Judges 6:5
New International Version
They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.

New Living Translation
These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare.

English Standard Version
For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in.

Berean Standard Bible
For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it.

New American Standard Bible
For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in like locusts in number, and both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to ruin it.

NASB 1995
For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it.

NASB 1977
For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it.

Legacy Standard Bible
For they would go up with their livestock and their tents; they would come in like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to make it a ruin.

Amplified Bible
For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, and they would come in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were innumerable. So they came into the land to devastate it.

Christian Standard Bible
For the Midianites came with their cattle and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were without number, and they entered the land to lay waste to it.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For the Midianites came with their cattle and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were without number, and they entered the land to waste it.

American Standard Version
For they came up with their cattle and their tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Because they and their cattle and their tents were coming like many locusts, and there was no number to them and to their camels, and they entered the land for its destruction

Brenton Septuagint Translation
For they and their stock came up, and their tents were with them, as the locust in multitude, and there was no number to them and their camels; and they came to the land of Israel, and laid it waste.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For they and all their flocks came with their tents, and like locusts filled all places, an innumerable multitude of men, and of camels, wasting whatsoever they touched.

English Revised Version
For they came up with their cattle and their tents, they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Like swarms of locusts, they came with their livestock and their tents. They and their camels could not be counted. They came into the land only to ruin it.

Good News Translation
They would come with their livestock and tents, as thick as locusts. They and their camels were too many to count. They came and devastated the land,

International Standard Version
They would invade with their livestock and tents, swooping in as numerous as locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels—and they came into the land to destroy it.

JPS Tanakh 1917
For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land to destroy it.

Literal Standard Version
for they and their livestock come up, with their tents; they come in as the fullness of the locust for multitude, and of them and of their livestock there is no number, and they come into the land to destroy it.

Majority Standard Bible
For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it.

New American Bible
For they would come up with their livestock, and their tents would appear as thick as locusts. They would be too many to count when they came into the land to lay it waste.

NET Bible
When they invaded with their cattle and tents, they were as thick as locusts. Neither they nor their camels could be counted. They came to devour the land.

New Revised Standard Version
For they and their livestock would come up, and they would even bring their tents, as thick as locusts; neither they nor their camels could be counted; so they wasted the land as they came in.

New Heart English Bible
For they came up with their livestock and their tents and their camels. They would come in like locusts in number, and they were innumerable. And they came into the land to ravage it.

Webster's Bible Translation
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.

World English Bible
For they came up with their livestock and their tents. They came in as locusts for multitude. Both they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land to destroy it.

Young's Literal Translation
for they and their cattle come up, with their tents; they come in as the fulness of the locust for multitude, and of them and of their cattle there is no number, and they come into the land to destroy it.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Midian Oppresses Israel
4encamping against them as far as Gaza and destroying the produce of the land. They left Israel with no sustenance, neither sheep nor oxen nor donkeys. 5For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it. 6Israel was greatly impoverished by Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the LORD.…

Cross References
Judges 7:12
Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and all the other people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and their camels were as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Judges 8:10
Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army of about fifteen thousand men--all that were left of the armies of the people of the east. A hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had already fallen.

Jeremiah 46:23
They will chop down her forest, declares the LORD, dense though it may be, for they are more numerous than locusts; they cannot be counted.


Treasury of Scripture

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.

tents

Song of Solomon 1:5
I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

Isaiah 13:20
It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

as grasshoppers

Judges 7:12
And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.

Judges 8:10
Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of all the hosts of the children of the east: for there fell an hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword.

Jeremiah 46:23
They shall cut down her forest, saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.

their camels

Judges 8:21
Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks.

1 Samuel 30:17
And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.

Isaiah 60:6
The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD.

to destroy

Psalm 83:4-12
They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance…

Jump to Previous
Camels Cattle Count Counted Destroy Destruction Devastate Entered Impossible Innumerable Invaded Livestock Multitude Oxen Ravage Regularly Swarms Tents Wasted
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Camels Cattle Count Counted Destroy Destruction Devastate Entered Impossible Innumerable Invaded Livestock Multitude Oxen Ravage Regularly Swarms Tents Wasted
Judges 6
1. The Israelites for their sin are oppressed by Midian
8. A prophet rebukes them
11. An angel sends Gideon for their deliverance
17. Gideon's present is consumed with fire
24. Gideon destroys Baal's altar; offers a sacrifice upon the altar Jehovah-shalom
28. Joash defends his son, and calls him Jerubbaal
33. Gideon's army
36. Gideon's signs














(5) As grasshoppers.--See Judges 7:12. Rather, as locusts. The magnificent imagery of Joel 2:2-11 enables us to realise the force of the metaphor, and Exodus 10:4-6 the number of locusts, which are a common metaphor for countless hordes. Aristophanes (Ach. 150) speaks of an army so numerous that the Athenians will cry out, "What a mass of locusts is coming!" The Bedouin call the locusts Gurrud Allah, "Host of God" (Wetzstein, Hauran, p. 138).

Their camels.--These were very uncommon in Palestine, and were brought by the invaders from the Eastern deserts.

Without number.--This is Oriental hyperbole. "When Burckhardt asked a Bedouin, who belonged to a tribe of 300 tents, how many brothers he had, he flung a handful of sand into the air, and replied, 'Equally numberless'" (Cassel).

Verse 5. - As grasshoppers. See the striking description of the destruction caused by locusts in Joel 3. I have heard travellers in India describe the sudden darkening of the sky by a flight of locusts.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
For
כִּ֡י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

the Midianites
הֵם֩ (hêm)
Pronoun - third person masculine plural
Strong's 1992: They

came
וּבָ֤אוּ (ū·ḇā·’ū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

with their livestock
וּמִקְנֵיהֶ֨ם (ū·miq·nê·hem)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 4735: Something bought, property, livestock, acquisition

and their tents
וְאָהֳלֵיהֶ֗ם (wə·’ā·ho·lê·hem)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 168: A tent

like a great
לָרֹ֔ב (lā·rōḇ)
Preposition-l, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7230: Multitude, abundance, greatness

swarm
כְדֵֽי־ (ḵə·ḏê-)
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 1767: Sufficiency, enough

of locusts.
אַרְבֶּה֙ (’ar·beh)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 697: (a kind of) locust

They and their camels
וְלִגְמַלֵּיהֶ֖ם (wə·liḡ·mal·lê·hem)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 1581: A camel

were innumerable,
אֵ֣ין (’ên)
Adverb
Strong's 369: A non-entity, a negative particle

and they entered
וַיָּבֹ֥אוּ (way·yā·ḇō·’ū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

the land
בָאָ֖רֶץ (ḇā·’ā·reṣ)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 776: Earth, land

to ravage it.
לְשַׁחֲתָֽהּ׃ (lə·ša·ḥă·ṯāh)
Preposition-l | Verb - Piel - Infinitive construct | third person feminine singular
Strong's 7843: Perhaps to go to ruin


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OT History: Judges 6:5 For they came up with their livestock (Jd Judg. Jdg)
Judges 6:4
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