Judg 8:33-35
No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted

themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their

god and did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued

them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They

also failed to show kindness to the family of Jerub-Baal

(that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for

them.

Matthew Henry Commentary

After his death the people corrupted themselves, and went all to naught.

As soon as ever Gideon was dead, who had kept them close to the worship

of the God of Israel, they found themselves under no restraint, and then

they went a whoring after Baalim, They went a whoring first after another

ephod (v. 27), for which irregularity Gideon had himself given them too

much occasion, and now they went a whoring after another god. False

worships made way for false deities. They now chose a new god ,

a god of a new name, Baal-berith (a goddess, say some); Berith, some think,

was Berytus, the place where the Phoenicians worshipped this idol. The

name signifies the Lord of a covenant. Perhaps he was so called because

his worshippers joined themselves by covenant to him, in imitation of

Israel's covenanting with God; for the devil is God's ape. In this revolt

of Israel to idolatry they showed,

(1.) Great ingratitude to God (v. 34): They remembered not the Lord,

not only who had delivered them into the hands of their enemies, to

punish them for their idolatry, but who had also delivered them out

of the hands of their enemies, to invite them back again into his

service; both the judgments and the mercies were forgotten, and the

impressions of them lost.

(2.) great ingratitude to Gideon, v. 35. A great deal of goodness

he had shown unto Israel, as a father to his country, for which they

ought to have been kind to his family when he was gone, for that is

one way by which we ought to show ourselves grateful to our friends

and benefactors, and may be returning their kindnesses when they are

in their graves. But Israel showed not this kindness to Gideon's

family, as we shall find in the next chapter. No wonder if those

who forget their God forget their friends.