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;
The Amalekites and other tribes that lived in the Arabian Desert east of Canaan joined the Midianites in their raids. These desert-dwellers were the "sons of the east" (Judges 6:3). The raids extended all the way to Gaza on the Mediterranean coast (Judges 6:4), far into Israel.