What is the meaning of Judges 6:5? For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents The text opens by stressing that the Midianites did not arrive as a small raiding band; they moved in with everything they owned. • Livestock and tents signal a migrating nation, not a hit-and-run force (compare Genesis 13:5-7, where Abram and Lot’s herds required space). • This invasion threatened Israel’s crops, homes, and pastureland simultaneously—absolute economic suffocation. • God had warned Israel that disobedience would invite consuming enemies (Leviticus 26:16; Deuteronomy 28:31). Judges 6 proves His word true. like a great swarm of locusts Locust imagery paints a vivid picture of unstoppable devastation. • Exodus 10:4-5 describes locusts covering the land “so that no one will be able to see the ground,” mirroring the sight of Midianites blanketing Israel’s valleys (Judges 6:33). • Joel 1:4 speaks of successive locust plagues leaving nothing behind; likewise, each Midianite incursion stripped Israel of sustenance. • The simile underscores that what was happening was beyond human defense and required divine intervention (Psalm 91:3-4). They and their camels were innumerable The mention of camels marks a technological edge the Midianites enjoyed. • Judges 7:12 repeats that “their camels were without number, as the sand on the seashore,” framing an overwhelming statistic. • Camels enabled rapid, far-reaching raids (Isaiah 60:6), turning Midian into a desert powerhouse. • Israel, largely agrarian, faced an enemy whose mobility neutralized traditional defenses (1 Samuel 13:19-22 hints at similar strategic disadvantages). and they entered the land to ravage it The goal was not conquest for settlement but destruction for plunder. • “Ravage” recalls Deuteronomy 28:33: “A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land…”—a covenant curse now playing out. • Repeated seasonal raids starved Israel into hiding in caves and strongholds (Judges 6:2), crushing morale (Isaiah 8:22). • Only when Israel cried out (Judges 6:6-7) did the Lord raise Gideon, proving again that salvation comes from Him alone (Psalm 20:7). summary Judges 6:5 paints an eyewitness snapshot of relentless oppression: an entire nomadic nation, with all its animals and tents, sweeps over Israel like an unending locust storm. Their countless camels give them unmatched speed, allowing them to invade purposefully to strip the land bare. The verse testifies to the literal fulfillment of God’s warnings about covenant unfaithfulness and sets the stage for His merciful deliverance through Gideon. |
    |