The Bible: Commentary and Controversy

“Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” That’s pretty much the story of Judges. Israel misbehaves, comes under the thumb of an enemy, begs the Lord to save them, and the Lord raises someone up to facilitate killing the enemy and setting them  free again. Pretty messy way of doing it, however. Ehud, for instance, sticks a sword into the obese Eglon so deeply he can’t pull it out again, and runs away.

After Ehud “the Israelites do evil in the eyes of the Lord,” come under the thumb of a tyrant, and beg the Lord to save them.  Deborah then becomes at least the moral leader of the Israelites against Jabin’s army, also saying Sisera, the commander of that army, will be delivered into the hands of a woman. Shortly thereafter, Jael drives a stake through Sisera’s head and kills him. Then peace reigns for 40 or so years.

Then “the Israelites do evil in the eyes of the Lord,” come under the thumb of a tyrant, beg the Lord to save them, and along comes Gideon. It takes three miracles to convince him it’s really the Lord who is choosing him, but he finally accedes. The Lord then tells him to reduce the size of his army, because if he beats the Midianites with 10,000 men it won’t properly glorify Him. So Gideon eventually pares his army down to 300 men. Then, “at the beginning of the middle watch” Gideon put trumpets and jars with torches inside into the hands of his 300 men. They attacked, blowing the trumpets and smashing the jars, and the Midianites were afraid. The Lord then caused the Midianites to be confused and turn their swords on each other, killing a great part of their army.

Gideon then sent part of his army out to finish the job and capture the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb, and bring him their heads, which they do. So Gideon then goes to Sukkoth and Peniel and asks for food for his army, but they rebuff him. By this time the Midianite army has been reduced from 135,000 swordsmen to just 15,000. Still, you would think, a formidable for against Gideon’s 300, but he pursues them and captures their entire army.

Then, for rebuffing him, Gideon punishes the elders of Sukkoth with desert thorns and briers, as he had promised to do. He then pulls down the towers of Peniel and kills the men of the town. Then he kills Zebah and Zalmunna, commanders of the Midianites. Gideon then refuses to accept the throne of Israel, but asks the Israelites to give him all their gold, so he can make an ephod. It’s unclear what an ephod is, but Gideon makes one and places it in Ophrah, “his town.”

This happens with some frequency in the old testament – taking gold jewelry and making a calf, or an ephod, or something similar with it. But if you think about it, that’s quite a task – somehow managing to build a fire that will burn at just under 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, a bucket that will withstand that kind of heat in which to melt the gold, building a form in the shape in which the gold will be cast – a form that will also withstand temperatures of close to 2000 degrees – in fact, it would be impossible without the right materials and tools. Much like in the modern telling of Games of Thrones, when Khal Drogo melts gold in a cookpot and pours it over Visery’s head. Not possible, but makes a good story.