Judges 6:3

3 For when those of Israel had sown, the Midianites would come up and the Amalekites and the sons of the east. They would come up against them

Judges 6:3 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 6:3

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 ^F2 expressly affirms:

even they came up against them;
all these three sorts of people in a confederacy.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 1.

Judges 6:3 In-Context

1 And the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hands of Midian for seven years.

2 And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel, and because of the Midianites the sons of Israel made dens in the mountains and caves and strongholds.

3 For when those of Israel had sown, the Midianites would come up and the Amalekites and the sons of the east. They would come up against them

4 and encamp against them and destroy the fruits of the earth as far as Gaza, and they would leave nothing to eat in Israel neither sheep nor ox nor ass.

5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents in a great multitude like locusts, for there was no number in them nor in their camels, and they would enter into the land destroying it.