John Gill Commentary Judges 6:3

"And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them;" — Judges 6:3 (ASV)

And so it was, when Israel had sown
Their land, and it was grown up, and near being ripe, or quite; for the Midianites gave them no disturbance in the winter, and during seedtime, when they came out of their lurking holes, and manured their land, and sowed it:

that the Midianites came up ;
into the land of Canaan, from the other side Jordan, where their country lay, and which it seems lay lower than the land of Israel:

and the Amalekites, and the children of the east :
the former were implacable enemies of Israel, and on every occasion would join other nations in oppressing them; and the children of the east were Arabians, as Josephus ^F2 expressly affirms:

even they came up against them ;
all these three sorts of people in a confederacy.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F2: Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 1.