Judges 6:1

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... 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

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.

JUDGES CHAPTER 6 The Midianites oppress Israel, . A prophet raised rebukes them, . An angel calls Gideon to Israel’ s deliverance, ; confirms him by a miracle, . He builds an altar; calls it Jehovah-shalom; and offereth there. By God’ s command he breaks down the altar of BAAL: his name Jerub-baal, . The Midianites gather together to fight; and Gideon prepares against them: God strengthens and confirms him by a miracle, . For although the generality of the Midianites had been cut off by Moses about two hundred years ago, yet many of them doubtless fled into the neighbouring countries, whence afterwards they returned into their own land, and in that time might easily grow to be a very great number; especially when God furthered their increase, that they might be a fit scourge for his people Israel when they transgressed.

Judges 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.Ver. 1. And the children of Israel did evil.] This was the bad fruit of their forty years’ peace. "Ease slayeth the foolish." Into the hand of Midian.] Who once outwitted them and vexed them with their wiles, now with their inroads: ever full of malignity against the Israelites, though they were of the posterity of Abraham by Keturah, and had been better taught by Jethro, a priest and prince of God amongst them.

(1) Did evil.—Judges 2:11; Judges 3:12; Judges 4:1. Midian.—Midian was the son of Adraham and Keturah (Genesis 25:2), and from him descended the numerous and wealthy nomadic tribes which occupied the plains east of Moab (Numbers 31:32-39). The name belongs, properly, to the tribes on the south-east of the Gulf of Akabah (1 Kings 11:18). Moses himself had lived for forty years among them (Exodus 3:1; Exodus 18:1); but the Israelites had been bidden to maintain deadly hostility against the nation because of the shameful worship of Baal-peor, to which, under the instigation of Balaam, the Midianites had tempted them (Numbers 25:1-18).

CHAPTER VI The Israelites again do evil, and are delivered into the hands of the Midianites, by whom they are oppressed seven years, 1, 2. Different tribes spoil their harvests, and take away their cattle, 3-5. They cry unto the Lord, and he sends them a prophet to reprehend and instruct them, 6-10. An angel appears unto Gideon, and gives him commission to deliver Israel, and works several miracles, to prove that he is Divinely appointed to this work, 11-23. Gideon builds an altar to the Lord, under the name of Jehovah-shalom; and throws down the altar of Baal, 24-27. His townsmen conspire against him; he expostulates with them, and they are pacified, 28-32. The Midianites and Amalekites gather together against Israel; Gideon summons Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, who join his standard, 33-35. The miracle of the fleece of wool, 36-40. NOTES ON CHAP. VI Verse 1. Delivered them unto the hand of Midian] The Midianites were among the most ancient and inveterate of the enemies of Israel. They joined with the Moabites to seduce them to idolatry, and were nearly extirpated by them; Numbers 31:1-12. The Midianites dwelt on the eastern borders of the Dead Sea, and their capital was Arnon.

1–6. The Midianite oppression 1. The Deuteronomic editor introduces a fresh subject in his accustomed manner: cf. Judges 2:11; Judges 2:14, Judges 3:7, Judges 4:1. Midian] The Midianites had their homes on the E. of the ‘Arâbah; see Genesis 25:6. At times they are found as far N. as Moab (Genesis 36:35, Numbers 22:4; Numbers 25:15 ff; Numbers 31:1-12), while some section of them lived as far S. as the Gulf of ‘Aḳ ?ãbah; a trace of this southern settlement was long preserved in the name of the town called Modiana by Ptolemy (Judges 6:7; Judges 6:2) and Madyan by Arab geographers, 75 miles S. of Elath; cf. Euseb., Onom. Sacr., 136 f. Again, the Midianites are said to have inhabited the Sinaitic peninsula. Horeb, the mountain of God, lay in their territory, Exodus 2:15 ff; Exodus 3:1, cf. Habakkuk 3:7; from 1 Kings 11:18 Midian appears to be a district between Edom and Paran on the way to Egypt, i.e. in the N.E. of the Sinaitic desert. These various statements do not enable us to fix any exact boundaries; probably the Midianites shifted their territory in the course of ages. They ranged over the desert E. and S. of Palestine, engaged chiefly in warfare and in escorting trade-caravans (Genesis 37:28, Isaiah 60:6). The tendency of Arab tribes was to move northwards; accordingly we find the Midianites advancing up the desert E. of the caravan-route, and making forays from time to time into Edom1[35], Moab, and Gilead; on this occasion they even enter Palestine, probably by the valleys Wadi Jâlûd or W. Fara‘, which lead up from the Jordan into the central district. They were tempted by the harvests, and their incursions, here described as taking place repeatedly, caused wide-spread misery. The Bedouin of the desert always looked upon the agricultural population as lawful prey. [35] Ewald made the attractive suggestion that the battle alluded to in Genesis 36:35 may have been a secondary result of Gideon’s victory described here. Hist. Isr. ii. 336.

Midian - See Genesis 25:2 note. They were remarkable not only for the vast number of their cattle Judges 6:5; Numbers 31:32-39, but also for their great wealth in gold and other metal ornaments,

, Judges 6:1-10. 1. Israel did evil — Though, on account of their sins, the kings of Mesopotamia, Moab, and Hazor successively overran and oppressed the land, and though, after long years of