Then all the Midianites. — See Judges 6:3. They came down for their usual annual raid to get the wheat which, doubtless, thousands besides Gideon had been gathering in and threshing in secret places as soon as it was barely ripe.
In the valley of Jezreel. — As the Philistines did afterwards (1 Samuel 29:1; 1 Samuel 29:11). Crossing the fords near Bethshean, they were probably encamped, not in the broad part of the plain of Jezreel, but in the valley between Gilboa and Little Hermon. The word Jezreel means “God’s sowing.” (See Hosea 2:22.)