Judges 20:10

ten men … ten thousand) All this merely amounts to -one man in ten"; 40,000 are to forage for the 360,000. We are reminded of the circumstantial diffuseness of P, e.g. Numbers 1:2; Numbers 1:20; Numbers 1:22 etc.; see Driver, Introd, p. 130. The style of the verse is remarkably poor; e.g. the single prep. lamedh= tois used nine times in a variety of senses; and the text is corrupt. The rendering that they may do when they comesmooths over the awkwardness of the Hebr. The LXX. cod. A suggests a slight change and transposes the words, reading for the people that come to do to G.etc. The trouble lies in the expression for when they come(or that come); Moore and Budde would omit it as a gloss on the people; indeed there is no other way of obtaining a satisfactory sentence. The connexion is much improved by transposing the two halves of the v.and connecting with Judges 20:9: we will go up against it by lot, to do to G. of B. according to … in Israel; and we will take ten men … to fetch victual for the people(Moore). Geba(see marg.) is a mistake for Gibeah, cf. Judges 20:33.