This paper examines several biblical texts that recount a circumstance in which a trophy that is specifically linked to Yhwh has been taken by the victorious enemy. An event of this sort is easily interpreted as a humiliating defeat for Yhwh as well as for Israel. These “trophy-narratives” deny this interpretation and reassure their audience of the undiminished power of their god. The narratives acknowledge a military defeat but go on to describe the enemy’s triumph ceremony in which a miraculous event attributed to Yhwh reverses the power relations embodied in the ceremony. The result is the symbolic triumph of Yhwh over the enemy’s god. The biblical narrator successfully converts the shaming of the trophy, which has been closely linked to Yhwh, into an occasion of honor for his god. A military defeat that has been suff ered by Israel is transformed, at the divine level, into a theological victory.
