Judges 6:5

_FOR THEY CAME UP WITH THEIR CATTLE AND THEIR TENTS, AND THEY CAME AS GRASSHOPPERS FOR MULTITUDE; FOR BOTH THEY AND THEIR CAMELS WERE WITHOUT NUMBER: AND THEY ENTERED INTO THE LAND TO DESTROY IT._ They came as grasshoppers for multitude х_ KªDEEY_ (H1767) _ 'ARBEH_ (H697) _ LAAROB_ (H7230) THEY CAME AS GRASSHOPPERS FOR MULTITUDE, х_ KªDEEY_ (H1767) _ 'ARBEH_ (H697) _ LAAROB_ (H7230), according to the abundance of the locust for multitude; Septuagint, kathoos akris eis pleethos]....

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 6:5. _THEY CAME UP WITH THEIR CATTLE AND THEIR TENTS_] All this proves that they were different tribes of _wanderers_ who had no fixed residence; but, like their descendants the _Bedouins_ or wandering Arabs, removed from place to place to get prey for themselves and forage for their cattle....

GRASSHOPPERS - Rather locusts (compare Exodus 10:4, Exodus 10:14; Joel 1; Joel 2; Psalms 78:46)...

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

FOR THEY CAME UP WITH THEIR CATTLE, AND THEIR TENTS,.... Brought their flocks and their herds with them, to eat up the increase of the earth, and their tents, which they pitched and removed from place to place, for the convenience of feeding their cattle, and while they cut down the fruit of the earth everywhere, which serves to confirm the sense of the Targum and Vulgate Latin version of Judges 6:5 AND THEY CAME AS GRASSHOPPERS FOR MULTITUDE; or "as locusts" c, they were like them for their number, and for devouring all they came to: AND THEIR CAMELS WERE WITHOUT NUMBER; which they brought with them, to load and carry off their plunder they could not eat. Midian was a place famous for camels and dromedaries, Isaiah 60:6 and so Arabia, the people of which joined the Midianites

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

GRASSHOPPERS. locusts....

_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;...