Judges 6

Judges 6 is the sixth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans in the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter records the activities of judge Gideon, belonging to a section comprising Judges 6 to 9 and a bigger section of Judges 6:1 to 16:31.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 40 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 1Q6 with extant verses 20–22.
and 4Q49 with extant verses 2–6, 11–13.
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus.

Analysis

A linguistic study by Chisholm reveals that the central part in the Book of Judges can be divided into two panels based on the six refrains that state that the Israelites did evil in Yahweh's eyes:
Panel One
Panel Two
Furthermore from the linguistic evidence, the verbs used to describe the Lord's response to Israel's sin have chiastic patterns and can be grouped to fit the division above:
Panel One
Panel Two
Chapters 6 to 9 record the Gideon/Abimelech Cycle, which has two major parts:

the account of Gideon
the account of Abimelech.

The Abimelech account is really a sequel of the Gideon account, resolving a number of complications originated in the Gideon narrative.
In this narrative, for the first time Israel's appeal to Yahweh was met with a stern rebuke rather than immediate deliverance, and the whole cycle addresses the issue of infidelity and religious deterioration.
The Gideon Narrative consists of five sections along concentric lines — thematic parallels exist between the first and fifth sections as well as between the second and fourth sections, whereas the third section stands
alone — forming a symmetrical pattern as follows:

The call of Gideon (6:1–24)

The Gideon narrative follows the conventionalized pattern of the judges with a description of the oppressed Israel, because Israel had worshipped gods other than YHWH. God's response to the Israel's cry this time was different from the earlier accounts, as a prophet was sent to confront and indict the people of their unfaithfulness instead of directly sending a deliverer, implying that there would be a time when God's patience turned into judgment. Nonetheless, God who was the rescuer of the Exodus, did send a rescuer with the call to Gideon.
The account of Gideon's calling has strong similarities with that of Moses in Exodus 3 and Joshua in Joshua 1 as in the table below:

	Gideon Judges 6	Moses Exodus 3	Joshua Joshua 1
Circumstances	Hiding from the enemy, working for his father who is clan head and priest of pagan shrine	Tending sheep for his father-in-law	After the death of Moses in camp at Abel-Sittim
Authorization	Have I not sent you?	and I will send you	Now rise up… have I not charged you?
Objection / Protest of inadequacy	"My family is the weakest… I am the least in the house of my father"	"Who am I … that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt"
Affirmation	for I will be with you	for I will be with you	… I will be with you
Sign	give me a sign	there a sign
Theophany	Fire theophany that induced fear	Fire theophany that induced fear
New material			Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor discouraged

The divine presence to Gideon, as also in the cases of Abraham, Jacob, Manoah's wife, involved an intermediary messenger who appeared at first like a normal human being. The commissioning of Gideon and his humble attempt to refuse was followed by a request for a sign as an assurance that the commission were truly from God. The fiery consummation of Gideon's offering as evidence of the divine message follows a pattern where God's power was revealed in the fire. Gideon's response in building of an altar placed Gideon in a line of Israelite ancestor heroes.

Verse 1

"Midian": A semi-nomadic tribe from southern Transjordan area; fought with Israel in time of Moses.
Gideon destroys Baal's altar (6:25–32)

Gideon's first task from God was to cut down the sacred pole or "asherah", a symbol of Baal, the Canaanite deity, and to replace the altar with an altar to YHWH, using the wood of the pole to provide the fire while offering a bull of his father's. When the people was angry at the action, Joash, Gideon's father, came to Gideon's support, by stating, 'Let Baal contend against him', which became a folk etymology for Gideon's new name, "Jerub-Baal", and this completes Gideon's transformation from 'farmer's son' to 'warrior hero'.

The sign of the fleece (6:33–40)

Gideon was filled with the spirit of God, a mark of charismatic leaders such as Samson, Jephthah, and Saul. but he still needed more confirmation for the battle and requested a sign of God's support. A fleece of wool as the material to show the sign draws from Israel's agricultural world which was the tradition throughout the book of Judges.