“Yahweh will rule over you.” Gideon is a prime example of so many people who worship God but then don’t realize how they let “other gods” into their lives, something that God abhors. God wants to be the one and only God and object of worship in each person’s life, and furthermore, bringing “other gods” into one’s life opens the door for Satan to come in in various ways. Just after saying that Yahweh will rule over the people, Gideon made an idol of gold, which became a snare to him and to Israel. God does not need any help from idols, “lucky” things, or anything like that. The first commandment is “You must not have any other gods besides me,” and the Shema of Israel is “Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone” (Deut. 6:4). God does not want to compete with any other gods or object for a person’s love and attention, and each believer has to be diligent to keep those things out of their life.

The Hebrew can also be taken in a jussive sense: “Let Yahweh rule over you.”