Judges 6:5

5 The Midianites came up with their livestock and tents. They came like huge numbers of locusts. It was impossible to count all of those men and their camels. They came into the land to destroy 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.

---

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 Each year the people planted their crops. When they did, the Midianites came into the country and attacked it. So did the Amalekites and other tribes from the east.

4 They camped on the land. They destroyed the crops all the way to Gaza. They didn't spare any living thing for Israel. They didn't spare sheep or cattle or donkeys.

5 The Midianites came up with their livestock and tents. They came like huge numbers of locusts. It was impossible to count all of those men and their camels. They came into the land to destroy it.

6 Midian made the people of Israel very poor. So they cried out to the LORD for help.

7 They cried out to the LORD because of what Midian had done.