Judges 8:25
And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey. And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey.
Judges 8:25 belongs to the account of Israel's deliverance from Midianite oppression, where wrongdoing brought seven years of oppression and confession of sin was met by God raising up a helper. It stands within the larger history of faithful leaders raised up to deliver Israel from its enemies, with the recurring pattern that once a deliverer died and the people were no longer under his authority they gradually returned to idolatry.
The verse records Israel willingly giving Gideon the gold earrings taken as spoil from the Midianites, by spreading a garment and casting them into it. Gideon had requested those earrings as his share of the spoils of victory and had promised to use them wisely. The people also supplied other costly goods, which he used to make an ephod and breastplate. This request belongs to Gideon's course after the victory, when success was followed by a new temptation and, instead of waiting for God's direction, he began making plans of his own and led Israel astray.