¹⁶ then I will do this to you: I will bring terror^(A) on you—wasting disease and fever that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it.

³¹ Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will help you.

³³ A people you don’t know will eat your land’s produce and everything you have labored for. You will only be oppressed and crushed continually.^(A)

³ Whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of the east^(A) came and attacked them. ⁴ They encamped against them and destroyed the produce of the land, even as far as Gaza. They left nothing for Israel to eat, as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey. ⁵ For the Midianites came with their cattle and their tents like a great swarm of locusts.^(B) They and their camels were without number, and they entered the land to lay waste to it. ⁶ So Israel became poverty-stricken because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the Lord.^(C)