Judges 6:5

5 Like swarms of locusts, they came with their livestock and their tents. They and their camels could not be counted. They came into the land only to ruin it.

Judges 6:5 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 6:5

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" ^F3, 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 in this expedition; of whom Leo Africanus says ^F4, that they reckon of their riches and possessions by their camels; wherefore if anyone speaks of the riches of such a prince or nobleman, he says that he is possessed of so many camels, and not of so many thousands of pieces of gold, see ( Job 1:3 )

and they entered into the city to destroy it;
this was their sole view. In suchlike manner as this did Alyattes king of the Lydians make war with the Milesinns, as Herodotus ^F5 relates; which passage Grotius has quoted at large.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 (hbra ydk) "tanquam locustae", Pagninus, V. L. Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
F4 Descriptio Africae, l. 9. p. 745.
F5 Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 17.

Judges 6:5 In-Context

3 Whenever Israel planted crops, Midian, Amalek, and Kedem came and damaged the crops.

4 The enemy used to camp on the land and destroy the crops all the way to Gaza. They left nothing for Israel to live on--not one sheep, cow, or donkey.

5 Like swarms of locusts, they came with their livestock and their tents. They and their camels could not be counted. They came into the land only to ruin it.

6 So the Israelites became very poor because of Midian and cried out to the LORD for help.

7 When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help because of what the Midianites had done to them,