1. Anointed ambiguity (6:1-8:32)

The introduction in 6:1-10 signals a new stage in the story. The NIV wrongly inserts “again” in 6:1, which does not continue the previous period, but opens a new stage in Israel’s evil-doing. The resultant military crisis is fearsomely detailed. Midianite raids force the Israelites into mountain lairs, leaving crops vulnerable to pillagers aided by a new military commodity, the camel. The resultant destitution—and not repentance—wrenches from Israel a cry to Yahweh. But rather than leap to Israel’s defense in raising up a savior, Yahweh first issues a scathing prophetic denunciation (cf. 2:1-5, 20-23). The dangling invective places the career of Gideon under Yahweh’s growing displeasure. Gideon does not unambiguously represent “Yahweh to the rescue.” Indeed, ambiguity is the undercurrent of the whole story.

The preparation for battle (6:11-7:14) begins with the angelic summons to save Israel. That call (6:11-24) contrasts Gideon and Yahweh’s angel. Gideon is resentful and regards the oppression as unmerited and questions God’s character, despite the apostasy and rebuke recorded in 6:1-10. He doubts his own capacity to save Israel. By contrast, the angel greets him as “mighty warrior,” affirms his strength, and promises Yahweh’s presence. Unpersuaded by the divine word (contrast Deborah/Barak), Gideon tests the angel with an offering that is consumed in flames, convincing Gideon of the divine identity of his visitor.

The divine-human contrast continues in Gideon’s first task (6:25-32). Called to destroy the local Baal altar, Gideon obeyed by night because he was afraid. A secret act hardly mounts a public challenge, and in the ensuing investigation, Gideon’s idolatrous father declares the position Gideon should have taken: let the god defend himself. Gideon’s new name, Jerub-Baal, “Let Baal contend,” captures his ambiguity. The Gideon-God contrast advances into sacred territory in 6:33-7:14. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Gideon musters an army of 32,000. The NIV’s “the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon” muffles the graphic emphasis on divine power and human passivity in the Hebrew, which reads, “The spirit of Yahweh put on Gideon [like clothes].” Despite the Spirit’s enabling and a large turnout, Gideon demands two more signs from Yahweh. In 7:1-18 Yahweh rejects 94 percent of the soldiers responding to the Spirit-inspired draft. The concern that great numbers would deceive Israel into ascribing deliverance to their own capabilities captures the tension between Gideon’s perspective and God’s. Worse yet, miraculous signs left Gideon still afraid (7:10), grouping him with those whom Yahweh dismissed! By contrast, Yahweh’s encouragement involves simple intelligence gathering, which suddenly energizes Gideon for battle.

The two-part battle narrative concentrates on the divine-human contrast in Gideon himself. Jdg 7:4-8:3 describes the strategem of a night ruse with pitchers, torches, trumpets, and war whoops in which the panicked Midianites attack one another before fleeing. Gideon pursues, mustering the Ephraimites, who seize the fords of Jordan against the enemy exactly as Ehud’s troops did. Gideon’s self-effacing tact in answering the Ephraimites' irritation over their late summons preserves the victory. Gideon appears as the champion of God who, with a clever strategem and direct divine intervention, defeats the enemy and sweeps all Israel to victory, even despite tribal divisiveness. All interpreters note an abrupt shift in 8:4-21. Gideon still pursues the kings of Midian, but suddenly not in irresistible triumph. The three hundred are exhausted and hungry, and Midian seems about to escape. Gideon’s men cannot even obtain food, much less military assistance, from Succoth and Penuel. Gideon appears not as peacemaker and securer of unity, but as vengeful and threatening. Jdg 8:4-21 nowhere mentions Yahweh as the author of victory, and Gideon fulfills his threats against Succoth and Penuel. Jdg 8:18-21 also reveals Gideon’s stake of personal vengeance in the battle: Zebah and Zalmunna murdered his half-brothers. His last act is to slay them in anger for mockery. The divine-human tension centers now in the person of Gideon. Is he a divinely anointed deliverer and reconciler or a determined pursuer of personal revenge? Israel has won deliverance from the Midianites, but the reader’s confidence in the judge is shaken.

The issue of leadership culminates in the final contrast in 8:22-27, when the elders offer Gideon permanent, hereditary rule. Contrary to Yahweh’s express intention (7:1-3), the Hebrews credit the victory to Gideon: “You have saved us” (emphasis mine). Gideon’s response sounds like a pious rejection of kingship based on the belief that God alone is King over Israel, but his response is as flawed as the people’s offer. Human rule is not at stake here. That Yahweh is “the Judge” (11:27b) did not preclude human judges. Gideon offers an alternative to his own rule: his own religion! The ephod was the means by which worshipers learned Yahweh’s will and thus the vehicle of Yahweh’s rule. Gideon makes an ephod, which promotes not Yahweh’s rule, but spiritual harlotry. The conclusion (8:28-32) notes forty years of peace following Gideon’s victory but for the first time limits the period of peace to the judge’s lifetime.