Judges 6:1

1 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hand of Mid'ian 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 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hand of Mid'ian seven years.

2 And the hand of Mid'ian prevailed over Israel; and because of Mid'ian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves and the strongholds.

3 For whenever the Israelites put in seed the Mid'ianites and the Amal'ekites and the people of the East would come up and attack them;

4 they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the land, as far as the neighborhood of Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep or ox or ass.

5 For they would come up with their cattle and their tents, coming like locusts for number; both they and their camels could not be counted; so that they wasted the land as they came in.