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Judges 6:8
ESV the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery.
NIV he sent them a prophet, who said, 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
NASB that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of slavery.
CSB the Lord sent a prophet to them. He said to them, "This is what the Lord God of Israel says: 'I brought you out of Egypt and out of the place of slavery.
NLT the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt.
KJV That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;

What does Judges 6:8 mean?

Israel has finally cried out to Yahweh for help (Judges 6:6). The oppression by the Midianites and their allies from the east of the Jordan has crushed Israel's spirits as well as their supplies of food and livestock. Only once they reach that state of complete despair do they recognize their need for God's intervention. Now they will wait for God to raise up a deliverer as He has done in the past (Judges 2:11–19) to free them from the oppression of the Midianites.

However, God's first step in this cycle is not to send a rescuer. Rather than immediately calling someone like Ehud (Judges 3:15), Shamgar (Judges 3:31), or Barak (Judges 4:4–6), He sends a prophet. The role of a prophet—or prophetess, as in the case of Deborah—is different from that of a warrior judge or deliverer. A prophet is a person God uses to deliver a message to His people. Before God sends a deliverer to save Israel from Midian, He has a few things to say to them.

This unnamed messenger from God begins to deliver a scathing reminder to the Israelites. Perhaps he stayed in one place and waited for people to come to him. Perhaps he traveled around declaring the Word of the Lord. Whatever the method, his message was familiar. God was reminding His people how He had powerfully provided for them in the past.

This history lesson starts with Egypt, from which Israel was miraculously rescued from harsh slavery (Exodus 12:51). It's not that the people did not know the story; they had not forgotten the past. They had forgotten to remain faithful to the God who had rescued them from hundreds of years of slavery to the Egyptians. This deliverance came with many powerful miraculous signs (Exodus 3:20).
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