All three were desert people. Even more, these were all apostate descendants of Abraham (Genesis 25:6; Genesis 36:15–16)! It was as though the Lord was now saying to Israel, “If you want to act like apostate sons of Abraham, then meet your kin. You will love them, since they like to share…all that you have.”
3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them.