‘ And the Midianites and the Amalekites, and all the children of the east, lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude, and their camels were without number as the sand which is on the sea shore for multitude.'
As they crawled nearer they could see stretching before them the camp fires indicating the huge force that was awaiting their attack, a force beyond numbering, like a huge swarm of locusts covering the ground, and they were there with the sole purpose of devouring all that the Israelites possessed. Only those who have witnessed the vastness of a swarm of locusts and seen the devastation that they cause can begin to appreciate the picture.
“Without number.” Granted that this is deliberate exaggeration, nevertheless we should remember that numbering was not an art practised by many in those days, especially among folk like the Israelites. Numbers were used descriptively rather than mathematically. The sand by the sea shore is a description regularly used to describe countless numbers (Genesis 22:17; Jos 11:4; 1 Samuel 13:5; 2 Samuel 17:11; Hosea 1:10). And these camels were there to carry off booty.