And when Israel had sown, Madian and Amalec, and the rest of the eastern nations came up:

For whenever the Israelites put in seed the Mid'ianites and the Amal'ekites and the people of the East would come up and attack them;

And it hath been, if Israel hath sowed, that Midian hath come up, and Amalek, and the sons of the east, yea, they have come up against him,

And whenever Israel's grain was planted, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came up against them;

And so it was, when Israel had sown, that Midian, Amalek, and the Kedemites would come up against them.

And when Israel had planted, Midian and Amalek, and the rest of the eastern nations ascended,

Children of the East - Probably those who inhabited Arabia Deserta, Ishmaelites.

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 (b) expressly affirms:
even they came up against them; all these three sorts of people in a confederacy.
(b) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 1.

Children of the east - That is, the Arabians, who are commonly called the children of the east. Not all the Arabians; but the eastern part of them.