Judges 6:1-6 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

The Depredations of the Midianites. D, whose phrases occur in Judges 6:1 f., Judges 6:6, sees in the ebb and flow of Israel's fortune an index of their moral and spiritual condition. National suffering he regards as the punishment of national sin; the hand of Midian is in a sense the hand of God; yet, while he blames, he cannot help sympathising.

Judges 6:2. Dens, caves, and mountain fastnesses were the only refuges for peaceful citizens, fleeing in terror from hearth and home (cf. 1 Samuel 13:6; Hebrews 11:38). The invaders swarmed like locusts, which devour every green thing and turn a fertile, smiling country-side into a bare waste. The spoilers left no sustenance for man or beast in Israel. [Observe that the ass was at this time used for food in Israel, cf. 2 Kings 6:25. It is still eaten by the Arabs and Persians. It is forbidden in Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14. A. S. P.]

Judges 6:5. They came unto the land to destroy it, as the Huns in the fourth century overran France and Italy, and the Germans in the twentieth century devastated Belgium.

Related Commentaries of Judges 6:1

Judges 6:1-6

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.

2 And the hand of Midian prevaileda against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds.

3 And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them;

4 And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.

5 For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it.

6 And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD.