4.3 These are chariots with iron fittings. See note on 1.19.
4.4 As a prophetess Deborah (“Bee” in Hebrew) speaks for the Lord (vv. 6–7, 14). Lappidoth can mean torches, as in 15.4. Was judging seems initially to refer to Deborah’s role in settling disputes, but the verb can also mean to serve as military leader (3.10).
4.6 The ancient distinction of gender roles means that reluctant Barak (“Lightning” in Hebrew), not Deborah, serves as military commander. The territories of Naphtali and Zebulun touched at Mount Tabor at the northern edge of the Esdraelon plain. This location was ideally suited for a muster of troops from Galilee. These are the only tribes mentioned in the prose account.
4.7 The battleground lies where the pass between Megiddo and Taanach opens into Esdraelon, near the confluence of streams that flow together to form the Kishon River. The battle is for control of the rich Esdraelon, Acco, and northern Sharon plains. Israelites from the highlands are able successfully to challenge the occupants of the plains. In the tradition of sacral war, the Lord determines tactics and promises victory.
4.8–9 Deborah reproaches Barak for his fainthearted response. Into the hand of a woman sets readers up for a surprise fulfillment—the woman will not be Deborah.
4.11 This verse explains why some Kenites descended from Hobab in the south (see note on 1.16) are encamped in the far north, on the line of Sisera’s flight after the battle. The landmark Elon-bezaanannim means “Oak in Zaanannim” in Hebrew.
4.13 The waters of Wadi Kishon play a role in the poetic account at 5.21.
4.14 Although Barak leads the warriors, Deborah proclaims the day of the Lord’s victory.
4.15 The account is strikingly similar to that of the victory at the Red Sea (Ex 14.24). Panic is a customary tactic of the Divine Warrior (cf. Josh 10.10). The prose account gives no details of how the LORD created panic, but 5.20–21 suggest a natural catastrophe.
4.16 Although Barak pursued the chariots, Sisera has abandoned his and escaped (vv. 15, 17).
4.17 Peace between Jabin and Heber explains why Sisera feels comfortable seeking sanctuary in the tent of Jael.
4.18–19 Jael makes the first move by inviting Sisera in. At first she seems hospitable (she covered him and gave him milk), but her actions lull him into a vulnerable sleep.
4.20 Sisera’s request reveals his confidence in Jael, but also his unmanly fear. In Hebrew the question can be understood as “Is there a man here?”
4.21 For a nomadic woman, hammering a tent peg would be routine.
4.23–24 These verses are an editorial wrap-up.
JUDGES 5
The Song of Deborah
1Then Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying:
2“When locks are long in Israel,
when the people offer themselves willingly—
blessa the LORD!
3“Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes;
to the LORD I will sing,
I will make melody to the LORD, the God of Israel.
4“LORD, when you went out from Seir,
when you marched from the region of Edom,
the earth trembled,
and the heavens poured,
the clouds indeed poured water.
5The mountains quaked before the LORD, the One of Sinai,
before the LORD, the God of Israel.
6“In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
in the days of Jael, caravans ceased
and travelers kept to the byways.
7The peasantry prospered in Israel,
they grew fat on plunder,
because you arose, Deborah,
arose as a mother in Israel.
8When new gods were chosen,
then war was in the gates.
Was shield or spear to be seen
among forty thousand in Israel?
9My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel
who offered themselves willingly among the people.
Bless the LORD.
10“Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys,
you who sit on rich carpetsb
and you who walk by the way.
11To the sound of musiciansc at the watering places,
there they repeat the triumphs of the LORD,
the triumphs of his peasantry in Israel.
“Then down to the gates marched the people of the LORD.
12“Awake, awake, Deborah!
Awake, awake, utter a song!
Arise, Barak, lead away your captives,
O son of Abinoam.
13Then down marched the remnant of the noble;
the people of the LORD marched down for himd against the mighty.
14From Ephraim they set oute into the valley,f
following you, Benjamin, with your kin;
from Machir marched down the commanders,
and from Zebulun those who bear the marshal’s staff;
15the chiefs of Issachar came with Deborah,
and Issachar faithful to Barak;
into the valley they rushed out at his heels.
Among the clans of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart.
16Why did you tarry among the sheepfolds,
to hear the piping for the flocks?
Among the clans of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart.
17Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan;
and Dan, why did he abide with the ships?
Asher sat still at the coast of the sea,
settling down by his landings.
18Zebulun is a people that scorned death;
Naphtali too, on the heights of the field.
19“The kings came, they fought;
then fought the kings of Canaan,
at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;
they got no spoils of silver.
20The stars fought from heaven,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.
21The torrent Kishon swept them away,
the onrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon.
March on, my soul, with might!
22“Then loud beat the horses’ hoofs
with the galloping, galloping of his steeds.
23“Curse Meroz, says the angel of the LORD,
curse bitterly its inhabitants,
because they did not come to the help of the LORD,
to the help of the LORD against the mighty.
24“Most blessed of women be Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
of tent-dwelling women most blessed.
25He asked water and she gave him milk,
she brought him curds in a lordly bowl.
26She put her hand to the tent peg
and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet;
she struck Sisera a blow,
she crushed his head,
she shattered and pierced his temple.
27He sank, he fell,
he lay still at her feet;
at her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell dead.
28“Out of the window she peered,
the mother of Sisera gazedg through the lattice:
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?’
29Her wisest ladies make answer,
indeed, she answers the question herself:
30‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?—
A girl or two for every man;
spoil of dyed stuffs for Sisera,
spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered,
two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil?’
31“So perish all your enemies, O LORD!
But may your friends be like the sun as it rises in its might.”
And the land had rest forty years.
next chapter
* * *
a Or You who offer yourselves willingly among the people, bless
b Meaning of Heb uncertain
c Meaning of Heb uncertain
d Gk: Heb me
e Cn: Heb From Ephraim their root
f Gk: Heb in Amalek
g Gk Compare Tg: Heb exclaimed
5.1–31 The Song of Deborah (and Barak, but the verb in v. 1 is singular) is datable to the twelfth century BCE, not far removed from the events being celebrated. The song exhibits repetitive parallelism familiar from fourteenth-century BCE Ugaritic texts, but there are a number of obscurities in the text. Its depiction of events differs from that of ch. 4 in mentioning six participating tribes rather than two, remaining silent about any role for Jabin, and describing Sisera’s death in a different way (see note on 5.27).
5.2 This poem’s archaic language makes it difficult to interpret at several points. Locks are long may describe vows of military commitment; Samson’s long hair was indicative of his vowed status as a Nazirite (13.5).
5.3 Hear, O kings announces the general theme: praising the God of Israel as testimony to kings such as those recently defeated by the forces of Deborah and Barak.
5.4–5 The singer describes a theophany of the Lord as Divine Warrior, the One of Sinai, arriving in Canaan via Seir and the region of Edom, in southern Transjordan (cf. Deut 33.2–3).
5.6–7 The crisis is framed by the exploits of Shamgar and Jael. The insecure situation before Israel’s victory (v. 6) is contrasted with the good fortune that it brought about (v. 7). The title mother in Israel recognizes Deborah’s authority and leadership.
5.8 Shield and spear were aristocratic weapons belonging to professional military men, not the forty thousand Israelite peasants.
5.10 Celebration is appropriate for the entire citizenry: for the elite, who ride and possess rich carpets, and the general populace, who walk.
5.11 Watering places were the usual spots to gather for social interaction.
5.14–18 In the setting of the victory celebration, the poet reviews the performance of tribal contingents. Six tribes had responded: Ephraim, Benjamin, Machir (western Manasseh), Zebulun, Issachar, and Naphtali. Four are censured for not responding: Reuben, Gilead (possibly Gad), Dan, Asher. These ten groups may reflect a stage of organization earlier than the standard twelve-tribe system. Significantly, Judah, Simeon, and Levi are not mentioned.
5.15 At his heels, idiomatic for “under his command” (translated behind him in 4.10).
5.19–22 It is possible to read these verses as describing a victory won by a timely maneuver by the Lord—a cloudburst and flash flood—that gave an advantage to Israel’s foot soldiers over enemy chariots. Stars fight as the heavenly army of the Divine Warrior (v. 20), and the Kishon River engulfs the enemy (v. 21). The hoofbeats of escaping chariot horses are portrayed vividly.
5.23 Meroz (a town or clan?) and the incident cited are otherwise unknown.
5.24–27 This description of the demise of Sisera heaps praise upon Jael.
5.26 A tent peg and mallet were handy because pitching the tent was women’s work.
5.27 In this poetic version, Sisera seems to be standing when attacked in contrast to the situation in 4.21. There are probably sexual implications to the penetrating tent peg and his fall at her feet (“between her feet”), intended as a bitterly ironic reversal of the common practice of battlefield rape described in v. 30.
5.28 The final scene begins with another woman, the mother of Sisera (cf. Deborah as a mother in Israel, v. 7), waiting in vain for Sisera’s triumphant return. The scene of a woman looking out of a window was common in ancient Near Eastern art and biblical narrative (2 Sam 6.16; 2 Kings 9.30; Prov 7.6). Her reference to hoofbeats sounds ironic when read in context with v. 22.
5.30 Contrary to what his mother assumes, Sisera is not capturing girls for his sexual pleasure, but has been ravished himself by a woman.
5.31 Your friends, “those who love you.” Forty years is twice as long as the oppression (4.3) and half as long as the rest following Ehud (3.30).
JUDGES 6
The Midianite Oppression
1The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel; and because of Midian the Israelites provided for themselves hiding places in the mountains, caves and strongholds. 3For whenever the Israelites put in seed, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them. 4They would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the land, as far as the neighborhood of Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5For they and their livestock would come up, and they would even bring their tents, as thick as locusts; neither they nor their camels could be counted; so they wasted the land as they came in. 6Thus Israel was greatly impoverished because of Midian; and the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help.
7When the Israelites cried to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8the LORD sent a prophet to the Israelites; and he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of slavery; 9and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you, and gave you their land; 10and I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not pay reverence to the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not given heed to my voice.”
The Call of Gideon
11Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. 12The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior.” 13Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.” 15He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16The LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.” 17Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18Do not depart from here until I come to you, and bring out my present, and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.”
19So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them. 20The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so. 21Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the LORD; and Gideon said, “Help me, Lord GOD! For I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die.” 24Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it, The LORD is peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
25That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the sacred polea that is beside it; 26and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, in proper order; then take the second bull, and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the sacred poleb that you shall cut down.” 27So Gideon took ten of his servants, and did as the LORD had told him; but because he was too afraid of his family and the towns-people to do it by day, he did it by night.
> Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal
28When the townspeople rose early in the morning, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the sacred polec beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29So they said to one another, “Who has done this?” After searching and inquiring, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.” 30Then the townspeople said to Joash, “Bring out your son, so that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the sacred poled beside it.” 31But Joash said to all who were arrayed against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you defend his cause? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been pulled down.” 32Therefore on that day Gideone was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he pulled down his altar.
33Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together, and crossing the Jordan they encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34But the spirit of the LORD took possession of Gideon; and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.
The Sign of the Fleece
36Then Gideon said to God, “In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37I am going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.
HarperCollins Study Bible Page 106
