Judges 6:4

4 camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys.

Judges 6:4 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 6:4

And they encamped against them
Formed a camp, from whence they sent out parties to plunder the people; or

``they were fixing their tents among them,''

as the Vulgate Latin version; and so the Targum,

``they dwelt by them,''

or fixed their habitations by them; for they seem not to have come as a regular army, but as a sort of banditti to pillage, and plunder, and destroy the fruits of the earth; and the Midianites and Arabians dwelt in tents chiefly:

and destroyed the increase of the earth;
the corn and grass before they were well ripe, and fit to cut down; this they did, and gave it to their cattle, and the rest they carried off:

till thou come unto Gaza;
a principality of the Philistines, which lay in the western part of Canaan, on the shore of the Mediterranean sea; so that as these people came out of the east, and entered the eastern part, they went through the whole land from east to west, cutting down all the fruits of the earth for forage for their cattle:

and left no sustenance for Israel;
nothing to support life with, cutting down their corn and their grass, their vines and olives, so that they had nothing to live upon:

neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass;
not anything for those creatures to live upon, nor did not leave any of them, but carried them all away.

Judges 6:4 In-Context

2 The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.

3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel,

4 camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys.

5 These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare.

6 So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help.