Judges 6:5

6:5 When they invaded ¹  with their cattle and tents, they were as thick ²  as locusts. Neither they nor their camels could be counted. ³  They came to devour ⁴  the land.

Judges 7:6

7:6 Three hundred men lapped; ⁵  the rest of the men ⁶  kneeled to drink water.

Judges 7:12-13

7:12 Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east covered the valley like a swarm of locusts. ⁷  Their camels could not be counted; they were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore. 7:13 When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling another man about a dream he had. ⁸  The man ⁹  said, “Look! I had a dream. I saw ¹⁰  a stale cake of barley bread rolling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent so hard it knocked it over and turned it upside down. The tent just collapsed.” ¹¹ 

Judges 7:15

Gideon Routs the Enemy

7:15 When Gideon heard the report of the dream and its interpretation, he praised God. ¹²  Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up, for the Lord is handing the Midianite army over to you!”

¹ tn Heb “came up.”

² tn Heb “numerous.”

³ tn Heb “To them and to their camels there was no number.”

⁴ tn Heb “destroy.” The translation “devour” carries through the imagery of a locust plague earlier in this verse.

⁵ tc The Hebrew text adds, “with their hands to their mouths,” This makes no sense in light of v. 5, which distinguishes between dog-like lappers (who would not use their hands to drink) and those who kneel (who would use their hands). It seems likely that the words “with their hands to their mouths” have been misplaced from v. 6. They fit better at the end of v. 5 or v. 6. Perhaps these words were originally a marginal scribal note which was later accidentally inserted into the text in the wrong place.

⁶ tn Heb “the people.”

⁹ tn Heb “Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the east were falling in the valley like locusts in great number.”

¹³ tn Heb “And Gideon came, and, look, a man was relating to his friend a dream.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned in the previous clause) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Heb “Look!” The repetition of this interjection, while emphatic in Hebrew, would be redundant in the English translation.

¹⁶ tn Heb “It came to the tent and struck it and it fell. It turned it upside down and the tent fell.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “he bowed down” or “worshiped.”