Listen to the words of this taunt from Judges 8:21:

Get up and strike us down yourself, for a man is judged by his strength.

In Judges 8, Gideon captured two Midianite kings—Zebah and Zalmunna—and the words above are the kings’ last words to Gideon. The words are snaky; they hiss with dissonance because the story of God has made very clear that physical strength is precisely not the basis for how people are judged.

Moses, Joshua, Israel, and Gideon were all told that their confidence must be rooted in Yahweh’s presence with them, not their own strength. Moses said he was not strong enough, and God responded, “But I will be with you” (Exodus 3:12). Before Moses died, he relayed Yahweh’s words to Israel, “Yahweh your God is the one who will go with you” (Deut 31:6). After Moses died, Yahweh told Joshua, “I will be with you, just as I was with Moses” (Josh 1:5). When Gideon was afraid that he was not strong enough, Yahweh said, “But I will be with you” (Judg 6:16).

The taunt from Judges 8—“a man is judged by his strength”—rings with dissonance, too, because it was Jael, a woman, who drove the tent peg through Sisera’s head (Judg 4:21), leading Israel into forty years of peace (Judg 5:31). Deborah was the prophetess without which Barak refused to go to war (Judg 4:8). Barak seems to have known that Yahweh was with Deborah and that meant Deborah, a woman, had to be with him in order for him to be successful.

The taunt points forward, as well. After Judges, in Hebrew Bible order, the next book is Samuel, which begins with Hannah’s song. Hannah’s song comes to a close with this paradigmatic statement: “for not by might shall a man prevail” (1 Sam 2:9). In Samuel, the anointed one whom Yahweh exalts (1 Sam 2:10) is David, the youngest of his brothers.

When David heard a snaky giant mock Yahweh, causing the big, tall king Saul and all Israel to shutter, David said: “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that mocks the armies of the living God?!” (1 Sam 17:26). When Saul doubted David’s ability to defeat Goliath—after all, David wasn’t even big enough to move in Saul’s armor—David responded, “Yahweh who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Sam 17:37). David had a taunt of his own. He said to Goliath, “You come against me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel … Yahweh will hand you over to me.” As I wrote in this post, this vision bound together David and Jonathan: If the living God is with you, you cannot fail. You flourish, even when life is really hard.

I’ve never noticed how the taunt of the Midianite kings (Judg 8 :21) stands in such sharp contrast to Hannah’s song (1 Sam 2:9). Zebah and Zalmunna’s words did, however, cause me to reflect on all the stories that make their words sound so dissonant. Perhaps that’s why they were recorded. Thank God that neither man nor woman is judged by their strength. May the Spirit help our unbelief.