³ For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and ^(A)the Amalekites and ^(B)the people of the East would come up against them. ⁴ They would encamp against them ^(C)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 ^(D)like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. ⁶ And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel ^(E)cried out for help to the Lord.

⁵⁰ a hard-faced nation ^(A)who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. ⁵¹ It shall ^(B)eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

³³ A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, ³⁴ so that you are driven mad ^(A)by the sights that your eyes see.

²⁹ and you shall ^(A)grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways.^[a] And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.