Judges 6:3

_AND SO IT WAS, WHEN ISRAEL HAD SOWN, THAT THE MIDIANITES CAME UP, AND THE AMALEKITES, AND THE CHILDREN OF THE EAST, EVEN THEY CAME UP AGAINST THEM;_ The Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, х_ BªNEEY_ (H1121) _ QEDEM _ (H6924)] - Arab tribes, Ishmaelites, called "children of the east," from their occupying the territory east of the Red Sea, contiguous to Moab. Amalekites (see the note at Genesis 14:7; Exodus 17:8). These nomads were on this occasion joined in alliance with the Midianites. The destructive ravages they are described as at this time committing in the land of Israel are similar to those of the Bedouin Arabs, who harass the peaceful cultivators of the s

1-6 Israel's sin was renewed, and Israel's troubles were repeated. Let all that sin expect to suffer. The Israelites hid themselves in dens and caves; such was the effect of a guilty conscience. Sin dispirits men. The invaders left no food for Israel, except what was taken into the caves. They prepared that for Baal with which God should have been served, now God justly sends an enemy to take it away in the season thereof....

Verse Judges 6:3. _CHILDREN OF THE EAST_] Probably those who inhabited Arabia Deserta, Ishmaelites....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 6:1 MIDIAN. In Numbers 22:7 we read of the Midianites as allied with the Moabites in their hostility to the children of Israel, and we find them willing agents of Balaam s iniquitous counsels (Numbers 25:6, Numbers 25:17, Numbers 25:18; Numbers 31:7, Numbers 31:8), and suffering a terrible chastisement from the Israelites in

AND SO IT WAS, WHEN ISRAEL HAD SOWN,.... Their land, and it was grown up, and near being ripe, or quite; for the Midianites gave them no disturbance in the winter, and during seedtime, when they came out of their lurking holes, and manured their land, and sowed it: THAT THE MIDIANITES CAME UP; into the land of Canaan, from the other side Jordan, where their country lay, and which it seems lay lower than the land of Israel: AND THE AMALEKITES, AND THE CHILDREN OF THE EAST: the former were implacable enemies of Israel, and on every occasion would join other nations in oppressing them; and the children of the east were Arabians, as Josephus b expressly affirms: EVEN THEY CAME UP AGAINST THEM; all these three sorts of people in a confederacy. b Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 1....

4. FOURTH DECLENSION: UNDER MIDIAN AND GIDEON, TOLA AND JAIR CHAPTER 6 _ 1. Israel's suffering from Midian (Judges 6:1)_ 2. Their repentance and the divine answer (Judges 6:7) 3. Gideon, the deliverer, chosen (Judges 6:11) 4. The restored worship (Judges 6:25) 5. The gathering for the conflict (Judges 6:33) 6. The sign of the fleece (Judges 6:36) After Deborah and Barak the land had fifty years' rest, and when again they did

THE DEPREDATIONS OF THE MIDIANITES. D, whose phrases occur in Judges 6:1 f., Judges 6:6, sees in the ebb and flow of Israel's fortune an index of their moral and spiritual condition. National suffering he regards as the punishment of national sin; the hand of Midian is in a sense the hand of God; yet, while he blames, he cannot help sympathising. Judges 6:2. Dens, caves, and mountain fastnesses were the only refuges for peaceful citizens, fleeing in terror from hearth and home (_cf._ 1 Samuel 13:6; Hebrews 11:38). The invaders swarmed like locusts, which

_The Midianite oppression_ 1 _._The Deuteronomic editor introduces a fresh subject in his accustomed manner: cf. Judges 2:11; Judges 2:14; Judges 3:7; Judges 4:1. _Midian_ The Midianites had their homes on the E. of the -Arâbah; see Genesis 25:6. At times they are found as far N. as Moab (Genesis 36:35; Numbers 22:4;...

CHILDREN OF THE EAST— _Children of Kedem, i.e. Ishmaelites._ Hiller. Onomastic, p. 534....

Gideon of Manasseh and Abimelech Judges 6:1 to Judges 9:57 _Midian Oppresses Israel Judges 6:1-10_ And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strongholds. 3 And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; 4 And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.