Page 12 - Pemahaman teks Hakim-hakim 6-8

62

At the end of this narrative movement, we find that Gideon is giving
the glory to God when he says that it was God who gave the enemy into
their hands (8:3). Through these words, Gideon is decreasing his own
role and elevating that of God. Once again the reader may be relieved,
feeling that God's objective will succeed. At least Gideon is recognizing
what God has done. One expects in more than one way that the story
should end here with the by now well-known refrain that the land had
peace for x number of years and that the judge lived peacefully in his
hometown.31 After all, the threat of the enemy is removed as in the
other Judges narrative, thus the mission is completed. And in some sense
God's objective does succeed, as the second narrative movement ends
with Gideon acknowledging God's role in the victory. But then the third
narrative movement starts up in 8:4 with Gideon crossing the Jordan.

Gideon Steals the Spotlight

In the third narrative movement we see that, in contrast with the very
active picture of God in the first movement, now God has totally with-
drawn from the scene. Webb notes that throughout this movement there
is no indication of any involvement of God.32 Moreover, where Gideon in
the previous pursuit did not play much of an active role, the next narrative
movement is different. In this movement, Gideon is on a revenge mission.
This becomes evident in how he treats the six characters introduced in this
movement. They are flat characters, and as Mieke Bal has noted, their
relations with other characters may divulge important information relevant
to the portrayal of the main character.33 All of these flat characters have
the common characteristic that Gideon treats them as objects.
We read how Gideon, when the people of Succoth and Penuel refuse to
give him food, promises to come back victorious and destroy them. Impor-
tant to note is the focus Gideon is placing on himself by using lcs verbs
(n-7'1 [8:51 'DEF! [8:77] rnK [8:9])-this in contrast to the first narra-
tive movement, where the focus was placed on God, also by using first

3'Webb, Judges, 146; Olson, "Judges," 807.
32Webb, Judges, 151.
33Bal, Narratology, 86.