Judges 6:5

as locusts Repeated in Judges 7:12; for the comparison see Jeremiah 46:23. The text of Judges 6:3 shews signs of a mixed origin. Thus the grammar is irregular, frequentative tenses in Judges 6:3 are followed by narrative aorists in Judges 6:4, and these again by frequentatives in Judges 6:5. Notice the repetition of came upin Judges 6:3 and came intoin Judges 6:5; the Amalekites, and the children of the eastis due to the same hand as Judges 6:33 and Judges 7:12; till thou come to Gazahas the look of an editorial exaggeration. Perhaps in their simplest form the verses may have run: "(3) And it used to happen that when Israel had sown, Midian used to come up against him, (4) and they used to leave no sustenance … nor ass, (5) for they and their cattle used to come up, and their tents, and come into the land to destroy it." This may have formed the introduction to the earlier of the two narratives which are combined in 6 8; and the remaining sentences may have been derived from the introduction to the later of the two narratives (Moore, Nowack, Lagrange), or they may be merely glosses (Budde). The whole passage has been pieced together by the Dtc. editor.