Judges 6:1

Gideon

1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

Judges 6:1 in Other Translations

KJV

1 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

ESV

1 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.

NLT

1 The Israelites did evil in the LORD ’s sight. So the LORD handed them over to the Midianites for seven years.

MSG

1 Yet again the People of Israel went back to doing evil in God's sight. God put them under the domination of Midian for seven years.

CSB

1 The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord handed them over to Midian 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Judges 6:1 In-Context

1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.

3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country.

4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.

5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.