Judges 5
The Song of Deborah and Barak 1–3
The Majestic Power of the LORD 4–5
Israel's Decline and Deborah's Rise 6–11
Rallying the Tribes of Israel 12–18
The Battle at Megiddo and the Curse of Meroz 19–23
The Praise of Jael 24–27
The Lament of Sisera's Mother 28–31
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Judges 5
Verse 1
Then sang Deborah and Barak — A song of deliverance, as after the sea: ‘Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD’ (Ex 15:1). Deborah, called a prophetess in 4:4, sings with Barak ‘on that day’, the day of the victory told in ch.4. The song recounts the same battle in verse.
Verse 2
Praise ye the LORD — ‘Praise’ is barak, to bless, the verb of ‘Bless ye the LORD’ in v.9 and of Jael ‘Blessed above women’ in v.24. ‘Willingly offered themselves’ is nadab, to give freely; v.9 says again that the governors ‘offered themselves willingly among the people’.
Verse 4
wentest out of Seir — Moses had spoken of the same coming: ‘The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them’ (Deut 33:2). Ps 68:7–8 takes up these lines, ‘when thou wentest forth before thy people… the earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved’.
Verse 5
The mountains melted — Nazal, to flow or run down. The hills ‘melted like wax at the presence of the LORD’ in Ps 97:5. Sinai is named with ‘the LORD God of Israel’, the God who spoke there; the song places this battle beside Sinai.
Verse 6
Shamgar the son of Anath — Shamgar ‘slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad’ (3:31). ‘Unoccupied’ is chadal, to cease, the verb repeated for the villages in v.7. ‘Byways’ are nathiyb, beaten tracks: travellers took the paths off the main roads.
Verse 7
a mother in Israel — Chadal, ‘ceased’, is the verb of ‘unoccupied’ in v.6, said twice here of the villages. Deborah ‘arose’ twice, as ‘a mother in Israel’. The title is used of a city in 2 Sam 20:19, ‘a city and a mother in Israel’, where the city is also called ‘the inheritance of the LORD’.
Verse 8
They chose new gods — Bachar, the verb of Joshua’s call, ‘choose you this day whom ye will serve’ (Josh 24:15). The gods are ‘new’, as in Moses’ song, ‘new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not’ (Deut 32:17). The disarmament follows the choice: ‘was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand’?
Verse 10
white asses — Riding on an ass marks rank in Judges: Jair had thirty sons ‘that rode on thirty ass colts’ (10:4). The verse calls on three groups to speak: the riders, those who ‘sit in judgment’, and those who ‘walk by the way’.
Verse 11
righteous acts of the LORD — Tsidqot, the plural of tsedaqah, the word Samuel uses in ‘all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did to you and to your fathers’ (1 Sam 12:7). The wells, where archers had been heard, become the place where these acts are told, and the people go down to the gates.
Verse 12
lead thy captivity captive — The words recur in Ps 68:18, ‘thou hast led captivity captive’, which Paul applies to the ascended Christ (Eph 4:8). Here Barak is told to lead away the defeated enemy. ‘Awake, awake’ is repeated for Deborah and again for the song.
Verse 14
Out of Machir came down governors — Machir was Manasseh’s firstborn, ‘the father of Gilead’ (Josh 17:1). ‘Governors’ is mechoqeq, a lawgiver, the word of Num 21:18. ‘Handle’ is mashak, to draw, the verb of 4:6 for drawing men toward Tabor. Ephraim’s ‘mount of the Amalekites’ is named in 12:15.
Verse 15
great thoughts of heart — Chiqeq is a decree or resolution; in v.16 the same people have ‘searchings’ (cheqer), a deliberation. Issachar’s princes came with Deborah. Barak ‘was sent on foot’, as 4:10 puts it, ‘with ten thousand men at his feet’.
Verse 16
among the sheepfolds — Reuben and Gad ‘had a very great multitude of cattle’ and chose Gilead as ‘a place for cattle’ (Num 32:1). Moses’ question to them there, ‘Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?’ (Num 32:6), is the one this verse asks again of Reuben.
Verse 17
Gilead abode beyond Jordan — The verse names three who stayed away: Gilead, east of the Jordan; Dan, ‘in ships’; and Asher, ‘on the sea shore’. ‘Breaches’ is miphrats, a break in the coast, a harbour. ‘Abode’ (shakan) is said of both Gilead and Asher.
Verse 18
jeoparded their lives — Charaph, to expose by stripping: these tribes laid their lives bare ‘unto the death’. They are the two Barak was told to call (4:6, 10), and they fought in ‘the high places of the field’; Barak had gone down to the battle from mount Tabor (4:14).
Verse 19
Taanach by the waters of Megiddo — Both cities lay in Manasseh’s portion (Josh 17:11), and Manasseh had not driven out their inhabitants (1:27). The ‘kings of Canaan’ who fought there ‘took no gain of money’ (betsa).
Verse 20
the stars in their courses — ‘Courses’ is mesillah, a raised road: the stars on their tracks. Heaven had fought for Israel before, when ‘the LORD cast down great stones from heaven’ upon the fleeing enemy (Josh 10:11). The song does not say how; v.4 has said the clouds ‘dropped water’.
Verse 21
The river of Kishon swept them away — Garaph, to sweep away, and qedumim, ‘ancient’, each occur only here in the KJV’s tagged text. The LORD had named this river beforehand: ‘I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera’ (4:7). Ps 83:9 recalls it as ‘the brook of Kison’.
Verse 23
Curse ye Meroz — Meroz is named only here. The curse is spoken by ‘the angel of the LORD’, as in 2:1, and the verb arar is used three times. The fault is staying away: ‘they came not to the help of the LORD’, the fault Moses charged on Reuben and Gad (Num 32:6).
Verse 24
Blessed above women — ‘Blessed’ is barak, the verb of ‘Praise ye the LORD’ in v.2. Jael is the wife of Heber the Kenite, whose house had peace with Jabin (4:17). Deborah had said that Sisera would be sold ‘into the hand of a woman’ (4:9), and the woman is now named.
Verse 25
butter in a lordly dish — Chem’ah is curdled milk; ‘lordly’ is addir, noble. The ‘dish’ (sephel) is a bowl, and the only other place the word occurs is Gideon’s ‘bowl full of water’ (6:38). The song sets the request, ‘He asked water’, beside what she brought, as 4:19 does.
Verse 26
the workmen’s hammer — ‘Workmen’s’ is amel, one who toils. ‘Smote off’, ‘pierced’ and ‘stricken through’ are three different verbs (machats, machaq, chalaph) for the one deed. In the prose, 4:21 says the nail went ‘into his temples’, and 4:22 finds him ‘dead, and the nail was in his temples’.
Verse 28
The mother of Sisera — The scene moves to Sisera’s mother at the ‘lattice’, eshnab, a word found elsewhere only in Prov 7:6. She waits for ‘his chariot’, though Sisera had gone from it ‘on his feet’ (4:15).
Verse 30
to every man a damsel or two — The Hebrew word for ‘damsel’ (racham) is elsewhere ‘mercy’ or ‘compassion’, and twice ‘womb’ (Gen 49:25; Isa 46:3); here it names a young woman. The mother lists the plunder she expects: women, and dyed cloth ‘of divers colours of needlework’. The song said of the kings of Canaan that they ‘took no gain of money’ (v.19).
Verse 31
them that love him — The LORD promises mercy ‘unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments’ (Ex 20:6). ‘As the sun when he goeth forth in his might’ is the picture Christ uses: ‘Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father’ (Matt 13:43). ‘Rest forty years’ was also said under Othniel (3:11).