,
Fornicating with foreign gods and adoring them, they quickly deserted the way along which their fathers had advanced. And having heard the commandments of the Lord, they did all things to the contrary.
But after a judge had died, they turned back, and they were doing much worse things than their fathers had done, following strange gods, serving them, and adoring them. They did not abandon their pursuits and their very stubborn way, by which they were accustomed to walk.
And Gideon made an ephod from these, and he kept it in his city, Ophrah. And all of Israel committed fornication with it, and it became a ruin to Gideon and to all his house.
departed into the fields, laying waste to the vineyards, and trampling the grapes. And while singing and dancing, they entered into the shrine of their god. And while feasting and drinking, they cursed Abimelech.
And they gave to him the weight of seventy silver coins from the shrine of Baal-berith. With this, he hired for himself indigent and wandering men, and they followed him.
And when those living in the tower of Shechem had heard about this, they entered the temple of their god, Berith, where they had formed a covenant with him. And it was because of this, that the place had taken its name. And it was greatly fortified.