Judges 6:4

4 They would set up camp against the Israelites and destroy the land's crops as far as Gaza, leaving nothing to keep Israel alive, not even sheep, oxen, or 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 power of the Midianites prevailed over Israel, and because of the Midianites, the Israelites used crevices and caves in the mountains as hidden strongholds.

3 Whenever the Israelites planted seeds, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other easterners would invade.

4 They would set up camp against the Israelites and destroy the land's crops as far as Gaza, leaving nothing to keep Israel alive, not even sheep, oxen, or donkeys.

5 They would invade with their herds and tents, coming like a swarm of locusts, so that no one could count them or their camels. They came into the land to destroy it.

6 So Israel became very weak on account of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the LORD.