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Fresh apostasy of Israel, and their consequent oppression by Jabin. <a href="/context/judges/4-4.htm" title="And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.">Judges 4:4-5</a>. Deborah, the prophetess. <a href="/context/judges/4-6.htm" title="And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedeshnaphtali, and said to him, Has not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?">Judges 4:6-9</a>. She summons Barak to deliver Israel, and accompanies him at his request. <a href="/judges/4-10.htm" title="And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him.">Judges 4:10</a>. Army of Barak. 11. Heber the Kenite. <a href="/context/judges/4-12.htm" title="And they showed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to mount Tabor.">Judges 4:12-13</a>. Gathering of Sisera’s host. <a href="/context/judges/4-14.htm" title="And Deborah said to Barak, Up; for this is the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand: is not the LORD gone out before you? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.">Judges 4:14-16</a>. Their defeat. <a href="/judges/4-17.htm" title="However, Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.">Judges 4:17</a>. Flight of Sisera. 18-22. His murder by Jael. <a href="/context/judges/4-23.htm" title="So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.">Judges 4:23-24</a>. Complete triumph of Israel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-1.htm">Judges 4:1</a></div><div class="verse">And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, when Ehud was dead.</div>(1) <span class= "bld">Again did evil in the sight of the Lord.</span>—“They turned their backs, and fell away like their forefathers, starting aside like a broken bow” (<a href="/psalms/78-57.htm" title="But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.">Psalm 78:57</a>); see <a href="/judges/3-12.htm" title="And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.">Judges 3:12</a>.<p><span class= "bld">When Ehud was dead.</span>—See <a href="/judges/3-31.htm" title="And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.">Judges 3:31</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-2.htm">Judges 4:2</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host <i>was</i> Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Sold them.</span>—See <a href="/judges/2-14.htm" title="And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.">Judges 2:14</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Jabin.</span>—The name means, “he is wise.” It may have been a dynastic name, like Abimelech, Melchizedek, Pharaoh, Hadad, Agag, &c.<p><span class= "bld">King of Canaan</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>of some great tribe or nation of the Canaanite8. In <a href="/joshua/11-1.htm" title="And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,">Joshua 11:1</a> Jabin is called king of Hazor, and sends messages to all the other Canaanite princes.<p><span class= "bld">Reigned in Hazor.</span>—See <a href="/joshua/11-1.htm" title="And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,">Joshua 11:1</a>. Hazor was in the tribe of Naphtali (<a href="/joshua/19-36.htm" title="And Adamah, and Ramah, and Hazor,">Joshua 19:36</a>), and overlooked the waters of Merom (Jos., <span class= "ital">Antt. </span>v. 5, § 1). We find from Egyptian inscriptions of Barneses II., &c., that it was a flourishing town in very ancient days. Owing to its importance, it was fortified by Solomon (<a href="/1_kings/9-15.htm" title="And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.">1Kings 9:15</a>). Its inhabitants were taken captive by Tiglath-pileser (<a href="/2_kings/15-29.htm" title="In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.">2Kings 15:29</a>); and it is last mentioned in <a href="//apocrypha.org/1_maccabees/9-27.htm" title="So was there a great affliction in Israel, the like whereof was not since the time that a prophet was not seen among them.">1 Maccabees 9:27</a>. (Comp. Jos., <span class= "ital">Antt. xiii.</span> 5, § 7.) De Saulcy discovered large and ancient ruins to the north of Merom, which he identifies with this town. The Bishop of Bath and Wells (Lord A. Hervey <span class= "ital">On the Genealogies, </span>p. 28) has pointed out the strange resemblance between the circumstances of this defeat and that recorded in Joshua 11. In both we have a Jabin, king of Hazor; in both there are subordinate kings (<a href="/judges/5-19.htm" title="The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.">Judges 5:19</a>; <a href="/joshua/11-1.htm" title="And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,">Joshua 11:1</a>); in both chariots are prominent, which, as we conjecture from <a href="/joshua/11-8.htm" title="And the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them to great Zidon, and to Misrephothmaim, and to the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining.">Joshua 11:8</a>, were burnt at Misrephoth-maim (“burnings by the waters”); and in both the general outline of circumstances is the same, and the same names occur in the list of conquered kings (<a href="/context/joshua/11-21.htm" title="And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.">Joshua 11:21-22</a>). This seems to be the reason why Josephus, in his account of the earlier event (<span class= "ital">Antt. v.</span> 1, § 18), does not mention either Jabin or Hazor, though strangely enough he says, in both instances, with his usual tendency to exaggeration, that the Canaanites had 300,000 foot, 10,000 horse, and 3,000 chariots. It is again a curious, though it may be an unimportant circumstance, that in <a href="/1_samuel/12-9.htm" title="And when they forgot the LORD their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.">1Samuel 12:9</a> the prophet mentions Sisera <span class= "ital">before </span>Eglon. Of course, if the received view of the chronology be correct, we must make the not impossible supposition, that in the century and a half which is supposed to have elapsed since the death of Joshua, Hazor had risen from its obliteration and its ashes (<a href="/joshua/11-11.htm" title="And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire.">Joshua 11:11</a>; Jos., <span class= "ital">Antt. v.</span> 5, § 4), under a new Canaanite settlement, governed by a king who adopted the old dynastic name. If, on the other hand, there are chronological indications that the whole period of the Judges must be greatly shortened, we may perhaps suppose that the armies of Joshua and Barak combined the full strength of the central and northern tribes in an attack from different directions, which ended in a common victory. In that case, the different tribal records can only have dwelt on that part of the victory in which they were themselves concerned. It is remarkable that even so conservative a critic as Bishop Wordsworth holds “that some of the judges of Israel were only judges of portions of Canaan, and that the years run parallel to those of other judges in other districts of the same country.” If there are difficulties in whatever scheme of chronology we adopt, we must remember the antiquity and the fragmentary nature of the records, which were written with other and far higher views than that of furnishing us with an elaborate consecutive history.<p><span class= "bld">The captain of whose host.</span>—In Eastern narratives it is common for the king to play a very subordinate personal part. In the last campaign of Crœsus we hear much more of Surenas, the general of the Parthians, than of Orodes (Arsaces, 14).<p><span class= "bld">Sisera.</span>—The name long lingered among the Israelites. It occurs again in <a href="/ezra/2-53.htm" title="The children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Thamah,">Ezra 2:53</a>, as the name of the founder of a family of Nethinim (minor servants of the Levites, of Canaanite origin, 2 Samuel 21; <a href="/ezra/2-43.htm" title="The Nethinims: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth,">Ezra 2:43</a>; <a href="/1_chronicles/9-2.htm" title="Now the first inhabitants that dwelled in their possessions in their cities were, the Israelites, the priests, Levites, and the Nethinims.">1Chronicles 9:2</a>); and in the strange fashion which prevailed among some of the Rabbis of claiming a foreign descent, the great Rabbi Akhivah professed to be descended from Sisera.<p><span class= "bld">Harosheth.</span>—The name means “wood-cutting.” The Chaldee renders it, “In the strength of citadels of the nations.” It was an ingenious and not improbable conjecture of the late Dr. Donaldson, that the town was named from the fact that Sisera made the subject Israelites serve as “hewers of wood” in the cedar-woods and fir-woods of Lebanon. The site of Harosheth has been precariously identified with <span class= "ital">Harsthîeh, </span>a hill on the south-east of the plain of Akka. (Thomson’s <span class= "ital">Land and Book, </span>ch. 29)<p><span class= "bld">Of the Gentiles</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>of the nations; of mixed inhabitants; lying as it did in “Galilee of the Gentiles.” (Comp. “Tidal, king of <span class= "ital">nations,” </span><a href="/genesis/14-1.htm" title="And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations;">Genesis 14:1</a>, and “The king of the nations in Gilgal,” <a href="/joshua/12-23.htm" title="The king of Dor in the coast of Dor, one; the king of the nations of Gilgal, one;">Joshua 12:23</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-3.htm">Judges 4:3</a></div><div class="verse">And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Cried unto the Lord.</span>—<a href="/judges/3-9.htm" title="And when the children of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.">Judges 3:9</a>; <a href="/judges/3-15.htm" title="But when the children of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man left handed: and by him the children of Israel sent a present to Eglon the king of Moab.">Judges 3:15</a>; <a href="/psalms/107-13.htm" title="Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.">Psalm 107:13</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Nine hundred.</span>—Josephus magnifies the number to 3,000.<p><span class= "bld">Chariots of iron.</span>—<a href="/judges/1-19.htm" title="And the LORD was with Judah; and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.">Judges 1:19</a>; <a href="/joshua/17-10.htm" title="Southward it was Ephraim's, and northward it was Manasseh's, and the sea is his border; and they met together in Asher on the north, and in Issachar on the east.">Joshua 17:10</a>. We may notice that as the children of Israel <span class= "ital">burnt </span>these chariots at Misrephoth-maim (Joshua 11), they could not have been of solid iron throughout.<p><span class= "bld">Mightily oppressed.</span>—The word “mightily” is rendered “sharply” in <a href="/judges/8-1.htm" title="And the men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you served us thus, that you called us not, when you went to fight with the Midianites? And they did chide with him sharply.">Judges 8:1</a>; “by force” in <a href="/1_samuel/2-16.htm" title="And if any man said to him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as your soul desires; then he would answer him, No; but you shall give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.">1Samuel 2:16</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-4.htm">Judges 4:4</a></div><div class="verse">And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Deborah.</span>—The name means “bee,” like the Greek Melissa. The names of Jewish women were often derived from natural objects, as Rachel, “a lamb,” Tamar,”a palm,” &c. It has been sometimes regarded as a title given to her as a prophetess, just as the priestesses of Delphi were called Bees (Pindar, <span class= "ital">Pyth. iv.</span> 106); and priests were called by the title Malebee (<span class= "ital">Essēn</span>)<span class= "ital">. </span>But the fact that Rachel’s nurse (<a href="/genesis/35-8.htm" title="But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.">Genesis 35:8</a>) had the same name is against this supposition, though Josephus (<span class= "ital">Antt. v.</span>, § 5) accepts it. She had, as Cornelius à Lapide quaintly says, “a sting for foes, and honey for friends.” The pronunciation Debŏrah is now so deeply-rooted in England (possibly from the Vulgate, Debbora) that it would, perhaps, be pedantic to alter it; but properly the “ō” is long <span class= "greekheb">נביאה</span>; LXX., Deborra and Debbōra).<p><span class= "bld">A prophetess.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">a woman, a prophetess; </span>like Miriam (<a href="/exodus/15-20.htm" title="And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances.">Exodus 15:20</a>), Huldah (<a href="/2_kings/22-14.htm" title="So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelled in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her.">2Kings 22:14</a>), Noadiah (<a href="/nehemiah/6-14.htm" title="My God, think you on Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.">Nehemiah 6:14</a>), Anna (<a href="/luke/2-36.htm" title="And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;">Luke 2:36</a>), &c. She is the only female judge, or, indeed, female ruler of any kind in Jewish history, except the Phoenician murderess, Athaliah. She is also the only judge to whom the title “prophet” is expressly given. “Prophetess” (like the Latin <span class= "ital">Vates</span>) implies the possession of poetic as well as of prophetic gifts (<a href="/exodus/15-20.htm" title="And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances.">Exodus 15:20</a>); and we see her right to such a title, both in her predictions (<a href="/judges/4-9.htm" title="And she said, I will surely go with you: notwithstanding the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.">Judges 4:9</a>), her lofty courage (<a href="/judges/5-7.htm" title="The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.">Judges 5:7</a>), and the splendour of her inspired song (Judges 5). She has modern parallels in the Teutonic prophetesses, Veleda and Alaurinia (Tac., <span class= "ital">Germ. </span>8), and Joan of Arc, the “Inspired Maid of Domremi.” Among the Jews prophetesses were the exception; among the ancient Germans they were the rule.<p><span class= "bld">The wife of Lapidoth.</span>—This is probably the meaning of the phrase, although some ancient commentators make it mean “a woman of Lapidoth;” as does Tennyson (<span class= "ital">Princess</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>“Like that great dame of Lapidoth.” The phrase closely resembles “Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron,” “Huldah the prophetess, wife of Shallum.” The name Lapidoth, which occurs nowhere else, means “flames,” “lamps,” or “splendours;” and Rashi says that she was called “a woman of lamps,” from making the wicks for the lamps of the sanctuary; while others, with equal improbability, interpret it of her shining gifts and of her fiery spirit. The parallels which are adduced to support this view (<a href="/isaiah/62-1.htm" title="For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burns.">Isaiah 62:1</a>; <a href="/job/41-2.htm" title="Can you put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?">Job 41:2</a>; <a href="/nahum/2-5.htm" title="He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared.">Nahum 2:5</a>) are inadequate; as also is Ecclus. xlviii. 1, “The word of Elias burnt like a torch;” and the Midrash, which says of Phinehas, that “when the Holy Ghost filled him, his countenance glowed like torches” (Cassel). Perhaps there was a fancy that such a prophetess could only be a virgin. The name Lapidoth has a feminine termination, but this does not prove that it may not have been, like Naboth, Shelomith, Koheleth, &c., the name of a man. It is uncertain whether Deborah was of the tribe of Ephraim or Issachar (<a href="/judges/5-15.htm" title="And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley. For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart.">Judges 5:15</a>; Ewald, ii. 489).<p><span class= "bld">She judged Israel.</span>—We see from the next verse that up to this time her functions had mainly consisted of peaceful arbitration and legal decision (<a href="/deuteronomy/17-8.htm" title="If there arise a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates: then shall you arise, and get you up into the place which the LORD your God shall choose;">Deuteronomy 17:8</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-5.htm">Judges 4:5</a></div><div class="verse">And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">She dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah.—</span>Similarly Abraham is said to have lived under the oak of Mamre (<a href="/genesis/14-13.htm" title="And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelled in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram.">Genesis 14:13</a>), and Saul under the pomegranate of Migron (<a href="/1_samuel/14-2.htm" title="And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people that were with him were about six hundred men;">1Samuel 14:2</a>). “Such tents the patriarchs loved “(Coleridge). Dean Stanley (<span class= "ital">Jewish Chron. </span>i. 318) draws a fine contrast between the triumphant “mother of Israel” (Judges 5 under her palm, full of the fire of faith and energy,and Judæa Captiva, represented on the coins of Titus as a weeping woman sitting under a palm-tree, “with downcast eyes and folded hands, and extinguished hopes.” The words “she dwelt” are literally <span class= "ital">she was sitting, </span>which may merely mean that she took her station under this well-known and solitary palm when she was giving her judgment (comp. <a href="/psalms/9-3.htm" title="When my enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at your presence.">Psalm 9:3</a>); just as St. Louis, under the oak-tree at Vincennes (Stanley, <span class= "ital">Jewish Chron. </span>i. 218), and as Ethelbert received St. Austin and his monks under an oak. The tree won its name as the “Deborah palm” from her, and may also have originated the name Baal-Tamar, “the lord of the palm” (<a href="/judges/20-33.htm" title="And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baaltamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.">Judges 20:33</a>). Near it was another very famous tree—Allon-Bachuth—the oak or terebinth of weeping; so called from the weeping at the burial of the other Deborah (<a href="/genesis/35-8.htm" title="But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.">Genesis 35:8</a>), which is alluded to in <a href="/1_samuel/10-3.htm" title="Then shall you go on forward from there, and you shall come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet you three men going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine:">1Samuel 10:3</a>, if the true reading there be “the oak of Deborah,” and not of Tabor, as Thenius conjectures.<p><span class= "bld">Between Ramah and Beth-el.</span>—Both towns were on the confines of Benjamin and Ephraim (see <a href="/joshua/18-25.htm" title="Gibeon, and Ramah, and Beeroth,">Joshua 18:25</a>; <a href="/joshua/16-2.htm" title="And goes out from Bethel to Luz, and passes along to the borders of Archi to Ataroth,">Joshua 16:2</a>).<p><span class= "bld">In mount Ephraim.</span>—The one secure spot in Palestine. (See Note on <a href="/judges/3-27.htm" title="And it came to pass, when he was come, that he blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mount, and he before them.">Judges 3:27</a>.) The Chaldee prosaically amplifies this into “she lived in Ataroth (<a href="/joshua/15-2.htm" title="And their south border was from the shore of the salt sea, from the bay that looks southward:">Joshua 15:2</a>), having independent means, and she had palm-trees in Jericho, gardens in Ramah, olive-yards in the valley, a well-watered land in Bethel, and white clay in the king’s mount.”<p><span class= "bld">Came up.</span>—A technical term for going before a superior (<a href="/numbers/16-12.htm" title="And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: which said, We will not come up:">Numbers 16:12</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/25-7.htm" title="And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.">Deuteronomy 25:7</a>). Deborah, unlike the German Veleda—who lived in a tower, in awful seclusion—allowed the freest access to her presence as she sat beneath her palm.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-6.htm">Judges 4:6</a></div><div class="verse">And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedeshnaphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, <i>saying</i>, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Barak.</span>—The name means “lightning” (Jos., <span class= "ital">Antt.</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>as does Barca, the family name of Hannibal and Hasdrubal. So in Virgil, the Scipios are called “two lightnings of war.” (Comp. Boanerges, <a href="/mark/3-17.htm" title="And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:">Mark 3:17</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Kedesh-naphtali.</span>—The name “Kedesh” means a <span class= "ital">holy </span>city. There were, therefore, many towns of the name, as Kadesh-Barnea (<a href="/numbers/20-1.htm" title="Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.">Numbers 20:1</a>; <a href="/joshua/15-23.htm" title="And Kedesh, and Hazor, and Ithnan,">Joshua 15:23</a>), and Kedesh in Issachar (<a href="/joshua/12-22.htm" title="The king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam of Carmel, one;">Joshua 12:22</a>). Jerusalem is called “the holy, the noble” (<span class= "ital">El kuds, es shereef</span>)<span class= "ital">. </span>This sanctuary of Naphtali was a Levitical refuge city in Galilee (<a href="/joshua/19-35.htm" title="And the fenced cities are Ziddim, Zer, and Hammath, Rakkath, and Chinnereth,">Joshua 19:35</a>; <a href="/joshua/20-7.htm" title="And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.">Joshua 20:7</a>; <a href="/joshua/21-32.htm" title="And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Hammothdor with her suburbs, and Kartan with her suburbs; three cities.">Joshua 21:32</a>). Josephus says that it was not far from Phœnicia (Jos., <span class= "ital">Antt. xiii.</span> 5, § 6). The site of it is probably at Kades, four miles north-west of Lake Merom. The reading of the Syriac and Arabic versions here—<span class= "ital">Rakam</span>—is inexplicable. The fact that the fame of Barak had penetrated from the northern city to the southern limits of Ephraim shows that he must have been a man of great mark.<p><span class= "bld">Draw.</span>—The meaning of the word is uncertain. The Rabbis understand “the people,” others understand “thy steps,” referring to <a href="/genesis/37-21.htm" title="And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him.">Genesis 37:21</a>; <a href="/exodus/12-21.htm" title="Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.">Exodus 12:21</a> (Heb.). The LXX. has “thou shalt depart;” the Vulgate, <span class= "ital">“lead;” </span>the Chaldee, “spread out,” as in <a href="/judges/20-37.htm" title="And the liers in wait hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.">Judges 20:37</a>. There, however, our version gives in the margin the alternative “<span class= "ital">made a long </span>sound with the trumpet,” and the verb is used in that sense in <a href="/exodus/19-13.htm" title="There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet sounds long, they shall come up to the mount.">Exodus 19:13</a>; <a href="/joshua/6-5.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.">Joshua 6:5</a>, but there the substantive is added. The word probably implies that Barak is to draw his troops together in small contingents to prevent suspicion.<p><span class= "bld">Mount Tabor.</span>—The broad flat top of this strong, beautiful, and easily fortified mountain (which is nearly a mile in circumference) would serve the double purpose of a watch-post and a stronghold. It was in the district of Issachar, about six miles from Nazareth, and its peculiarities attracted notice in very early days (see <a href="/joshua/19-22.htm" title="And the coast reaches to Tabor, and Shahazimah, and Bethshemesh; and the outgoings of their border were at Jordan: sixteen cities with their villages.">Joshua 19:22</a>; <a href="/psalms/89-12.htm" title="The north and the south you have created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in your name.">Psalm 89:12</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/46-18.htm" title="As I live, said the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.">Jeremiah 46:18</a>). Josephus calls it Itaburion; he held it for some time successfully against Placidus and the Romans (Jos., <span class= "ital">B. J. </span>iv. 1, § 8). Its huge truncated cone of limestone rises isolated from the plain to the height of nearly nineteen hundred feet, and its sides are clothed with oaks and terebinths. It is now called Jebel et Tur. It was long regarded as the scene of the Transfiguration, but it must yield this glory to Mount Hermon. But the sacred character of the hill seems to be distinctly intimated in <a href="/deuteronomy/33-19.htm" title="They shall call the people to the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand.">Deuteronomy 33:19</a> : “They (Zebulon and Issachar) shall call the people unto the mountains; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness;” <a href="/jeremiah/46-18.htm" title="As I live, said the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.">Jeremiah 46:18</a> : “As I live, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of Hosts, surely as Tabor is among the mountains . . . so shall he come.”<p><span class= "bld">Of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun.</span>—The northern tribes would feel most painfully the tyranny of Jabin, and these were the two most energetic of them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-7.htm">Judges 4:7</a></div><div class="verse">And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">To the river Kishon.</span>—This word rendered “river” is <span class= "ital">nachal, </span>which means rather “a torrent-bed” or “water-course,” the Arabic <span class= "ital">wady, </span>the Italian <span class= "ital">fiumara—</span>such as the bed of the Kedron and the Rhinocolura. (LXX. <span class= "ital">cheimarrous, </span>Vulg. <span class= "ital">torrens.</span>) The river is always prominently mentioned in connection with this great victory (<a href="/psalms/83-9.htm" title="Do to them as to the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:">Psalm 83:9</a>), because the overwhelming defeat of Canaan was due in great measure to the providential swelling of the torrent-waters, which turned its banks into a morass and rendered the iron chariots worse than useless. It contributed in the same way to the defeat of the Turks in the battle of Mount Tabor, April, 1799. The river is now called the Mukatta, <span class= "ital">i.e., “</span>the river of slaughter.” It rises partly in Mount Tabor and flows into the Bay of Acre, under Mount Carmel. (Comp. <a href="/1_kings/18-40.htm" title="And Elijah said to them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.">1Kings 18:40</a>.) The plain of Jezreel (Esdraelon), through which it flows, has been in all ages the battle-field of Palestine.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-8.htm">Judges 4:8</a></div><div class="verse">And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, <i>then</i> I will not go.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">If thou wilt go with me.</span>—The enterprise seemed so daring and so hopeless, that if not for his own sake, yet for the sake of his army, Barak felt how much would be gained by the presence of the inspired prophetess. The LXX. has the remarkable addition, “Because I know not the day in which the Lord prospers the angel with me.” This is a sort of excuse for his want of perfect faith. He depends on Deborah to give him the immediate augury of victory. “In the Messenian war the soldiers fought bravely because their seers were present” (Pausan. iv. 16—Cassel).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-9.htm">Judges 4:9</a></div><div class="verse">And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">I will surely go with thee.</span>—Literally-<span class= "ital">Going, I will go.</span><p><span class= "bld">Shall not be for thine honour.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">thy pre-eminence </span>(LXX. <span class= "ital">“proterēma”; </span>Luther, “<span class= "ital">der Preis </span>“) <span class= "ital">shall not be on the path which thou enterest.</span><p><span class= "bld">Of a woman.</span>—To enter into the force of this we must remember the humble and almost down-trodden position of women in the East, so that it could hardly fail to be a humiliation to a great warrior to be told that the chief glory would fall to <span class= "ital">a woman. </span>He may have supposed that the woman was Deborah herself; but the woman was not the great prophetess, but Jael, the wife of the nomad chief (R. Tanchum, and Jos., <span class= "ital">Antt. v.</span> 5, § 4). Compare the feeling implied in <a href="/judges/9-24.htm" title="That the cruelty done to the three score and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, which slew them; and on the men of Shechem, which aided him in the killing of his brothers.">Judges 9:24</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-10.htm">Judges 4:10</a></div><div class="verse">And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Called.</span>—The word used is the technical word for summoning an army (<a href="/context/2_samuel/20-4.htm" title="Then said the king to Amasa, Assemble me the men of Judah within three days, and be you here present.">2Samuel 20:4-5</a>). Naturally Zebulun and Naphtali would be more difficult to arouse than the central tribes, because, though they felt the oppression most, they would have to bear the brunt of the vengeance in case of defeat. Ephraim and Benjamin (<a href="/judges/5-14.htm" title="Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after you, Benjamin, among your people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.">Judges 5:14</a>), being more strong and secure, could raise their contingents without the personal help of Deborah, especially if that view of the chronology be admissible which avoids other difficulties by the difficult supposition that this event took place before the death of Joshua.<p><span class= "bld">Zebulun and Naphtali.</span>—(See <a href="/judges/5-18.htm" title="Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that risked their lives to the death in the high places of the field.">Judges 5:18</a>.) Of course it is only meant that in the first instance the <span class= "ital">leaders </span>of those tribes were invited to a conference, like those of the Swiss on the Rütli in 1307.<p><span class= "bld">At his feet.</span>—That is simply “after him,” as it is rendered in <a href="/judges/4-14.htm" title="And Deborah said to Barak, Up; for this is the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand: is not the LORD gone out before you? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.">Judges 4:14</a>. (Comp. <a href="/judges/5-15.htm" title="And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley. For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart.">Judges 5:15</a>; <a href="/judges/8-5.htm" title="And he said to the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread to the people that follow me; for they be faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.">Judges 8:5</a>; <a href="/exodus/11-8.htm" title="And all these your servants shall come down to me, and bow down themselves to me, saying, Get you out, and all the people that follow you: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger.">Exodus 11:8</a>; <a href="/1_kings/20-10.htm" title="And Benhadad sent to him, and said, The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me.">1Kings 20:10</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Deborah went up with him.</span>—A trace of this fact may yet be preserved in the name <span class= "ital">Debarieh, </span>given to a village at the foot of Tabor.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-11.htm">Judges 4:11</a></div><div class="verse">Now Heber the Kenite, <i>which was</i> of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses, had severed himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, which <i>is</i> by Kedesh.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Heber the Kenite.</span>—See <a href="/judges/1-16.htm" title="And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelled among the people.">Judges 1:16</a>; <a href="/judges/3-31.htm" title="And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.">Judges 3:31</a>; <a href="/numbers/10-29.htm" title="And Moses said to Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father in law, We are journeying to the place of which the LORD said, I will give it you: come you with us, and we will do you good: for the LORD has spoken good concerning Israel.">Numbers 10:29</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Which was of the children of Hobab.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">had separated himself from Kain,from the children of Hobab. </span>Nomadic settlements are constantly liable to send off these separate colonies. The life and movements of the Kenites resembled those of gipsies, except that they had flocks and herds. To this day a small Bedouin settlement presents very nearly the same aspect as a gipsy camp.<p><span class= "bld">The father in law of Moses.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">the brother-in-law. </span>The names for these relationships are closely allied. (See Note on <a href="/judges/1-16.htm" title="And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelled among the people.">Judges 1:16</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Pitched his tent.</span>—(<a href="/genesis/12-8.htm" title="And he removed from there to a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he built an altar to the LORD, and called on the name of the LORD.">Genesis 12:8</a>, &c.) The “tents” of the Bedouin are not the bell-shaped tents with which we are familiar, but coverings of black goats’ hair, sometimes supported on as many as nine poles. The Arab word for tent is <span class= "ital">beit, “</span>house.”<p><span class= "bld">Unto the plain of Zaanaim.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">unto the terebinth in Zaanaim. </span>(See <a href="/joshua/19-33.htm" title="And their coast was from Heleph, from Allon to Zaanannim, and Adami, Nekeb, and Jabneel, to Lakum; and the outgoings thereof were at Jordan:">Joshua 19:33</a>.) Great trees are often alluded to in Scripture. (Allon-Bachuth, <a href="/genesis/35-8.htm" title="But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.">Genesis 35:8</a>, “the oak of Tabor”; <a href="/1_samuel/10-3.htm" title="Then shall you go on forward from there, and you shall come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet you three men going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine:">1Samuel 10:3</a>, “the oak of the house of grace”; <a href="/1_kings/4-9.htm" title="The son of Dekar, in Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and Bethshemesh, and Elonbethhanan:">1Kings 4:9</a>, “the enchanters’ oak”; <a href="/judges/9-37.htm" title="And Gaal spoke again, and said, See there come people down by the middle of the land, and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim.">Judges 9:37</a>; <a href="/joshua/24-26.htm" title="And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.">Joshua 24:26</a>, &c.) This terebinth is again alluded to in <a href="/joshua/19-33.htm" title="And their coast was from Heleph, from Allon to Zaanannim, and Adami, Nekeb, and Jabneel, to Lakum; and the outgoings thereof were at Jordan:">Joshua 19:33</a>; and the size and beauty of the terebinths on the hills of Naphtali, to which we find allusion in the blessing of Jacob, probably led to its adoption as the symbol of the tribe. “Naphtali is a branching terebinth” (<a href="/genesis/49-21.htm" title="Naphtali is a hind let loose: he gives goodly words.">Genesis 49:21</a>). The word <span class= "ital">elon </span>(<span class= "greekheb">אלון</span>) is constantly rendered “plain” by our translators (<a href="/context/judges/9-6.htm" title="And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.">Judges 9:6-37</a>; <a href="/genesis/12-6.htm" title="And Abram passed through the land to the place of Sichem, to the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.">Genesis 12:6</a>; <a href="/genesis/13-18.htm" title="Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelled in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar to the LORD.">Genesis 13:18</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/10-3.htm" title="Then shall you go on forward from there, and you shall come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet you three men going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine:">1Samuel 10:3</a>, &c), because they were misled by the Targums and the Vulgate, which render it sometimes by <span class= "ital">vallis </span>and <span class= "ital">convallis. </span>They always render the cognate word <span class= "ital">allon </span>by “oak,” and, in the looseness of common nomenclature, the “oak” and the “terebinth” were not always carefully distinguished. There is a large terebinth, called <span class= "ital">Sigar em-Messiah, </span>six miles north-west of Kedes. The word Zaanaim (also written Zaannanim) means “wanderings,” or “unlading of tents,” with possible reference to this nomad settlement. The LXX. render it “the oak of the covetous,” because they follow another reading. In contrast with these “wandering tents” of the Bedouin, Jerusalem is called in <a href="/isaiah/33-20.htm" title="Look on Zion, the city of our solemnities: your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.">Isaiah 33:20</a> “a tent that wanders not.”<p>Ewald, following the Targum, makes it mean “the plain of the swamp,” and this is also found in the Talmud, which seems to indicate this place by <span class= "ital">Aquizah hak-Kedesh </span>(“swamp of the holy place”).<p><span class= "bld">Which is by Kedesh.</span>—Oaks and terebinths are still found abundantly in this neighbourhood; and such a green plain studded with trees would be a natural camping-ground for the Kenites.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-12.htm">Judges 4:12</a></div><div class="verse">And they shewed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to mount Tabor.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">They shewed Sisera.</span>—The previous verse has been introduced by way of anticipation, that the reader—who has last heard of the Kenites in the south of Judah (<a href="/judges/1-16.htm" title="And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelled among the people.">Judges 1:16</a>)—may not be surprised at <a href="/judges/4-17.htm" title="However, Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.">Judges 4:17</a> to find them in Naphtali. It is not, therefore, necessary to suppose that the “they” means the Kenites. It may be an impersonal expression (as it is rendered in the LXX. and Vulg. “it was told”).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-13.htm">Judges 4:13</a></div><div class="verse">And Sisera gathered together all his chariots, <i>even</i> nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that <i>were</i> with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the river of Kishon.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">All his chariots.</span>—He saw at once that this very sudden revolt had assumed formidable proportions, and he would need all his forces to dislodge Barak from his strongly entrenched position on Tabor.<p><span class= "bld">Harosheth of the Gentiles.</span>—This is simply the name of the town Harosheth-haggoîm. (See <a href="/judges/4-2.htm" title="And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelled in Harosheth of the Gentiles.">Judges 4:2</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-14.htm">Judges 4:14</a></div><div class="verse">And Deborah said unto Barak, Up; for this <i>is</i> the day in which the LORD hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: is not the LORD gone out before thee? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">This is the day.</span>—See the addition of the LXX. to <a href="/judges/4-8.htm" title="And Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go: but if you will not go with me, then I will not go.">Judges 4:8</a>. The ancients attached the utmost importance to fortunate and unfortunate days, and Barak was guided by a prophetess, not by idle auguries.<p><span class= "bld">Is not the Lord gone out before thee?</span>—“Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle” (<a href="/zechariah/14-3.htm" title="Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.">Zechariah 14:3</a>; comp. <a href="/deuteronomy/9-3.htm" title="Understand therefore this day, that the LORD your God is he which goes over before you; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before your face: so shall you drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said to you.">Deuteronomy 9:3</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Went down from mount Tabor.</span>—As he had neither cavalry nor chariots it required no little faith in Barak to abandon his strong post and assume the aggressive against the kind of forces which struck most terror into the Israelites (<a href="/hebrews/11-32.htm" title="And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:">Hebrews 11:32</a>). Hence the emphatic addition, “at his feet” (Heb., and see <a href="/judges/4-10.htm" title="And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him.">Judges 4:10</a>). If the beginning of the battle was at Taanach, the Israelites had to march thirteen miles along the caravan road. Probably the Canaanites watched this bold and unexpected movement with as much astonishment as the huge Persian host saw the handful of Athenians charge down from the hill-sides into the plain of Marathon.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-15.htm">Judges 4:15</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD discomfited Sisera, and all <i>his</i> chariots, and all <i>his</i> host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off <i>his</i> chariot, and fled away on his feet.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Discomfited.</span>—The same word as in <a href="/exodus/14-24.htm" title="And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked to the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,">Exodus 14:24</a>; <a href="/joshua/10-10.htm" title="And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goes up to Bethhoron, and smote them to Azekah, and to Makkedah.">Joshua 10:10</a>. The LXX. <span class= "ital">exestēse, </span>and the Vulg. <span class= "ital">perterruit, </span>imply the element of immediate Divine aid in the battle.<p><span class= "bld">Sisera, and all his chariots.</span>—“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God” (<a href="/psalms/20-7.htm" title="Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.">Psalm 20:7</a>; comp. <a href="/context/psalms/33-16.htm" title="There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.">Psalm 33:16-17</a>; <a href="/proverbs/21-31.htm" title="The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD.">Proverbs 21:31</a>).<p><span class= "bld">And all his host.</span>—“Do unto them . . . as to Sisera, as to Jabin at the brook of Kison, which perished at Endor, and became as the dung of the earth” (<a href="/context/psalms/83-9.htm" title="Do to them as to the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:">Psalm 83:9-10</a>). Considering the allusion to the swollen waters of the Kishon and the storm in <a href="/context/judges/5-20.htm" title="They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.">Judges 5:20-22</a>, it seems probable that Josephus is following a correct Jewish tradition when he describes the battle thus:—“They joined battle, and as the ranks closed a violent storm came on, and much rain and hail; and the wind drove the rain against the faces of the Canaanites, darkening their outlook, so that their archeries and their slings were rendered useless, and their heavy-armed soldiers, because of the cold, were unable to use their swords. But since the storm was behind the Israelites, it caused them less harm, and they further took courage from their belief in God’s assistance, so that, driving into the midst of the enemy, they killed many of them,” &c. (<span class= "ital">Antt. v.</span> 5, § 4). The battle thus closely resembled that of Timoleon against the Carthaginians at the Crimessus (Grote, xi. 246), and the English victory at Crecy, as has been graphically described by Dean Stanley (<span class= "ital">Jew. Church, </span>i. 329). We may add that similar conditions recurred in the battle of Cannæ, except that it was the storm of <span class= "ital">dust </span>and not of rain that was blown in the faces of the Romans by the <span class= "ital">Scirocco </span>(Liv. 22:46; Plut. <span class= "ital">Fab. </span>16).<p><span class= "bld">Sisera lighted down off his chariot.</span>—We find an Homeric hero, Idæus (<span class= "ital">Il. v.</span> 20), doing the same thing. On this the frivolous critic Zoilus made the objection, “Why did he not fly in his chariot?” The answer is the same as here: Sisera would have far more chance of escaping into concealment if he left the well-known chariot of a general. Besides this, his chariot—like those of the Egyptians at the Red Sea—was probably struggling in the trampled morass. <span class= "ital">“</span>It was left to rust on the banks of the Kishon, like Roderick’s on the shores of the Guadelete” (Stanley).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-16.htm">Judges 4:16</a></div><div class="verse">But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, unto Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword; <i>and</i> there was not a man left.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">There was not a man left.</span>—The massacre in all battles in which the fugitives have to escape over a river and contend with a storm is always specially fatal. The memory of this terrible carnage was preserved for years, together with the circumstance that the soil was enriched by the dead bodies (<a href="/psalms/83-10.htm" title="Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.">Psalm 83:10</a>). Similarly at Waterloo, the year after the battle a blaze of crimson poppies burst out over the plain, and the harvests of the subsequent years were specially rich.<p>“The earth is covered thick with other clay,<p>Which her own clay shall cover.”<p>The scene of the battle of Marius at Aquæ Sextiæ was long called <span class= "ital">Fourrières </span>(a corruption of Campi Putridi) for the same reason; and the site of Cannæ is still known as <span class= "ital">Pezzo di Sangue.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-17.htm">Judges 4:17</a></div><div class="verse">Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for <i>there was</i> peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael.</span>—In a different direction from that taken by his army, which fled towards Harosheth (Kimchi). The expression is probably used by anticipation. He could hardly have meant to fly to Jael rather than to Heber, until Jael came to meet him, unless there are circumstances unknown to us. Women had separate tents (<a href="/genesis/18-6.htm" title="And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes on the hearth.">Genesis 18:6</a>), and these were regarded as inviolably secure. He thought that there he would lie unsuspected till the pursuers passed (comp. <a href="/genesis/24-67.htm" title="And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.">Genesis 24:67</a>). The name Jael means “gazelle” (like Tabitha, Dorcas), “a fit name for a Bedouin’s wife—especially for one whose family had come from the rocks of Engedi, the spring of the wild goat or chamois” (Stanley).<p><span class= "bld">For there was peace.</span>—This enabled Sisera boldly to appeal to these nomads for <span class= "ital">dakheel</span>—the sacred duty of protection. A poor strolling Bedouin tribe might well be left by Jabin to its natural independence; tribute can only be secured from Fellahîn—i.e., from settled tribes. Three days must have elapsed since the battle before it would be possible for Sisera to fly on foot from the Kishon to “the nomad’s terebinth.” It may well be conceived that the unfortunate general arrived there in miserable plight—a starving and ruined fugitive.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-18.htm">Judges 4:18</a></div><div class="verse">And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">Jael went out to meet Sisera.</span>—This makes it probable that her design was already formed, unless we suppose that Jael as a chieftainess was placed above the ordinary rules which regulate the conduct of Oriental women. As nothing is said of Heber, he may have been absent, or he may have kept out of the way in order to further his wife’s designs.<p><span class= "bld">Turn in to me.</span>—Without that special invitation Sisera would not have ventured to violate every law of Oriental propriety by entering the privileged sanctuary of the <span class= "ital">harem.</span><p><span class= "bld">Fear not.</span>—Treachery is far too common among Bedouin tribes to render the exhortation needless.<p><span class= "bld">She covered him with a mantle.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">with the tent-rug. </span>Evidently, the moment he was satisfied that her intentions were honest the weary and unfortunate fugitive flung himself down on the ground, or on a divan, to sleep. The word used for “mantle”—<span class= "ital">semîcah </span>(Vulg., “pallio”; Luther, “<span class= "ital">mit einan Mantel”</span>)<span class= "ital">—</span>occurs nowhere else; from its root it probably means “a coverlet” (LXX., <span class= "ital">epibolaion, </span>for which the Alexandrine Codex reads <span class= "ital">derrhis, </span>“a skin”). A large “tent-rug” of goat’s hair is usually a part of the furniture of an Arab tent.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-19.htm">Judges 4:19</a></div><div class="verse">And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Give me, I pray thee, a little water.</span>—The request was natural enough; but, as he had not made it at first, we may suspect that he wanted to taste food in the tent, as a way of rendering still more secure the inviolable laws of Eastern hospitality. Saladin refuses to let Reginald of Chatillon drink in his tent, because he means to kill him.<p><span class= "bld">A bottle of milk.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">the skin of milk. </span>The word “bottle” means, of course, a leathern bottle or skin. Josephus says that the milk was “already corrupted,” i.e., that it was butter-milk (<span class= "ital">Antt </span>v. 6, § 5). This is quite probable, because butter-milk (<span class= "ital">lebban</span>) is a common drink in Arab tents. When R. Tanchum adds that butter-milk inebriates, and Rashi that it produces deep sleep, and that it was her object to stupefy him, they are simply giving reins to their imagination. Josephus says, <span class= "ital">“</span>He drank so immoderately that he fell asleep.” It might have been supposed that she would naturally offer him <span class= "ital">wine; </span>but it is far from certain that even “must” or “unfermented wine”—much less fermented wine, which requires considerable art to make—would have been found in those poor tents; and, further, these Kenites may have been abstainers from wine, as their descendants the Rechabites were. ( <a href="/jeremiah/35-2.htm" title="Go to the house of the Rechabites, and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.">Jeremiah 35:2</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-20.htm">Judges 4:20</a></div><div class="verse">Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and inquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">Stand.</span>—The imperative here used has the masculine, not the feminine termination, but probably only because it is used generally.<p><span class= "bld">That thou shalt say, No.</span>—In that age, and among those nations, and under such circumstances, a lie would have been regarded as perfectly natural and justifiable; even under the Christian dispensation, many casuists declare a lie for self-preservation to be venial, though it is to be hoped that there are millions who, without condemning such a falsehood in <span class= "ital">others, </span>would suffer any extremity rather than be guilty of it themselves. Under any circumstances, it would be very unfair to judge by the standard of Christianity the words and actions of ignorant nomads and idolatrous Canaanites, more than a thousand years before Christ. Sisera and Jael would have acted, without the faintest sense of conscientious scruple, on the heathen advice of Darius—“When it is necessary to lie, lie” (<span class= "ital">Herod. iii.</span> 72).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-21.htm">Judges 4:21</a></div><div class="verse">Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">Then.</span>—Many commentators have ventured to assume that at this instant Jael received a Divine intimation of what she was to do. To make such an assumption as a way of defending an act of assassination peculiarly terrible and peculiarly treacherous seems <span class= "ital">to </span>be to the last degree unwarrantable. If any readers choose to adopt such methods for themselves they ought not to attempt the enforcement of such “private interpretations” on others. The mind which is unsophisticated by the casuistry of exegesis will find little difficulty in arriving at a fair estimate of Jael’s conduct without resorting to dangerous and arbitrary interpolations of supposition into the simple Scripture narrative.<p><span class= "bld">Heber’s wife.</span>—This addition, being needless, might be regarded as emphatic, and as involving an element of condemnation by calling prominent attention to the “peace between Jabin and the house of Heber,” which has been mentioned where last his name occurs (<a href="/judges/4-17.htm" title="However, Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.">Judges 4:17</a>). It is, however, due in all probability to the very ancient and inartificial character of the narrative.<p><span class= "bld">A nail of the tent.</span>—Probably one of the great tent-pegs used to fasten down the cords which keep the tent in its place (<a href="/exodus/27-19.htm" title="All the vessels of the tabernacle in all the service thereof, and all the pins thereof, and all the pins of the court, shall be of brass.">Exodus 27:19</a>; <a href="/isaiah/22-23.htm" title="And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.">Isaiah 22:23</a>; <a href="/isaiah/54-2.htm" title="Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes;">Isaiah 54:2</a>, &c). Josephus says an iron nail, but there is nothing to show whether it was of iron or of wood, and the LXX., by rendering it <span class= "ital">passalon </span>(“a wooden plug “), seem to have understood the latter.<p><span class= "bld">An hammer.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">the hammer. </span>The ponderous wooden mallet kept in every tent to beat down the cord-pegs. The word is <span class= "ital">Makkebeth, </span>from which is derived the word <span class= "ital">Maccabee. </span>The warrior-priests, to whom that title was given, were the “hammers” of their enemies, and Karl received the title of <span class= "ital">Martel </span>for a similar reason.<p><span class= "bld">Went softly unto him.</span>—So as not to awake him. The description of Sisera’s murder is exceedingly graphic, but as far as the prose account of it is concerned, the silence as to any condemnation of the worst and darkest features of it by no means necessarily excludes the idea of the most complete disapproval. The method of the narrative is the same as that found in all ancient literature, and is a method wholly different from that of the moderns, which abounds in subjective reflections. Thus Homer sometimes relates an atrocity without a word of censure, and sometimes indicates disapproval by a single casual adjective.<p><span class= "bld">Smote.</span>—With more than one blow, if we take the poet’s account (<a href="/judges/5-26.htm" title="She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.">Judges 5:26</a>) literally.<p>Fastened it into the ground.—Rather, <span class= "ital">it </span>(the nail) <span class= "ital">went down into the around. </span>The verb used is rendered “lighted off” in <a href="/judges/1-14.htm" title="And it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off her ass; and Caleb said to her, What will you?">Judges 1:14</a>.<p><span class= "bld">For he was fast asleep and weary.</span>—The versions here vary considerably, but the English version seems to be perfectly correct. The verb for “he was fast asleep” is the same as in the forcible metaphor of <a href="/psalms/76-6.htm" title="At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.">Psalm 76:6</a> : “The horse and chariot <span class= "ital">are cast into a deep sleep.” </span>The description of his one spasm of agony is given in <a href="/judges/5-27.htm" title="At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.">Judges 5:27</a>. There is no authority in the original for the gloss found in some MSS. of the LXX.: “And he was convulsed (<span class= "greekheb">ὰπηεσκάρισεν</span>) between her knees, and fainted and died.” The words here used are only meant to account for his not being awakened by the approach or preparations of Jael (Kimchi), unless they involve a passing touch of pity or disapproval. Similarly it was, when Holofernes was “filled with wine,” that Judith “approached to his bed, and took hold of the hair of his head . . . and smote twice upon his neck with all her might, and she took away his head from him.” (<a href="//apocrypha.org/judith/13-2.htm" title="And Judith was left along in the tent, and Holofernes lying along upon his bed: for he was filled with wine.">Judith 13:2</a>; <a href="//apocrypha.org/judith/13-7.htm" title="And approached to his bed, and took hold of the hair of his head, and said, Strengthen me, O Lord God of Israel, this day.">Judith 13:7-8</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-22.htm">Judges 4:22</a></div><div class="verse">And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will shew thee the man whom thou seekest. And when he came into her <i>tent</i>, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail <i>was</i> in his temples.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Behold, Sisera lay dead.</span>—Thus the glory, such as it was, of having slain the general of the enemy passed to a woman (<a href="/judges/4-9.htm" title="And she said, I will surely go with you: notwithstanding the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.">Judges 4:9</a>). The scene which thus describes the undaunted murderess standing in the tent between the dead and the living chieftains—and glorying in the decision which had led her to fling to the winds every rule of Eastern morality and decorum—is a very striking one.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-23.htm">Judges 4:23</a></div><div class="verse">So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">So God subdued.</span>—The word used for God is here <span class= "ital">Elohim, </span>while Jehovah occurs through the rest of the narrative. We are not yet in a position to formulate the law which regulates the interchange of these names. It need hardly be added that this attribution of the deliverance of Israel to God’s providence and aid does not necessarily involve the least approval of the false and cruel elements which stained the courage and faith of Jael. Though God overrules even criminal acts to the fulfilment of His own purposes, the crimes themselves meet with their own just condemnation and retribution. This may be seen decisively in the case of Jehu. His conduct, like that of Jael, was of a mixed character. He was an instrument in the hands of God to punish and overthrow the guilty house of Ahab, and in carrying out this Divine commission, he, too, showed dauntlessness and faith, yet his atrocious cruelty is justly condemned by the voice of the prophet (<a href="/hosea/1-4.htm" title="And the LORD said to him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.">Hosea 1:4</a>), just as that of Baasha had been (<a href="/1_kings/16-7.htm" title="And also by the hand of the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came the word of the LORD against Baasha, and against his house, even for all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD, in provoking him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam; and because he killed him.">1Kings 16:7</a>), though he, too, was an instrument of Divine retribution. To explain this clause, and the triumphal cry of Deborah—“So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord”—as Bishop Wordsworth does, to mean that “<span class= "ital">the work of Jael </span>is represented by the sacred writer as <span class= "ital">the work of God,” </span>is to claim Divine sanction for a wish that wicked or hostile powers should always “so” perish by cruel and treacherous assassination. At the same time, Jael must not be classed with women actuated only by a demoniacal thirst for vengeance, like Criemhild, in the Niebelungen; or even with Aretophila, of Cyrene, whom Plutarch so emphatically praises (<span class= "ital">On the Virtues of Women, </span>p. 19, quoted by Cassel); but rather with women like Judith in ancient, or Charlotte Corday in modern times, who regarded themselves as the champions of a great and good cause.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/judges/4-24.htm">Judges 4:24</a></div><div class="verse">And the hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">The hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed.</span>—Literally, as in the margin, <span class= "ital">The hand. . . .</span> <span class= "ital">going went, and was hard</span>—i.e., “became heavier and heavier in its pressure.” The battle of the Kishon was the beginning of a complete deliverance of Israel from the yoke of the Canaanites.<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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