Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 8:26

"And the weight of the golden ear-rings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred [shekels] of gold, besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were about their camels` necks." — Judges 8:26 (ASV)

A thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold. —This was about seventy pounds of gold. This amount would imply a very large number of nose-rings or earrings (Genesis 24:22), and therefore a slaughter of many leading Midianites. It is analogous to the “three bushels of knights’ rings” that Mago carried to Carthage and emptied onto the floor of the Carthaginian Senate after the massacre of the Romans at Cannae (Livy 23.12).

Beside ornaments. —Rather, beside the golden crescents (Judges 8:21). Gideon seems to have gratified his love of vengeance, as goel, before he thought of the plunder.

And collars. —The marginal note says, sweet jewels. Rather, and the eardrops (netiphoth,Isaiah 3:19). Wellsted, in his Travels in Arabia, says that Arab women customarily load themselves and their children with earrings and ornaments, and he sometimes counted as many as fifteen on each side.

Purple raiment. —Compare Exodus 25:4.