Judges 6:5

5 For they, their livestock, and their tents would come up like a great number of locusts; they and their camels could not be counted; they came into the land and devoured 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 And whenever Israel sowed seed, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of [the] east would come up against them.

4 They would camp against them and destroy the produce of the land {as far as} Gaza; they left no produce in Israel, or sheep, ox, or donkey.

5 For they, their livestock, and their tents would come up like a great number of locusts; they and their camels could not be counted; they came into the land and devoured it.

6 Israel was very poor because of the presence of the Midianites, and the {Israelites} cried out to Yahweh.

7 When the {Israelites} cried out to Yahweh on account of the Midianites,