1. The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.
2. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.
3. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them.
4. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey.
5. 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.