The cycle is to begin anew when Israel again does evil in the eyes of the Lord. This time, the Lord hands his people over to a coalition led by the Midianites, who for seven years have impoverished them through regular pillaging of crops and livestock. As expected, Israel cries out to the Lord (6:1–6). Whereas in previous cycles Israel’s cry was met almost immediately with the raising up of a deliverer judge (3:9; 3:15; 4:3, 6–7), this time, the Lord sends a prophet to rebuke the people for their ingratitude and disobedience, evident in their worship of foreign gods (6:7–10). One can sense the Lord’s increasing frustration with his people’s repeated waywardness, something that will become even more apparent at the beginning of the Jephthah narrative in 10:10–16.

Nonetheless, an angel of …