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.
The Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian. Untaught by their former experiences, the Israelites again apostatized, and new sins were followed by fresh judgments. Midian had sustained a severe blow in the time of Moses (Numbers 31:1-18). They were then greatly reduced in numbers, and their country desolated, that those who had saved themselves by flight might not be attracted to return. But in the course of 200 years they had increased in population as well as in power, and the memory of that disaster no doubt inflamed their resentment against the Israelites, whom they attacked on the north and east so successfully that they overcame the inhabitants of those parts in Palestine, and kept them in a state of painful subjection for seven years.