The narrative that began in Ophrah ends at the same place, with the same sad situation: the people of God steeped in idolatry with a pagan cult. That implies that nothing has really changed, even if Midian was subdued before the people of Israel (Judges 8:28). Actually, in some ways it is now worse, because the Baal cult in Ophrah had only engaged Gideon’s hometown, but now Gideon’s ephod became a snare for “all Israel.”
27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.