Judges 6:1

1 Forsooth the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he betook them into the hand of Midian seven years. (And the Israelites did more evil before the Lord, and he delivered them into the hands of the Midianites for seven years.)

Judges 6:1 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 6:1

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,
&c.] After the death of Deborah and Barak, during whose life they kept to the pure worship of God, and who, perhaps, lived pretty near the close of the forty years' rest, or of the twenty years from their victory over Jabin; but they dying, the children of Israel fell into idolatry, for that that was the evil they did appears from ( Judges 6:10 ) , even worshipping the gods of the Amorites:

and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years:
this was not the Midian where Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, lived, which lay more southward, but that which joined to Moab, and was more eastward. This people had been destroyed by the Israelites in the times of Moses, in their way to the land of Canaan, ( Numbers 31:1 ) wherefore they might bear them a grudge, and now took the opportunity to revenge themselves on them, God permitting them so to do for their sins; and though the destruction of this people by Israel was very general, yet as some of them might make their escape, and afterwards return to their own land, and this being about two hundred years ago, might, with others joining them, repeople their country by this time, and become strong and powerful.

Judges 6:1 In-Context

1 Forsooth the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he betook them into the hand of Midian seven years. (And the Israelites did more evil before the Lord, and he delivered them into the hands of the Midianites for seven years.)

2 And Israel was oppressed of them greatly; and Israel made ditches, and dens to themselves in hills, and most strong places to fight against Midian. (And Israel was greatly oppressed by them; and in the hills they made ditches, and caves, and strongholds for themselves, from which to fight against the Midianites.)

3 And when Israel had sown, Midian ascended, and Amalek (was with them), and others of the nations of the east;

4 and they setted their tents beside the sons of Israel, and they wasted all things that were in herbs, either green corn, unto the entering of Gaza, and utterly they left not in Israel anything pertaining to life, not sheep, not oxen, not asses (and they left not utterly any beast alive in Israel, not sheep, nor oxen, nor donkeys).

5 For they and all their flocks came with their tabernacles, and at the likeness of locusts they full-filled all things, and a multitude of men and of camels was without number (yea, they were a multitude without number of men and of camels), and they wasted whatever thing(s) they touched.