Judges 6:3

3 And whenever Israel sowed seed, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of [the] east would come up against them.

Judges 6:3 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 6:3

And so it was, when Israel had sown
Their land, and it was grown up, and near being ripe, or quite; for the Midianites gave them no disturbance in the winter, and during seedtime, when they came out of their lurking holes, and manured their land, and sowed it:

that the Midianites came up;
into the land of Canaan, from the other side Jordan, where their country lay, and which it seems lay lower than the land of Israel:

and the Amalekites, and the children of the east:
the former were implacable enemies of Israel, and on every occasion would join other nations in oppressing them; and the children of the east were Arabians, as Josephus ^F2 expressly affirms:

even they came up against them;
all these three sorts of people in a confederacy.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 1.

Judges 6:3 In-Context

1 The {Israelites} did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and Yahweh gave them into the hand of the Midianites for seven years.

2 The hand of the Midianites prevailed over Israel; because of the presence of the Midianites, the {Israelites} made for themselves hiding places that [were] in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.

3 And whenever Israel sowed seed, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of [the] east would come up against them.

4 They would camp against them and destroy the produce of the land {as far as} Gaza; they left no produce in Israel, or sheep, ox, or donkey.

5 For they, their livestock, and their tents would come up like a great number of locusts; they and their camels could not be counted; they came into the land and devoured it.

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew "Midianite"
• [b] Hebrew "Amalekite"