A verse by verse commentary on Judges 4 dealing with the woman leader of Israel-Deborah who led them to victory, and Jael the female who killed a great enemy of Israel.

1. JUDGES 4 COMME TARY
WRITTE A D EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1
After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil
in the eyes of the LORD.
1. The only thing that man learns from history is that man does not learn from
history. They keep on doing folly and going away from the Lord who delivers them.
Without a leader they are like sheep who go astray. Evil is so enticing that if men do
not have a leader who leads away from evil they will wander right into its path, and
then pursue it. God’s own people have been some of the most evil people in history.
History is not all clearly the good guys against the bad guys. Often the bad guys are
the people of God. God has to let them suffer under oppression from pagans in
order to get them to cry out to him. So God has to become an enemy to his own
people in order to get them to come back to the fold. God is constantly coming to
rescue his people from the very powers he puts them under. He rescued them from
Egypt, but they kept going back into slavery, and he kept delivering them. The book
of Judges is the greatest revelation anywhere of the folly of man and the faithfulness
of God.
2. If you are not overcoming temptations then the world is overcoming you. The
worst enemy one has to overcome after all is one's self. Once again Israel would
learn the truth of Jn 8:34 where Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." One of Satan's greatest lies is that
sin is liberating. "Try it you'll like it" It is the same story over and over that tells us
that good times are just as dangerous as bad times, for in good times people get too
secure and careless. They do not feel the need to be fearful of falling. They are over
confident, and in pride feel they no longer need daily self-evaluation. They become
sitting ducks for the arrows of the wicked one.
3.Israel as portrayed in the Book of Judges illustrates the difference between
“religious reformation” and “spiritual revival.” Reformation temporarily changes
outward conduct while revival permanently alters inward character. When Ehud
removed the idols, and commanded the people to worship only Jehovah, they obeyed
him; but when that constraint was removed, the people obeyed their own desires.
The nation of Israel was like the man in Jesus’ parable who got rid of one demon,
cleaned house, and then ended up with seven worse demons (Mt12:43-45). The
empty heart is prey to every form of evil.

2. 4. Ralph Davis wrote, "Ehud, sorry to say, is not a totally adequate savior, for
though Yahweh brings a certain kind of salvation and help through Ehud, nothing
Ehud did could change the hearts of Israel. He may have exerted some beneficial
influence on them while he lived, but he could not release Israel from the bondage of
sin, or rip the idols out of their hearts. Here is the tragedy of the people of God —
slavery to sin (“again did evil”) — and no left–handed savior spilling the guts of
foreign kings can release you from that bondage. Helplessness indeed. As noted
before, it is what the apostle called being “under sin” (Rom. 3:9). ote: not sins but
sin. Sin is not merely, or primarily, act but power. Being “under sin” is to be held in
its clutches, bound by its chain."
COFFMA , "Verse 1
DEBORAH A D BARAK'S DELIVERA CE OF ISRAEL
IV. DEBORAH and BARAK (Judges 4-5)
In our text, only Deborah is said to have "judged" Israel, but we have bracketed her
name with Barak because in Hebrews 11:32 he is listed with other judges such as
Gideon and Jephthah. Also, it was Barak, not Deborah, who actually led the army
in the battle with Sisera.
LaGard Smith's summary of the situation at the time of this deliverance is as
follows:
"One of the areas which Joshua's forces had never been able fully to take over was
the plain of Esdraelon (Jezreel) in the north central region of Palestine between
Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, and Asher. When local Canaanite forces under Jabin
and Sisera unite, it falls to a courageous woman named Deborah to take the
initiative in repelling the Canaanites. She was able to persuade a cautious general
(Barak) to lead the northern tribes to victory. Another woman (Jael) also shared in
the glory of the victory when she bravely killed Sisera."[1]
For an ingenious, unbelieving account of how "editors," "redactors" and
"compilers" have confused this battle with Jabin's army under Sisera vs. the forces
led by Barak, with the account in Joshua 11 of another battle with the Canaanites
more than a century before the battle reported here, one should read Soggin's
Commentary on Judges. Careless commentators are totally in error in such
unwarranted conclusions!
Another error is that of understanding the poetic account of the battle here given in
the Song of Deborah (Judges 5) as an account of a different battle from the prose
record in Judges 4. It is true, of course, that these TWO ACCOU TS, "Bristle with
historical and geographical difficulties, most of which would probably quickly fade
if precise details were known; and so many details agree that the suggestions
pointing to two separate battles must be discounted."[2]
The simple Biblical record which has come down to us should be received as the

3. truth. The sacred record is a far superior account of what happened, as contrasted
with the "scissors-and-paste" productions of radical critics whose "composite"
guesses about ancient events are extremely muddled and contradictory. With regard
to the narrative as recorded in the Bible, Cundall correctly observed that, "There
are no insoluble difficulties in the narrative as it stands."[3]
The old allegations of the radical critics that Judges 4 and Judges 5 concern
DIFFERE T events have now been fully discredited and rejected. As Dalglish,
writing in Beacon Bible Commentary stated it, "There is general agreement that the
two chapters have the same engagement in review and that the conflict related in
Joshua 11:1-15 was a different event."[4] In this light, we may therefore ask, "What
happened?" Barnes explained it. "Subsequently to the events narrated in Joshua 11,
Hazor had been rebuilt and had resumed its position as the metropolis of the
northern Canaanites. The other cities must also have resumed their independence
and restored their fallen dynasties."[5]
THE CA AA ITE OPPRESSIO (Judges 4:1-3)
"And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah,
when Ehud was dead. And Jehovah sold them into the hand of Jabin king of
Canaan that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, who dwelt in
Harosheth of the Gentiles. And the children of Israel cried unto Jehovah: for he had
nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children
of Israel."
This paragraph is not "a Deuteronomic framework" imposed upon the historical
record; it is a simple, factual statement of how and why the children of Israel needed
a deliverer at that particular time.
"Jabin king of Canaan" (Judges 4:2). A century earlier, Joshua had defeated
"Jabin king of Hazor," who actually headed a coalition of a large number of petty
`kings of Canaan' (Joshua 11), but that Jabin was not the same man as the `Jabin'
of Judges 4. We do not know whether or not he was another king bearing the same
name, or if `Jabin' was a dynastic designation of all the kings of Hazor. Keil stated
that, "The `Jabin' here bore the same name as the earlier Jabin."[6] Davis affirmed
that, "The name `Jabin' was probably not a personal name, but a dynastic title.[7]
Contrary to Soggin's incredible allegation that, "The title `King of Canaan' never
existed, calling it `an absurdity,'"[8] that title is here assigned to Jabin, and here the
title has "existed" for more than three millenniums! Joshua's record of that
previous encounter with the `King of Canaan' (called in Joshua `the King of Hazor')
does OT contradict what is written here. The Joshua record reveals that Jabin
King of Hazor was the chief executive for all of the other `Kings of Canaan' and the
commander-in-chief of their united armies. If such an executive was not a `king,'
what was he?
" ine hundred chariots of iron" (Judges 4:3). Israel had no chariots at all, and such
a formidable striking force would normally have made the King of Canaan

4. invincible. However, "The mustering of the united tribes of Israel against him under
Barak coincided with a storm in which the Kishon, normally a dry river-bed,
rapidly became a raging torrent in which the chariotry were engulfed."[9]
GILL, "And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord,....
Which was the fruit and effect of the long rest and peace they enjoyed; and which is often
the case of a people favoured with peace, plenty, and prosperity, who are apt to abuse
their mercies, and forget God, the author and giver of them; and the principal evil,
though not expressed, was idolatry, worshipping Baalim, the gods of the nations about
them; though it is highly probable they were guilty of other sins, which they indulged in
the times of their peace and prosperity:
when Ehud was dead; Shamgar is not mentioned, because his time of judging Israel
was short, and the people were not reformed in his time, but fell into sin as soon as Ehud
was dead, and continued. Some choose to render the words, "for Ehud was dead" (t),
who had been, the instrument of reforming them, and of preserving them from idolatry,
but he being dead, they fell into it again; and the particle "vau" is often to be taken in this
sense, of which Noldius (u) gives many instances.
HAWKER, "Few events in the history of Israel, are more interesting than what this
Chapter contains, of the defeat of Sisera ’ s army by Barak, under the animated zeal of
Deborah. Here are the several particulars related which gave birth to that war; with the
event of it, in the conquest over the enemies of Israel, by a wonderful interposition of the
Lord for his people.
Jdg_4:1
The chapter begins with a melancholy account of God’s people. They did again evil. Alas!
God’s people are by nature children of wrath, even as others. My people, saith God, are
bent to backsliding. Hos_11:7. Is it so, my soul, that there is in thy very nature a
tendency to evil? Oh! precious, precious Jesus, what but for thee and thy perfect, all-
satisfying, soul justifying righteousness, would be the hope of all thy people?
HE RY, "Here is, I. Israel backsliding from God: They again did evil in his sight,
forsook his service, and worshipped idols; for this was the sin which now most easily
beset them, Jdg_4:1. See in this, 1. The strange strength of corruption, which hurries
men into sin notwithstanding the most frequent experience of its fatal consequences.
The bent to backslide is with great difficulty restrained. 2. The common ill effects of a
long peace. The land had rest eighty years, which should have confirmed them in their
religion; but, on the contrary, it made them secure and wanton, and indulgent of those
lusts which the worship of the false gods was calculated for the gratification of. Thus the
prosperity of fools destroys them. Jeshurun waxeth fat and kicketh. 3. The great loss
which a people sustains by the death of good governors. The did evil, because Ehud was
dead. So it may be read. He kept a strict eye upon them, restrained and punished every
thing that looked towards idolatry, and kept them close to God's service. But, when he
was gone, they revolted, fearing him more than God.
K&D 1-3, "The Victory over Jabin and His General Sisera. - Jdg_4:1-3. As the

5. Israelites fell away from the Lord again when Ehud was dead, the Lord gave them into
the hand of the Canaanitish king Jabin, who oppressed them severely for twenty years
with a powerful army under Sisera his general. The circumstantial clause, “when Ehud
was dead,” places the falling away of the Israelites from God in direct causal connection
with the death of Ehud on the one hand, and the deliverance of Israel into the power of
Jabin on the other, and clearly indicates that as long as Ehud lived he kept the people
from idolatry (cf. Jdg_2:18-19), and defended Israel from hostile oppressions. Joshua
had already conquered one king, Jabin of Hazor, and taken his capital (Jos_11:1, Jos_
11:10). The king referred to here, who lived more than a century later, bore the same
name. The name Jabin, “the discerning,” may possibly have been a standing name or
title of the Canaanitish kings of Hazor, as Abimelech was of the kings of the Philistines
(see at Gen_26:8). He is called “king of Canaan,” in distinction from the kings of other
nations and lands, such as Moab, Mesopotamia, etc. (Jdg_3:8, Jdg_3:12), into whose
power the Lord had given up His sinful people. Hazor, once the capital of the kingdoms
of northern Canaan, was situated over (above or to the north of) Lake Huleh, in the tribe
of Naphtali, but has not yet been discovered (see at Jos_11:1). Sisera, the general of
Jabin, dwelt in Harosheth of the Goyim, and oppressed the Israelites most tyrannically
(Mightily: cf. Jdg_7:1; 1Sa_2:16) for twenty years with a force consisting of 900 chariots
of iron (see at Jos_17:16). The situation of Harosheth, which only occurs here (Jdg_4:2,
Jdg_4:13, Jdg_4:16), is unknown; but it is certainly to be sought for in one of the larger
plains of Galilee, possibly the plain of Buttauf, where Sisera was able to develop his
forces, whose strength consisted chiefly in war-chariots, and to tyrannize over the land
of Israel.
UNKNOWN AUTHOR, " In Jdg. 4:1 we read, “After Ehud died, the Israelites once again
did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” That is the final verse of Scripture about Ehud. Even
though the land was undisturbed by enemies for 80 years (Jdg. 3:30), the children of
Israel went back to doing evil after their leader Ehud died. Would the history of Israel
have been different if Ehud had left a legacy of strong, godly leaders? The same question
could be asked of other leaders in the Bible. Whom did Gideon leave behind? Or Joshua?
Or Rehoboam? Paul exhorted Timothy in 2 Tim. 2:2 to entrust the teaching he’d learned
from Paul to “faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (KJV). Similarly,
although Jesus was busy with public ministry, He purposely took time to train 12
disciples. Look carefully at where Jesus spent His time, especially in His closing months.
Developing future leaders does not happen by accident. Are you purposely recruiting
and developing protégés who believe in your vision as much as you do? Who will carry
out your dreams once you are gone?
Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, constantly asked, Where’s your man?
Where’s your woman? Where is that one you are giving your life to?
Too many of us are preoccupied with just getting through our weekly do-list. We seldom
think about training replacements or grooming our followers to carry more
responsibility. As you lead, let the legacy of Ehud challenge you. Ask yourself these three
questions:
Am I taking initiative . . . or waiting? Do I have an infrastructure for my initiatives? Am I
recruiting and training protégés?"

6. BI 1-3, "Israel again did evil . . . the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin.
Reappearance of vanquished foes
Their ancient foe, whom they had conquered, rose gradually from his prostration. He
rebuilt his castle; he repossessed the lands; he multiplied his armies. At length he defied
and “mightily oppressed” the chosen people. How has this history been re-enacted a
thousand times in the experience both of individual believers and of Christian Churches!
How many there are who answer to the description (1Pe_2:20). The Canaanite was slain,
but he reappears and resumes his ancient tyranny. Exploded errors revive. Slain heresies
live again, and triumph on the very spot where they received what was deemed their
death-blow. The subjugation and prostration of the Church may not be as complete as
was the twenty years’ slavery of Israel under the second Jabin, yet is not the fortress of
Hazor being rebuilt in this land? Are not the furnaces of Harosheth being rekindled?
And are not the Papal workmen busy fabricating chariots of iron wherewith anew to
scour the plains which valiant Protestants of old won in the name of the Lord and of His
truth? (L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)
PETT, "Introduction
Chapter 4. Barak and Deborah.
This chapter demonstrates how Israel again sinned and were delivered into the hands of
Jabin, king of Canaan, by whom they were oppressed for twenty years. Excavations at
Hazor have resulted in evidence of a Jabin who was king there, although not necessarily
this one. Jabin appears to have been a throne name. The chapter goes on to show that
Deborah and Barak consulted together about their deliverance, and that Barak,
encouraged by Deborah, gathered some forces from the tribal confederacy and fought
Sisera the captain of Jabin's army, whom he met, and over whom he obtained victory.
Sisera, while fleeing on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber, was received into it,
and slain by her while asleep in it, which issued in a complete deliverance of the children
of Israel.
Verse 1
Chapter 4. Barak and Deborah.
This chapter demonstrates how Israel again sinned and were delivered into the hands of
Jabin, king of Canaan, by whom they were oppressed for twenty years. Excavations at
Hazor have resulted in evidence of a Jabin who was king there, although not necessarily
this one. Jabin appears to have been a throne name. The chapter goes on to show that
Deborah and Barak consulted together about their deliverance, and that Barak,
encouraged by Deborah, gathered some forces from the tribal confederacy and fought
Sisera the captain of Jabin's army, whom he met, and over whom he obtained victory.
Sisera, while fleeing on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber, was received into it,
and slain by her while asleep in it, which issued in a complete deliverance of the children
of Israel.

7. God’s Third Lesson : The Canaanite Invasion; Barak and Deborah (Judges 4:1-24).
Judges 4:1
‘And the children of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, when Ehud
was dead.’
Ehud ruled wisely and well. He encouraged the people in their worship of Yahweh,
maintained the tribal links with the central sanctuary, and ensured obedience to the
covenant and all involved with it, the offering of the necessary sacrifices to Yahweh, the
keeping of His commandments and the justice that went along with them. All this is
implicit in the fact that the people did not do grave evil in Yahweh’s sight while he lived.
They sinned, as all men will, but they offered the appropriate sacrifices and offerings and
generally did what was right. But when he died they slipped back into their old ways.
CONSTABLE, "Verses 1-3
As long as Ehud lived he kept Israel faithful to God ( Judges 4:1). However after he died,
God"s people again turned from the Lord. In discipline God allowed the Canaanites in
the North to gain strength and dominate the Israelites for20 years. Hazor, one of the
largest cities in the Promised Land, again became the center of Canaanite power in this
area (cf. Joshua 11:1; Joshua 11:10). [Note: See Piotr Bienkowski, "The Role of Hazor in
the Late Bronze Age," Palestine Exploration Quarterly119:1 (January-June1987):50-61.]
It stood on the main road connecting Egypt and Mesopo-tamia. Its king was Jabin (the
discerning, lit. he will under-stand), perhaps a title or dynastic name rather than a
proper name since the king of Hazor that Joshua defeated was also Jabin ( Joshua 11:1).
[Note: Kenneth Kitchen, Ancient Orient and Old Testament, p68.] Or the Jabin in
Judges could have received his name in honor of the Jabin in Joshua. This titulary has a
sarcastic ring, however, since he would learn that Yahweh opposes oppressors of His
people.
Jabin"s commander-in-chief, Sisera, lived several miles to the southwest of Hazor in
Harosheth-hagoyim (lit. the woodlands of the nations). This may have been a term that
described the entire upper Galilee region. [Note: Lewis, p39.] This suggests that
Canaanite influence was extensive throughout northern Israel at this time. Though the
location of Harosheth-hagoyim is uncertain, it seems to have been at the western end of
the Jezreel Valley. [Note: Dale W. Manor, "The Topography and Geography of the
Jezreel Valley as they Contribute to the Battles of Deborah and Gideon," Near Eastern
Archaeology Society Bulletin NS28 (Winter1987):27; and Leon Wood, A Survey of
Israel"s History, p216 , n39. ] "Ephraim" here, as well as in other places (e.g, Judges
3:27), may have originally been a geographical rather than a tribal term (cf. Joshua
20:7). [Note: Gray, p255.]
The Canaanites" 900 iron war chariots gave them complete control of the flatter and
dryer portions of this area. The Israelites had to live in the hills. These chariots were
state-of-the-art weapons at this time. Compare Pharaoh"s chariots in the Exodus
account. Chapter5 also recalls the Exodus.

8. EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMMENTARY
THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM
4:1-24
THERE arises now in Israel a prophetess, one of those rare women whose souls burn
with enthusiasm and holy purpose when the hearts of men are abject and despondent;
and to Deborah it is given to make a nation hear her call. Of prophetesses the world has
seen but few; generally the woman has her work of teaching and administering justice in
the name of God within a domestic circle and finds all her energy needed there. But
queens have reigned with firm nerve and clear sagacity in many a land, and now and
again a woman’s voice has struck the deep note which has roused a nation to its duty.
Such in the old Hebrew days was Deborah, wife of Lappidoth.
It was a time of miserable thraldom in Israel when she became aware of her destiny and
began the sacred enterprise of her life. From Hazor in the north near the waters of
Merom Israel was ruled by Jabin, king of the Canaanites - not the first of the name, for
Joshua had before defeated one Jabin king of Hazor, and slain him. During the peace
that followed Ehud’s triumph over Moab the Hebrews, busy with worldly affairs, failed
to estimate a danger which year by year became more definite and pressing-the rise of
the ancient strongholds of Canaan and their chiefs to new activity and power. Little by
little the cities Joshua destroyed were rebuilt, refortified and made centres of warlike
preparation. The old inhabitants of the land recovered spirit, while Israel lapsed into
foolish confidence. At Harosheth of the Gentiles, under the shadow of Carmel, near the
mouth of the Kishon, armourers were busy forging weapons and building chariots of
iron. The Hebrews did not know what was going on, or missed the purpose that should
have thrust itself on their nonce. Then came the sudden rush of the chariots and the
onset of the Canaanite troops, fierce, irresistible. Israel was subdued and bowed to a
yoke all the more galling that it was a people they had conquered and perhaps despised
that now rode over them. In the north at least the Hebrews were kept in servitude for
twenty years, suffered to remain in the land but compelled to pay heavy tribute, many of
them, it is likely, enslaved or allowed but a nominal independence. Deborah’s song
vividly describes the condition of things in her country. Shamgar had made a clearance
on the Philistine border and kept his footing as a leader, but elsewhere the land was so
swept by Canaanite spoilers that the highways were unused and Hebrew travellers kept
to the tortuous and difficult by paths down in the glens or among the mountains. There
was war in all the gates, but in Israelite dwellings neither shield nor spear. Defenceless
and crushed the people lay crying to gods that could not save, turning ever to new gods
in strange despair, the national state far worse than when Cushan’s army held the land
or when Eglon ruled from the City of Palm Trees.

9. Born before this time of oppression Deborah spent her childhood and youth in some
village of Issachar, her home a rude hut covered with brushwood and clay, like those
which are still seen by travellers. Her parents, we must believe, had more religious
feeling than was common among Hebrews of the time. They would speak to her of the
name and law of Jehovah, and she, we doubt not, loved to hear. But with the exception
of brief oral traditions fitfully repeated and an example of reverence for sacred times and
duties, a mere girl would have no advantages. Even if her father was chief of a village her
lot would be hard and monotonous, as she aided in the work of the household and went
morning and evening to fetch water from the spring or tended a few sheep on the
hillside. While she was yet young the Canaanite oppression began, and she with others
felt the tyranny and the shame. The soldiers of Jabin came and lived at free quarters
among the villagers, wasting their property. The crops were perhaps assessed, as they
are at the present day in Syria, before they were reaped, and sometimes half or even
more would be swept away by the remorseless collector of tribute. The people turned
thriftless and sullen. They had nothing to gain by exerting themselves when the soldiers
and the tax gatherer were ready to exact so much the more, leaving them still in poverty.
Now and again there might be a riot. Maddened by insults and extortion the men of the
village would make a stand. But without weapons, without a leader, what could they
effect? The Canaanite troops were upon them; some were killed, others carried away,
and things became worse than before.
There was not much prospect at such a time for a Hebrew maiden whose lot it seemed to
be, while yet scarcely out of her childhood, to be married like the rest and sink into a
household drudge, toiling for a husband who in his turn laboured for the oppressor. But
there was a way then, as there is always a way for the high spirited to save life from
bareness and desolation; and Deborah found her path. Her soul went forth to her
people, and their sad state moved her to something more than a woman’s grief and
rebellion. As years went by the traditions of the past revealed their meaning to her,
deeper and larger thoughts came, a beginning of hope for the tribes so downcast and
weary. Once they had swept victoriously through the land and smitten that very fortress
which again overshadowed all the north. It was in the name of Jehovah and by His help
that Israel then triumphed. Clearly the need was for a new covenant with Him; the
people must repent and return to the Lord. Did Deborah put this before her parents, her
husband? Doubtless they agreed with her, but could see no way of action, no opportunity
for such as they. As she spoke more and more eagerly, as she ventured to urge the men of
her village to bestir themselves, perhaps a few were moved, but the rest heard carelessly
or derided her. We can imagine Deborah in that time of trial growing up into tall and
striking womanhood, watching with indignation many a scene in which her people
showed a craven fear or joined slavishly in heathen revels. As she spoke and saw her
words burn the hearts of some to whom they were spoken, the sense of power and duty
came. In vain she looked for a prophet, a leader, a man of Jehovah to rekindle a flame in
the nation’s heart. A flame! It was in her own soul, she might wake it in other souls;
Jehovah helping her, she would.
But when in her native tribe the brave woman began to urge with prophetic eloquence
the return to God and to preach a holy war her time of peril came. Issachar lay
completely under the survey of Jabin’s officers, overawed by his chariots. And one who
would deliver a servile people had need to fear treachery. Issachar was "a strong ass
couching down between the sheepfolds he had bowed his shoulder to bear" and become

10. "a servant under task work." As her purpose matured she had to seek a place of safety
and influence, and passing southward she found it in some retired spot among the hills
between Bethel and Ramah, some nook of that valley which, beginning near Ai, curves
eastward and narrows at Geba to a rocky gorge with precipices eight hundred feet high, -
the Valley of Achor, of which Hosea long afterwards said that it should be a door of hope.
Here, under a palm tree, the landmark of her tent, she began to prophesy and judge and
grow to spiritual power among the tribes. It was a new thing in Israel for a woman to
speak in the name of God. Her utterances had no doubt something of a sibyllic strain,
and the deep or wild notes of her voice pleading for Jehovah or raised in passionate
warning against idolatry touched the finest chords of the Hebrew soul. In her rapture
she saw the Holy One coming in majesty from the southern desert where Horeb reared
its sacred peak; or again, looking into the future, foretold His exaltation in proud
triumph over the gods of Canaan, His people free once more, their land purged of every
heathen taint. So gradually her place of abode became a rendezvous of the tribes, a seat
of justice, a shrine of reviving hope. Those who longed for righteous administration
came to her; those who were hearers of Jehovah gathered about her. Gaining wisdom
she was able to represent to a rude age the majesty as well as the purity of Divine law, to
establish order as well as to communicate enthusiasm. The people felt that sagacity like
hers and a spirit so sanguine and fearless must be the gift of Jehovah; it was the
inspiration of the Almighty that gave her understanding.
Deborah’s prophetical utterances are not to be tried by the standard of the Isaiah age. So
tested some of her judgments might fail, some of her visions lose their charm. She had
no clear outlook to those great principles which the later prophets more or less fully
proclaimed. Her education and circumstances and her intellectual power determined the
degree in which she could receive Divine illumination. One woman before her is
honoured with the name of prophetess, Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, who led
the refrain of the song of triumph at the Red Sea. Miriam’s gift appears limited to the
gratitude and ecstasy of one day of deliverance; and when afterwards, on the strength of
her share in the enthusiasm of the Exodus, she ventured along with Aaron to claim
equality with Moses, a terrible rebuke checked her presumption. Comparing Miriam and
Deborah, we find as great an advance from the one to the other as from Deborah to
Amos or Hosea. But this only shows that the inspiration of one mind, intense and ample
for that mind, may come far short of the inspiration of another. God does not give every
prophet the same insight as Moses, for the rare and splendid genius of Moses was
capable of an illumination which very few in any following age have been able to receive.
Even as among the Apostles of Christ St. Peter shows occasionally a lapse from the
highest Christian judgment for which St. Paul has to take him to task, and yet does not
cease to be inspired, so Deborah is not to be denied the Divine gift though her song is
coloured by an all too human exultation over a fallen enemy.
It is simply impossible to account for this new beginning in Israel’s history without a
heavenly impulse; and through Deborah unquestionably that impulse came. Others were
turning to God, but she broke the dark spell which held the tribes and taught them
afresh how to believe and pray. Under her palm tree there were solemn searchings of
heart, and when the head men of the clans gathered there, travelling across the
mountains of Ephraim or up the wadies from the fords of Jordan, it was first to humble
themselves for the sin of idolatry, and then to undertake with sacred oaths and vows the
serious work which fell to them in Israel’s time of need. Not all came to that solemn

11. rendezvous. When is such a gathering completely representative? Of Judah and Simeon
we hear nothing. Perhaps they had their own troubles with the wandering tribes of the
desert; perhaps they did not suffer as the others from Canaanite tyranny and therefore
kept aloof. Reuben on the other side Jordan wavered, Manasseh made no sign of
sympathy; Asher, held in check by the fortress of Hazor and the garrison of Harosheth,
chose the safe part of inaction. Dan was busy trying to establish a maritime trade. But
Ephraim and Benjamin, Zebulun and Naphtali were forward in the revival, and proudly
the record is made on behalf of her native tribe, "the princes of Issachar were with
Deborah." Months passed; the movement grew steadily, there was a stirring among the
dry bones, a resurrection of hope and purpose.
And with all the care used this could not be hid from the Canaanites. For doubtless in
not a few Israelite homes heathen wives and half-heathen children would be apt to spy
and betray. It goes hardly with men if they have bound themselves by any tie to those
who will not only fail in sympathy when religion makes demands, but will do their
utmost to thwart serious ambitions and resolves. A man is terribly compromised who
has pledged himself to a woman of earthly mind, ruled by idolatries of time and sense.
He has undertaken duties to her which a quickened sense of Divine law will make him
feel the more; she has her claim upon his life, and there is nothing to wonder at if she
insists upon her view, to his spiritual disadvantage and peril. In the time of national
quickening and renewed, thoughtfulness many a Hebrew discovered the folly of which
he had been guilty in joining hands with women who were on the side of the Baalim and
resented any sacrifice made for Jehovah. Here we find the explanation of much Luke
warmness, indifference to the great enterprises of the church and withholding of service
by those who make some profession of being on the Lord’s side. The entanglements of
domestic relationship have far more to do with failure in religious duty than is
commonly supposed.
Amid difficulty and discouragement enough, with slender resources, the hope of Israel
resting upon her, Deborah’s heart did not fail nor her head for affairs. When the critical
point was reached of requiring a general for the war. she had already fixed upon the
man. At Kadesh-Naphtali, almost in sight of Jabin’s fortress, on a hill overlooking the
waters of Merom, ninety miles to the north, dwelt Barak the son of Abin-oaha. The
neighbourhood of the Canaanite capital and daily evidence of its growing power made
Barak ready for any enterprise which had in it good promise of success, and he had
better qualifications than mere resentment against injustice and eager hatred of the
Canaanite oppression. Already known in Zebulun and Naphtali as a man of bold temper
and sagacity, he was in a position to gather an army corps out of those tribes-the main
strength of the force on which Deborah relied for the approaching struggle. Better still,
he was a fearer of God. To Kadesh-Naphtali the prophetess sent for the chosen leader of
the troops of Israel, addressing to him the call of Jehovah: "Hath not the Lord
commanded thee saying, Go and draw towards Mount Tabor"-that is, bring by
detachments quietly from the different cities towards Mount Tabor-"ten thousand men
of Naphtali and Zebulun?" The rendezvous of Sisera’s host was Harosheth of the
Gentiles, in the defile at the western extremity of the valley of Megiddo, where Kishon
breaks through to the plain of Acre. Tabor overlooked from the northeast the same wide
strath which was to be the field where the chariots and the multitude should be delivered
into Barak’s hand.

12. Not doubting the word of God, Barak sees a difficulty. For himself he has no prophetic
gift; he is ready to fight, but this is to be a sacred war. From the very first he would have
the men gather with the clear understanding that it is for religion as much as for
freedom they are taking arms; and how may this be secured? Only if Deborah will go
with him through the country proclaiming the Divine summons and promise of victory.
He is very decided on the point. "If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt
not go with me, I will not go." Deborah agrees, though she would fain have left this
matter entirely to men. She warns him that the expedition will not be to his honour,
since Jehovah will give Sisera into the hand of a woman. Against her will she takes part
in the military preparations. There is no need to find in Deborah’s words a prophecy of
the deed of Jael. It is a grossly untrue taunt that the murder of Sisera is the central point
of the whole narrative. When Deborah says, "The Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a
woman," the reference plainly is, as Josephus makes it, to the position into which
Deborah herself was forced as the chief person in the campaign. With great wisdom and
the truest courage she would have limited her own sphere. With equal wisdom and equal
courage Barak understood how the zeal of the people was to be maintained. There was a
friendly contest, and in the end the right way was found, for unquestionably Deborah
was the genius of the movement. Together they went to Kedesh, - not Kadesh-Naphtali
in the far north, but Kedesh on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, some twelve miles from
Tabor. From that as a centre, journeying by secluded ways through the northern
districts, often perhaps by night, Deborah and Barak went together rousing the
enthusiasm of the people, until the shores of the lake and the valleys running down to it
were quietly occupied by thousands of armed men.
The clans are at length gathered; the whole force marches from Kedesh to the foot of
Tabor to give battle. And now Sisera, fully equipped, moves out of Harosheth along the
course of the Kishon, marching well beneath the ridge of Carmel, his chariots thundering
in the van. Near Taanach he orders his front to be formed to the north, crosses the
Kishon and advances on the Hebrews, who by this time are visible beyond the slope of
Moreh. The tremendous moment has come. "Up," cries Deborah, "for this is the day in
which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand. Is not the Lord gone out before
thee?" She has waited till the troops of Sisera are entangled among the streams which
here, from various directions, converge to the river Kishon, now swollen with rain and
difficult to cross. Barak, the Lightning Chief, leads his men impetuously down into the
plain, keeping near the shoulder of Moreh where the ground is not broken by the
streams; and with the fall of evening he begins the attack. The chariots have crossed the
Kishon but are still struggling in the swamps and marshes. They are assailed with
vehemence and forced back, and in the waning light all is confusion. The Kishon sweeps
away many of the Canaanite host, the rest make a stand by Taanach and further on by
the waters of Megiddo. The Hebrews find a higher ford, and following the south bank of
the river are upon the foe again. It is a November night and meteors are flashing through
the sky. They are an omen of evil to the disheartened, half-defeated army. Do not the
stars in their courses fight against Sisera? The rout becomes complete; Barak pursues
the scattered force towards Harosheth, and at the ford near the city there is terrible loss.
Only the fragments of a ruined army find shelter within the gates.
Meanwhile Sisera, a coward at heart, more familiar with the parade ground than fit for
the stern necessities of war, leaves his chariot and abandons his men to their fate, his

13. own safety all his care. Seeking that, it is not to Harosheth he turns. He takes his way
across Gilboa toward the very region which Barak has left. On a little plateau overlooking
the Sea of Galilee, near Kedesh, there is a settlement of Kenites whom Sisera thinks he
can trust. Like a hunted animal he presses on over ridge and through defile till he
reaches the black tents and receives from Jael the treacherous welcome, "Turn in, my
lord, turn in to me; fear not." The pitiful tragedy follows. The coward meets at the hand
of a woman the death from which he has fled. Jael gives him fermented milk to drink
which, exhausted as he is, sends him into a deep sleep. Then, as he lies helpless, she
smites the tent pin through his temples.
In her song Deborah describes and glories over the execution of her country’s enemy.
"Blessed among women shall Jael, the wife of Heber be; with the hammer she smote
Sisera; at her feet he curled up, he fell." Exulting in every circumstance of the tragedy,
she adds a description of Sisera’s mother and her ladies expecting his return as a victor
laden with spoil, and listening eagerly for the wheels of that chariot which never again
should roll through the streets of Harosheth. As to the whole of this passage, our
estimate of Deborah’s knowledge and spiritual insight does not require us to regard her
praise and her judgment as absolute. She rejoices in a deed which has crowned the great
victory over the master of nine hundred chariots, the terror of Israel; she glories in the
courage of another woman, who single handed finished that tyrant’s career; she does not
make God responsible for the deed. Let the outburst of her enthusiastic relief stand as
the expression of intense feeling, the rebound from fear and anxiety of the patriotic
heart. We need not weight ourselves with the suspicion that the prophetess reckoned
Jael’s deed the outcome of a Divine thought. No, but we may believe this of Jael, that she
is on the side of Israel, her sympathy so far repressed by the league of her people with
Jabin, yet prompting her to use every opportunity of serving the Hebrew cause. It is
clear that if the Kenite treaty had meant very much and Jael had felt herself bound by it,
her tent would have been an asylum for the fugitive. But she is against the enemies of
Israel; her heart is with the people of Jehovah in the battle and she is watching eagerly
for signs of the victory she desires them to win. Unexpected, startling, the sign appears
in the fleeing captain of Jabin’s host, alone, looking wildly for shelter. "Turn in, my lord;
turn in." Will he enter? Will he hide himself in a woman’s tent? Then to her will be
committed vengeance. It will be an omen that the hour of Sisera’s fate has come.
Hospitality itself must yield; she will break even that sacred law to do stern justice on a
coward, a tyrant, and an enemy of God.
A line of thought like this is entirely in harmony with the Arab character. The moral
ideas of the desert are rigorous, and contempt rapidly becomes cruel. A tent woman has
few elements of judgment, and, the balance turning, her conclusion will be quick,
remorseless. Jael is no blameless heroine, neither is she a demon. Deborah, who
understands her, reads clearly the rapid thoughts, the swift decision, the unscrupulous
act and sees, behind all, the purpose of serving Israel. Her praise of Jael is therefore with
knowledge; but she herself would not have done the thing she praises. All possible
explanations made, it remains a murder, a wild, savage thing for a woman to do, and we
may ask whether among the tents of Zaanannim Jael was not looked on from that day as
a woman stained and shadowed, -one who had been treacherous to a guest.
Not here can the moral be found that the end justifies the means, or that we may do evil

14. with good intent; which never was a Bible doctrine and never can be. On the contrary,
we find it written clear that the end does not justify the means. Sisera must live on and
do the worst he may rather than any soul should be soiled with treachery or any hand
defiled by murder. There are human vermin, human scorpions and vipers. Is Christian
society to regard them, to care for them? The answer is that Providence regards them
and cares for them. They are human after all, men whom God has made, for whom there
are yet hopes, who are no worse than others would be if Divine grace did not guard and
deliver. Rightly does Christian society affirm that a human being in peril, in suffering, in
any extremity common to men is to be succoured as a man, without inquiry whether he
is good or vile. What then of justice and man’s administration of justice? This, that they
demand a sacred calm, elevation above the levels of personal feeling, mortal passion, and
ignorance. Law is to be of no private, sudden, unconsidered administration. Only in the
most solemn and orderly way is the trial of the worst malefactor to be gone about,
sentence passed, justice executed. To have reached this understanding of law with regard
to all accused and suspected persons and all evildoers is one of the great gains of the
Christian period. We need not look for anything like the ideal of justice in the age of the
judges; deeds were done then and zealously and honestly praised which we must
condemn. They were meant to bring about good, but the sum of human violence was
increased by them and more work made for the moral reformer of after times. And going
back to Jael’s deed, we see that it gave Israel little more than vengeance. In point of fact
the crushing defeat of the army left Sisera powerless, discredited, open to the
displeasure of his master. He could have done Israel no more harm.
One point remains. Emphatically are we reminded that life continually brings us to
sudden moments in which we must act without time for careful reflection, the spirit of
our past flashing out in some quick deed or word of fate. Sisera’s past drove him in panic
over the hills to Zaananhim. Jael’s past came with her to the door of the tent; and the
two as they looked at each other in that tragic moment were at once, without warning, in
crisis for which every thought and passion of years had made a way. Here the self-
pampering of a vain man had its issue. Here the woman, undisciplined, impetuous,
catching sight of the means to do a deed, moves to the fatal stroke like one possessed. It
is the sort of thing we often call madness, and yet such insanity is but the expression of
what men and women choose to be capable of. The casual allowance of an impulse here,
a craving there, seems to mean little until the occasion comes when their accumulated
force is sharply or terribly revealed. The laxity of the past thus declares itself; and on the
other hand there is often a gathering of good to a moment of revelation. The soul that
has for long years fortified itself in pious courage, in patient well doing, in high and
noble thought, leaps one day, to its own surprise, to the height of generous daring or
heroic truth. We determine the issue of crises which we cannot foresee.
PARKER, "Deborah and Her Song
Judges 4 , Judges 5 I only quote chapter 4 here.
THE fourth and fifth chapters bring into view quite a host of secondary characters, such
as Jabin and his chief captain, Sisera; Deborah and Barak; Heber, and Jael his wife; and
in the great song of triumph and judgment names come and go with flashes of colour full

15. of history and criticism. Sometimes we are told of a song that the words are nothing—the
tune is everything. That may be a happy circumstance as regards some Song of Solomon
, but that criticism has no place in reference to the Song of Deborah; it is all words, all
thoughts, all spiritual music. This song has in it something more than tune. If we do not
know the words we shall never understand the music. Poor is the singing in which you
cannot hear every word; it is then but a performance, it is but a vocal trick; we must hear
every word, every syllable, every sentiment, and judge whether the music is worthy of
the great intellectual conception. It is so with the Song of Deborah. We shall find in it
words as well as tune. Jabin, king of Canaan, had held Israel in oppression twenty years.
Jabin had resources which astounded people who lived in the hill country. Among the
mountains chariots were no use; the bow and arrow were everything, but the chariot
could not be driven over a craggy steep or unfathomable abyss. Jabin had nine hundred
chariots of iron, and he made the plain of Esdraelon tremble as they rolled along. People
who peeped down out of the crags, and saw the nine hundred chariots rolling in the
plain of Jezreel, thought Jabin a mighty king, and obeyed his behest with meekest
submission. Do not blame Jabin for oppressing the children of Israel twenty years. Jabin
did not begin the oppression. Do not let us ruin ourselves by looking at second causes,
and pouring out our denunciations upon the king of Hazor in Canaan. Hebrews , like
many other poor kings, had nothing to do with it except instrumentally. There is but one
King. It pleases us to call men kings and rulers, but there is only one sovereignty; the
Lord reigneth, and there is room for none other; his throne fills the universe, and his
kingdom ruleth over all. Jabin was an unconscious minister of God. Many men occupy
that relation to Heaven who are not aware of it. The Lord has many servants at his
threshold: he maketh the wrath of man to praise him; he finds music in strange places,
and brings all kinds of instruments into the band that plays the music of his purpose. No
doubt, Jabin thought himself a great man over Israel—lord and ruler and oppressor.
Probably he counted Israel among his riches; in adding up his little store he put Israel
down at a plain price, and said, "Israel is mine, and is worth so much in the coming and
going of things." He did not know what he was talking about The reason why Jabin had
anything to do with Israel was that Israel had done "evil in the sight of the Lord" (
Judges 4:1). It is putting the case too lightly to say that Israel "did evil in the sight of the
Lord." That might have been a first offence, and twenty years" penal servitude under a
king without a harp, was a heavy sentence for a first violation. But we have missed the
explanatory word. How often we do this in reading the Scriptures! How prone we are to
leave out the key-word, and thus create confusion for ourselves! The text literally reads,
"And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord." How great the
emphasis which ought to be laid upon the word "again"! It may not mean a second time
or a third time; it may be the thousandth time for aught the word "again" says to the
contrary. Israel did evil upon evil, as if building a black temple with black stones, and
purposing to consecrate it to the service of the devil. Twenty years" servitude was a small
penalty. God did not plead against Israel with his great power when he sentenced Israel
to this period of oppression and sorrow. How readily we look at the oppression and
forget the sin! This is characteristic of human nature. We pity the sorrow; we would even
count the tears of human distress, and make a great number of them, and turn that
number into a plea for Heaven"s mercy. We are wrong. We have started the argument
from the wrong end; the point of view is false; the perspective is out of line: the whole
vision suffers from wrong drawing and colouring. We have nothing to do with the
oppression. We must look at causes. We must say,—How did this come to pass? and in
answering that inquiry we shall vindicate Eternal Providence, and justify the ways of
God to men. We are moved more by the oppression than by the sin. That is a test of our
own spiritual quality. Men are more frequently annoyed than they are wronged. Many

16. men suffer more from an assault made upon their self-conceit than an assault made
upon the proofs of eternal righteousness. Hence men resent what are termed
personalities, whilst they look benignantly, if not approvingly, upon sin in the abstract—
violated law that hurts the vanity of no man. All this is indicative of character. Here we
see what Sin really is. It binds the sinner to his outrages against God; it endeavours to
modify its own force and gravity, and it seeks to turn attention to outside matters,
accidents, passing phases, and temporary troubles. Were we of God"s mind and of
Christ"s heart we should dwell upon the evil, the evil twice done and twice repeated, and
continued until it has become a custom—a custom so established that the repetition of it
brings with it no new sensation. But we will look at accidents and circumstances, rather
than probe into real causes, profound and true origins.
A new period dawned in Israel. Deborah the wife of Lapidoth was judge. Great questions
are settled by events. There was no inquiry as to whether it was meet that a woman
should be a judge. Israel needed a mother, and Deborah was a mother in Israel. If we
make questions of these subjects, we shall entertain one another with wordy
controversies: but when the true Deborah comes, she comes of right, and sits a queen,
without a word. There is a fitness of things—a subtle and unchangeable harmony—and
when its conditions are satisfied, the satisfaction is attested by a great content of soul. As
Deborah sat under her palm-tree in Mount Ephraim, no man said: Why are we judged by
a woman? The answer was in her eyes: she looked divine; the vindication was in her
judgment: when she spake, the spirit of wisdom seemed to approve every tone of her
voice. There is a spirit in man: he knows when the right judge is upon the bench; the
poorest listener can tell when he is in the presence of Justice; the unsophisticated heart
knows when attempts are being made to quibble and wriggle and misrepresent, and to
substitute the jingle of words for the music of righteousness. The people came up to the
famous old palm-tree, and told their tale to Deborah day by day, until the motherly heart
began to ache, and her trouble was very great. She saw, as motherly eyes only can see,
how the wrinkles were deepening, how the faces were not so plump as they used to be,
how strong men were bending under invisible burdens. She said: By the help of Heaven
we will see more clearly into this. A hundred miles away in the north there lived a Prayer
of Manasseh , Barak by name—"Barak," which Isaiah , by interpretation, "the
lightning"—and on Barak Deborah fixed her heart as on the hope of Israel. She sent for
him; but he said No. She said in effect, You must come. But he said in reply, You do not
know the case as a soldier knows it; Jabin has nine hundred chariots of iron, and the
plain of Jezreel seems to have been made into a way on purpose for them to roll in; if it
were Jabin only, I might attempt the task, but think of nine hundred chariots of iron!
Deborah said, You must come, for the time has arrived; Heaven"s hour of deliverance
has struck; and I look to you to espouse the cause of Israel. Barak said, No, I cannot,
except on one condition. Deborah said, Name your terms; what are they? Then replied
Barak, My terms are that you go along with me. Instantly she said, I am ready to go. And
Deborah, a mother in Israel, became the soldier of Israel, and Barak was her humble
servant. The news soon spread. Sisera was on the alert. This was the very thing he had
been longing for. When a man has nine hundred chariots of iron he wants something for
them to do. Kings who have standing armies are bound to create occasions of war; hence
the injustice, the turpitude, the hellishness of battle. Sisera was the chief captain, and
the nine hundred chariots of iron were under his direction, and he said, Now Esdraelon
shall tremble under this weight of iron, and Israel shall be crushed as a fly upon a wheel.
"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his

17. anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh" at them, and laugh again at their chariots,
though they be iron in quality and nine hundred in number. The chariots of the Lord are
twenty thousand, yea, thousand of thousands. The battle is the Lord"s, not ours. But the
Lord will not loose his chariots upon Jabin and his nine hundred curricles. There is a
river on the field of battle, Kishon by name, quite a little silver threadlet in summer, but
soon swollen by tributaries from the hills; and a river once getting charge of a plain
makes swift work in its progress. The rains had fallen, all the hills seemed to pour out
their treasures of water, the stream expanded, the water burst and flowed over the plain,
and the nine hundred could not move. They were overcome by water! Kishon was more
than all Jabin"s iron host. Then came awful doings—men slaying one another. As for
Sisera, the captain of all the iron chariots, he fled—ran away like a hound that had seen a
tiger, and pantingly he came to a woman"s tent, and said to Jael, the wife of Heber the
Canaanite, Can you give me shelter? What are nine hundred chariots when the Lord is
against them? What are all the chariots of the earth as against the sea? They could be
sunk in the Atlantic, and the great ocean not know that they had descended to its depths.
Jael said, Come in. And Sisera went in to come out no more. "The mother of Sisera
looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is my son"s chariot so long in
coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?" At that moment Sisera was lying in the
tent of Jael with an iron nail through his head. Sisera had chariots of iron—Jael had but
one nail, but the hammer must have been God"s. There is no defence of Jael"s conduct.
Viewed in the light of our morality, it was base in and out—bad, corrupt, horrible. As she
walks softly, the softlier, the deadlier, and takes the nail and the hammer, she is the
picture of incarnate depravity. This we say, unless there be some law which takes up all
our laws and moves them into greater meanings through infinite orbits. There are
greater laws that take up all our local movements and relations, and set them in new
attitudes and invest them with new values; but of these laws we know nothing, and it is
right that we should speak frankly about the ancient morality as represented in the
action of Jael, and that Christian teachers should condemn it within the limits which are
known to them. A woman began the war and a woman ended it, judging by the literal
history. The inspiration of deliverance was a divine inspiration. Wherever there is a
movement towards freedom, that movement began in heaven. Wherever any oppressed
Prayer of Manasseh , conscious of his sin and penitent for it, lifts himself up in an
attitude of independence and looks his oppressor in the face with a calm determination
to be free, there is a distinctively divine act. God is the God of liberty. He permits slavery
or uses it, and may sanctify the use to higher issues and advantages; but beneath the
oppression, below all the trouble, there is that spirit which is akin to his own, which
asserts itself and says:—I cannot always live under this cloud, or carry this weary load; I
will be free. When such a word is spoken reverently, solemnly, honestly, it is neither
more nor less than the living voice of the living God.

18. 2
So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a
king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The
commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in
Harosheth Haggoyim.
1. Here we go again, and we see God giving the enemies of his people the upper
hand. When God is on the side of the enemy, you can kiss your freedom goodby.
These are the very people God commanded his people to cast out and kill, and now
because they refused to do so, they must suffer their affliction. If God says to get rid
of something you had better do it, for it will be your curse if you don't. They should
have no Canaanites around to rule them, but there they are, and with plenty of
power.
1B. An unknown author give us this information on the Canaanites that explain all
of God's commands to get rid of them. "The Canaanites far surpassed all of their
contemporaries in lust, cruelty, and degrading spiritual practices. Their religion
consisted of adoration of the planets and worship of a pantheon of gods, El being the
supreme deity. Baal was the chief underling of El and overlord of the lesser gods in
the pantheon. Baal was identified as the god of rain and the storm, whose voice rode
the heavens on wings of the thunderclaps. His images depicted him holding a
thunderbolt shaped into a spear. Their circle of gods also contained female figures.
Astarte, Asherah, and Anath were believed to possess the power to change their
gender as the occasion dictated.
Without spelling out sensual details, it must be noted that this grouping of gods and
goddesses promoted the most detestable sexual excesses. Promiscuity, incest, and
nudity were all glorified among the gods of Canaan. Sacred prostitution and sodomy
were also prominent in the licentious practices of these false deities. Canaanite
worship can only be characterized as a gross perversion of everything sacred to true
people of God. One can, therefore, easily understand why God commanded Israel to
drive out the Canaanites—an act frequently condemned by liberal religionists. In
reality, it was an act of mercy. God was attempting to spare Israel the agonies she
would, unfortunately, choose to suffer."
2. An unknown author wrote, "We learn from this book that you have to go all the
way with evil. If you just get rid of it piece meal it will never be gone, and even if
you destroy it, it is only temporary for it is like dandelions. They only stay dead for
a time, and then they are back, and so it is with temptation. Sin is like weeds, and
the battle with it is never over. God’s command to Israel was absolute, but they

19. made it relative and suffered greatly for it. God made it clear what their goal was to
be in Deut. 7:1-5, 16, "When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither
thou goest to possess it, ... thou shalt smite" the nations that possess it, "and utterly
destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them;
{178} neither shalt thou make marriages with them ... Ye shall destroy their altars
and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn down their
graven images with fire ... Thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy
God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them."
2. Jabin was a title, and the first Jabin was defeated by Israel as they came into
Canaan, but now there is a second Jabin who has built up his forces due to Israel
not obeying the Lord's will in driving them out of the land. These were the northern
Canaanites and they oppressed the northern tribes severely in their 20 year reign
over Israel. It is so stupid that God's people come under the rule of Canaanites,
when God promised them the land, and the Canaanites were to lose all control.
ow, due to their folly of disobedience, there enemies have God on their side in
robbing them of the promises of God. What a paradox! God against God's people,
and in favor of the enemies of his people. You can really screw up the plan of God
by paying no attention to what his will is. God will always get his will done one way
or another, but the only sensible way is to get it done by people who cooperate with
him. This is nonsense to go through all the delays we see in Judges because of the
human folly of saying no to God. Why do bad things happen to good people? That is
not always easy to answer, but in some cases it is very easy. That is the case in the
book of Judges, for we are clearly told that it was because the so-called good people
did evil in the sight of the Lord. Good people reap what they sow the same as bad
people.
3. This commander of the army names Sisera is an interesting character. Someone
gives us these details that explain why these Canaanites were superior to Israel in
the weapons they possessed. ". "Harosheth" means smiths, and "goyim" you will
recognize as the word Jews often use for Gentiles. Together, the two words mean
"smiths of the Gentiles." Sisera was a very interesting person. His name is not
Canaanite or Semitic, but Indo-European. He was probably a Philistine, one of
those people who came from the region of the Aegean Sea, from what is known
today as Greece. The Philistines were one of the groups driven out of that area by
the Greek tribes, and they came to Canaan and settled there.
The Philistines had a monopoly on iron working. As late as the beginning of the
monarchy under Saul, hardly any Israelite had iron weapons. At that time the
ultimate weapon was an iron spear or sword, but most had to be made of bronze.
The Philistines had learned how to work iron in Greece, and they maintained a
deliberate monopoly on iron working. These iron weapons were made in Harosheth-
hagoyim. If any Jew wanted an iron plowshare, or an object that pertained to
peaceful pursuits (which they were permitted to possess by the Philistines), they had
to come to Harosheth-hagoyim to have them made or sharpened. Thus the
Philistines were able to oppress the Israelites because they could prevent them from
gathering an arsenal of weapons."

20. ELLICOTT, "Verse 2
(2) Sold them.—See Judges 2:14.
Jabin.—The name means, “he is wise.” It may have been a dynastic name, like
Abimelech, Melchizedek, Pharaoh, Hadad, Agag, &c.
King of Canaan—i.e., of some great tribe or nation of the Canaanite8. In Joshua
11:1 Jabin is called king of Hazor, and sends messages to all the other Canaanite
princes.
Reigned in Hazor.—See Joshua 11:1. Hazor was in the tribe of aphtali (Joshua
19:36), and overlooked the waters of Merom (Jos., Antt. 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 (1 Kings 9:15). Its
inhabitants were taken captive by Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 15:29); and it is last
mentioned in 1 Maccabees 9:27. (Comp. Jos., Antt. xiii. 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 On the Genealogies, 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 (Judges 5:19; Joshua 11:1); in both chariots are prominent,
which, as we conjecture from Joshua 11:8, 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 (Joshua 11:21-22).
This seems to be the reason why Josephus, in his account of the earlier event (Antt.
v. 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 1 Samuel 12:9 the prophet mentions Sisera
before 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 (Joshua 11:11; Jos., Antt. v. 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.

21. The captain of whose host.—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).
Sisera.—The name long lingered among the Israelites. It occurs again in Ezra 2:53,
as the name of the founder of a family of ethinim (minor servants of the Levites, of
Canaanite origin, 2 Samuel 21; Ezra 2:43; 1 Chronicles 9:2); 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.
Harosheth.—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
Harsthîeh, a hill on the south-east of the plain of Akka. (Thomson’s Land and Book,
ch. 29)
Of the Gentiles—i.e., of the nations; of mixed inhabitants; lying as it did in “Galilee
of the Gentiles.” (Comp. “Tidal, king of nations,” Genesis 14:1, and “The king of the
nations in Gilgal,” Joshua 12:23.)
BAR ES, "See Jos_11:1 note. Since the events there narrated, Hazor must have been
rebuilt, and have resumed its position as the metropolis of the northern Canaanites; the
other cities must also have resumed their independence, and restored the fallen
dynasties.
Harosheth (identified by Conder with El Harathlyeh, see Jdg_4:6) is marked by the
addition of the Gentiles, as in Galilee of the nations Gen_14:1; Isa_9:1. The name
Harosheth signifies workmanship, cutting and carving, whether in stone or wood Exo_
31:5, and hence, might be applied to the place where such works are carried on. It has
been conjectured that this being a great timber district, rich in cedars and fir-trees, and
near Great Zidon Jos_11:8, Jabin kept a large number of oppressed Israelites at work in
hewing wood, and preparing it at Harosheth for transport to Zidon; and that these
woodcutters, armed with axes and hatchets, formed the soldiers of Barak’s army.
CLARKE, "Jabin king of Canaan - Probably a descendant of the Jabin mentioned
Jos_11:1, etc., who had gathered together the wrecks of the army of that Jabin defeated
by Joshua. Calmet supposes that these Canaanites had the dominion over the tribes of
Naphtali, Zebulun, and Issachar; while Deborah judged in Ephraim, and Shamgar in
Judah.
GILL, "And the Lord sold them,.... Delivered them into a state of bondage and
slavery, where they were like men sold for slaves, see Jdg_3:8,
into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; there was a city

22. of this name, and a king of it of the same name, as here, in the times of Joshua, which
city was taken and burnt by him, and its king slain, Jos_11:1; and either the country
about it is here meant, as Jericho in the preceding chapter is put for the country adjacent
to it; or this city had been rebuilt, over which reigned one of the posterity of the ancient
kings of it, and of the same name; or Jabin was a name common to the kings of Canaan,
as Pharaoh to the Egyptian kings; and by Canaan is meant, not the land of Canaan in
general, but a particular part of it inhabited by that, or some of that nation or tribe,
which was peculiarly so called:
the captain of whose host was Sisera; Jabin maintained a standing army to keep
the people of Israel in subjection, the general of which was Sisera, of whom many things
are after said:
which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles; not Jabin, as many understand it, for
he had his royal seat and residence in Hazor; but Sisera his general, and where the army
under his command was. This place had its name either because it was built by same of
various nations, or inhabited by workmen of different countries; or rather it was a wood
originally, as the name signifies, to which many of the seven nations of the Canaanites
fled from before Joshua, and hid and sheltered themselves, and in process of time built
strong towers and fortresses in it, and became numerous and powerful; and so the
Targum paraphrases the words,"and he dwelt in the strength of the towers of the
people;''
and in other times, as Strabo relates (w), the northern parts of the land of Canaan, as
those were where Hazor and Harosheth were, were inhabited by a mixed people,
Egyptians, Arabians, and Phoenicians; such were they, he says, that held Galilee,
Jericho, Philadelphia, and Samaria.
HE RY, "Israel oppressed by their enemies. When they forsook God, he forsook
them; and then they became an easy prey to every spoiler. They alienated themselves
from God as if he were none of theirs; and then God alienated them as none of his. Those
that threw themselves out of God's service threw themselves out of his protection. What
has my beloved to do in my house when she has thus played the harlot? Jer_11:15. He
sold them into the hand of Jabin, Jdg_4:2. This Jabin reigned in Hazor, as another of
the same name, and perhaps his ancestor, had done before him, whom Joshua routed
and slew, and burnt his city, Jos_11:1, Jos_11:10. But it seems, in process of time, the
city was rebuilt, the power regained, the loss retrieved, and, by degrees, the king of
Hazor becomes able to tyrannize over Israel, who by sin had lost all their advantage
against the Canaanites. This servitude was longer than either of the former, and much
more grievous. Jabin, and his general Sisera, did mightily oppress Israel. That which
aggravated the oppression was, 1. That this enemy was nearer to them than any of the
former, in their borders, in their bowels, and by this means had the more opportunity to
do them a mischief. 2. That they were the natives of the country, who bore an implacable
enmity to them, for invading and dispossessing them, and when they had them in their
power would be so much the more cruel and mischievous towards them in revenge of the
old quarrel. 3. That these Canaanites had formerly been conquered and subdued by
Israel, were of old sentenced to be their servants (Gen_9:25), and might now have been
under their feet, and utterly incapable of giving them any disturbance, if their own
slothfulness, cowardice, and unbelief, had not suffered them thus to get head. To be
oppressed by those whom their fathers had conquered, and whom they themselves had
foolishly spared, could not but be very grievous.

23. III. Israel returning to their God: They cried unto the Lord, when distress drove them
to him, and they saw no other way of relief. Those that slight God in their prosperity will
find themselves under a necessity of seeking him when they are in trouble.
JAMISO 2-3, "Jabin king of Canaan — “Jabin,” a royal title (see on Jos_11:1).
The second Jabin built a new capital on the ruins of the old (Jos_11:10, Jos_11:11). The
northern Canaanites had recovered from the effect of their disastrous overthrow in the
time of Joshua, and now triumphed in their turn over Israel. This was the severest
oppression to which Israel had been subjected. But it fell heaviest on the tribes in the
north, and it was not till after a grinding servitude of twenty years that they were
awakened to view it as the punishment of their sins and to seek deliverance from God.
PULPIT, "4:2
Sold them. See 2:14, note. Jabin king of Hazor. The exact site of Hazor has not been
identified with certainty, but it is conjectured by Robinson, with great probability, to
have stood on the Tell now called Khuraibeh, overlooking the waters of Merom (now
called Lake Huleh), where are remains of a sepulchre, Cyclopean walls, and other
buildings. In Joshua 11:1-14 we read of the total destruction by fire of Hazor, and of the
slaughter of Jabin, the king thereof, with all the inhabitants of the city, and of the
slaughter of all the confederate kings, and the capture of their cities; Hazor, however,
"the head of all those kingdoms," being the only one which was "burnt with fire." It is a
little surprising, therefore, to read here of another Jabin reigning in Hazor, with
confederate kings under him ( 5:19), having, like his predecessor, a vast number of
chariots (cf. 4:3, 4:13 with Joshua 11:4, Joshua 11:9), and attacking Israel at the head of
a great force (cf. 4:7, 4:13, 4:16 with Joshua 11:4). It is impossible not to suspect that
these are two accounts of the same event. If, however, the two events are distinct, we
must suppose that the Canaanite kingdoms had been revived under a descendant of the
former king, that Hazor had been rebuilt, and that Jabin was the hereditary name of its
king. Gentiles, or nations, or Goim, as Joshua 12:23, and Genesis 14:1. Whether Goim
was the proper name of a particular people, or denoted a collection of different tribes,
their seat was in Galilee, called in Isaiah 9:1; Matthew 4:15, Galilee, of the nations, or
Gentiles, in Hebrew Goim.
BENSON, "4:2. Jabin — This Jabin was probably descended from the other prince of
that name, who fell by the hands of Joshua, Joshua 11:11. He doubtless had watched all
opportunities to recover his ancient possessions, and to revenge his own and his father’s
quarrel. King of Canaan — That is, of the land where most of the Canaanites, strictly so
called, now dwelt, which seems to have been the northern part of Canaan. That reigned
in Hazor — In the territory or kingdom of Hazor, which might now be restored to its
former extent and power. Perhaps he had seized on the spot where Hazor formerly
stood, and rebuilt that city. Harosheth of the Gentiles — So called, because it was much
frequented and inhabited by the Gentiles; either by the Canaanites, who, being beaten
out of their former possessions, seated themselves in those northern parts; or by other
nations coming thither for traffic, whence Galilee, where this was, is called Galilee of the
Gentiles.

24. COKE, "Judges 4:2. Jabin, king of Canaan— Canaan here means the Canaanites
properly so called. Jabin was, doubtless, a descendant of the Jabin spoken of Joshua
11:1; Joshua 11:23 and Jabin, probably, (like Pharaoh,) was the common name of these
kings. From the formidable number of his chariots, Judges 4:3 we may conclude that he
had little or no infantry; and as the Israelites were forbidden the use of chariots, their
fears might have arisen more naturally from this circumstance.
WHEDON, "Verse 2
2. Sold them — See note on Judges 2:14.
Jabin king of Canaan — This powerful monarch was probably a descendant of the
Jabin who headed the confederacy of the northern Canaanites against Joshua, but who
was signally defeated by that great conqueror. Joshua 11:1-15. He had taken advantage of
Israel’s many oppressions, and gradually strengthened his power in the north, and
enlarged his kingdom, until he could send into the field a vast army with nearly a
thousand iron chariots. Judges 4:3. Having reduced all Israel to the most servile
subjection, he was virtually ruler of the whole land, and called king of Canaan. The name
Jabin was probably a royal title of the kings that reigned in Hazor. On this capital, see
note at Joshua 11:1.
Captain… Sisera — Jabin, like Abimelech, (Genesis 21:22,) had a captain, or general, to
command his army. Most of the kings of that time commanded their armies in person.
Doubtless Sisera’s great military skill and sagacity had won him this honour. The famous
Rabbi Akiba is said to have descended from this Canaanite general.
Harosheth — “About eight miles from Megiddo, at the entrance of the pass to
Esdraelon from the plain of Acre, is an enormous double mound called Harothieh. It is
still covered with the remains of old walls and buildings. It was probably called
Harosheth of the Gentiles, or nations, because it belonged to those Gentiles of Acre and
the neighbouring plains which we know, from Judges 1:31, the Hebrews could not
subdue.” — Thomson.
PETT, "Verse 2
‘And Yahweh sold them, into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor,
the captain of whose host was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth of the Nations.’
Hazor was an important city state in northern Canaan which had great influence over
its neighbours (Joshua 11:1-2; Joshua 11:10). Archaeology tells us that it had been there
since the third millennium BC and in the second millennium was extended by the
building of a lower city. At this stage it would have about forty thousand inhabitants, a
large city indeed. The lower city contained a Canaanite temple and a small shrine. It was
referred to regularly throughout the centuries, by Egypt, Mari and Babylon, as an
important political centre, and its ruler was given the title ‘Great King’ (sarrum), a status
above that usually conferred on rulers of city states.
A previous king Jabin had ruled over this area in the time of Joshua, and had led a
confederacy against Joshua and had been defeated and slain (Joshua 11:1-15). (This

25. Jabin was probably his grandson or great-grandson). That was the first occasion when
Israel had won a great victory over chariots. And Hazor was then burned and what
remained of its inhabitants put to the sword. The lower city was destroyed by Joshua
and not later rebuilt. But many of the warriors had inevitably escaped, and it is probable
that some refugees had fled from Hazor before he returned, and they would repopulate
the city. ‘Smote them until none remained’ and ‘utterly destroyed them’ refer to what
Israel did with those they caught, in obedience to Yahweh’s commandments.
As Joshua was not in a position to occupy it, which is why he burned it as a major
Canaanite threat, upper Hazor (but not lower Hazor) was rebuilt. Good sites were too
valuable not to be re-used. So at this time it had been re-established and was now under
another Jabin. This may have been a throne name or simply a family name re-used. No
doubt Hazor was still ‘the head of the kingdoms’ (Joshua 11:10), the centre of a
confederation of cities.
“The captain of whose host was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth of the Nations.” Jabin
maintained a standing army and again ruled, not only over Hazor, but probably as
overlord over a number of other cities in a confederacy. His general was named Sisera.
Sisera’s name is possibly Illyrian and it would seem he was a petty king of Harosheth of
the Nations, whose site is unknown. Its name may have arisen from its cosmopolitan
population or from the fact that it was populated with foreign mercenaries. Sisera
himself may have been a foreign mercenary.
“Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin.” Jabin had grown powerful and was
seeking to extend his empire. In this way northern parts of the tribal confederacy west of
Jordan became subject to him, and became his ‘servants’. They were ‘sold’ into his hand
by Yahweh, handed over as slaves. This would involve heavy tribute and probably heavy
taskwork (‘he mightily oppressed’ - Judges 4:3).
3
Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and
had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty
years, they cried to the LORD for help.

26. 1. ine hundred to none is the picture of Israel's force facing that of Sisera. The
Israelites did not even have metal weapons, and so they were farmers with only
wood instruments facing an army of trained warriors on iron chariots. It looks like
a David and Goliath rerun, and without the help of God they were sunk for more
than twenty years.
2. Someone wrote, "The Philistines had a monopoly on the making of iron because
they had the secret of how to manufacture it, and they would not share it with the
Israelites. So the Israelites were under Sisera's power, and they had to go all the way
up to "the city of the Gentile ironworks" to get their plowshares sharpened. In
addition, they were forbidden to own any iron weapons. They were severely
oppressed by Sisera's chariots, his army, by the iron monopoly, and by Jabin's
fortified cities. We read in chapter 5 (in the song of Deborah and Barak), that the
joy of Israel was gone--that the highways were deserted, and they had to travel
through the crooked paths in the hills."
3. Marshall Grosboll has an excellent message on the cry of the people under this
oppression. He wrote, "For twenty years the children of Israel had been suffering
under Jabin, the king of Canaan, and Sisera his captain. Year after year Israel was
unwilling to recognize the cause for their suffering and calamity, which was their
disobedience to the Lord. Many never admitted the cause. It was just natural
occurrences, they thought. But with each home burned from another raid, each
child or wife stolen to become the slave of a heathen tyrant, and each rape and
murder, there came new conviction of their sins to those receptive to the Spirit of
God. Until finally, there was at least a high percentage who repented and in
humility cried out to God for help, something they could have done twenty years
earlier. For all the things they did wrong, here was one thing they did right. They
cried out to the Lord. Why did it take them twenty years to cry out to the Lord? It
seems so foolish to wait that long, but I think I can, at least partially, understand
why they waited. It's never easy to call out to God when you know the reason you
are in trouble is you totally disobeyed the Lord and got yourself in a mess. In those
situations, you usually wait until you've taken all you can before you finally muster
the humility to call out to God. The lesson is simple. When you know you've done
wrong, don't make excuses. Don't wait until the bondage hardens your heart beyond
recovery. Don't stubbornly dig in and refuse to repent just to show God and the rest
of the church that everything is just fine, thank you very much. Bend your knee,
soften your heart, swallow your pride, take your lumps, and finally, discover the power
of just crying out to God."
CLARKE, "Nine hundred chariots of iron - Chariots armed with iron scythes, as
is generally supposed; they could not have been made all of iron, but they might have
been shod with iron, or had iron scythes projecting from the axle on each side, by which
infantry might be easily cut down or thrown into confusion. The ancient Britons are said
to have had such chariots.

27. GILL, "And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord,.... Because of their hard
bondage, and begged deliverance from it, being brought to a sense of their sins, and
humbled for them:
for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; the same with the αρµατα το
δρεπανηφορα, chariots which carried scythes at the side of them, fastened to the orbs of
the wheels (x), and were on both sides; and in some stood out ten cubits (y) which
running furiously among the infantry, cut them to pieces in a terrible manner; of which
Cyrus had in his army at first but an hundred, afterwards increased to three hundred (z);
and yet here a petty prince of Canaan had nine hundred of them; and which Josephus (a)
has increased, beyond all belief, to the number of three thousand; which struck great
terror into the Israelites, and who therefore durst not attempt to shake off his yoke, but
cried to the Lord for help:
and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel; as they
increased their sins, and repeated their revolts, the Lord increased their oppressions,
and continued them the longer; the first was only eight years, the next eighteen, and this
twenty, and which was a very heavy one; the other being foreign princes that oppressed
them, but this a Canaanitish king, an implacable enemy, and who doubtless used them
the more severely for what they had done to his ancestors, killed his father or
grandfather, burnt the city of Hazor, and destroyed the inhabitants of it in Joshua's
time; and the servitude was the harder, and the more intolerable to the Israelites, that
they were under a people whose land had been given them to possess, and whom they
had expelled, and now were become subject to them.
PETT, "Verse 3
‘And the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron,
and he mightily oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years.’
They once again recognised that Yahweh alone could help them in a situation like this
and began to turn from their idols and to seek Him once again, paying more attention to
the tribal covenant, becoming more faithful to the central sanctuary, and reinstating the
law of God. The old ways had never been completely forgotten, but had fallen into partial
disuse. Now they were restored.
“For he had nine hundred chariots of iron.” Gathering together the strength of his
confederate cities he possessed nine military units (‘hundreds’) of chariots. No wonder
they cried to Yahweh. Who else could deal with a menace like this? The nine may
represent a threefold three, thus signifying totally complete in itself.
“And he mightily oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years.” This was longer than
both Cushan-rishathaim and the Moabites, although the latter in a totally different area
and possibly concurrent. ‘Mightily oppressed’ suggests that this was worse than they had
previously experienced anywhere among the tribes, partly possibly in consequence of
revenge because of the ruin that they had previously brought on Hazor, and their
behaviour then. They had not been too kind either. The tribes in mind here would
include Naphtali, Issachar, and Zebulun and possibly parts of Manasseh. They were thus
impoverished and ill-used.
Eight (Judges 3:8), eighteen (Judges 3:14), twenty (Judges 4:3) years of oppression
might not seem to us a progression mathematically, but it would be different to his

28. readers. For eight progressed to eight plus ten and then to doubled ten. They were
increasing in intensity.
4
Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was
leading Israel at that time.
1. If you don't think God has a sense of humor, then you have never read this
chapter, for it was the worst enemy ever in power over them, and with the strongest
weapons of iron chariots. It was about as hopeless a situation conceivable, and God
does not send a he-man hero to deliver them, but he sends a woman. ow that's
funny. obody would vote for a woman to come to their rescue in such an
impossible military situation. It would be laughable, but as a matter of fact, the
laugh was on those who would dismiss a woman as God's instrument of deliverance.
Someone wrote, "Deborah’s story is largely about success against all odds. Though
everything about the times and the culture was against Deborah serving as the
leader of the nation, she did. Though her army was vastly outnumbered, they won.
Though her enemy tried to hide among sympathizers, one he believed to be on his
side killed him anyway. Deborah didn’t allow the circumstances around her to
overwhelm her or interfere with her belief in God’s promises to her."
1B. Her husband Lappidoth was likely a godly man, but nothing is known about
him. He is an obscure husband married to a famous and gifted woman. She is
superior to him because God chose to give her gifts that He did not give to Him. The
result was the people of Israel did not come to him, but to her for leadership. We
have no reason to doubt they had a wonderful marriage in spite of this role reversal.
It is exceptional, but the point is, the exceptional is real, and the Bible deals with it.
In the ew Testament we have another illustration in husband and wife team of
Pricilla and Aquilla. She was superior to him, and became the leader of that team.
1C. A patriot is one who loves his or her country, and zealously supports its
interests. The people of Israel were sick and tired of the 20 years of slavery to
Jabin, and they crying out to God for help. The way God spells relief is
DEBORAH. She was God's answer to their prayers. A godly woman can be the
best weapon a nation can have. We know that Eve was God's answer to Adam's
prayer, and that females have been the answer to the prayers of men all through
history. Deborah is an example of the fact that God may also answer national
prayers by raising up a woman. Deborah is one of several women mentioned in the
Bible who were in positions of leadership, but she is the only woman in all of

29. Scripture who has a major, God-given leadership role over His people.
1D. An unknown author wrote, "Her name means "honey bee." Here was a bee
with a sting for her foes, and honey for her friends. (I think God's humor is just too
much. There are 900 iron chariots running around, but God has "honey bee" sitting
under a palm tree in Ephraim!) Deborah had four different functions. First, she is
called a judge. ow a judge is one who would call the people back to the truth and
deal out wisdom and justice. She held court at a place called Bethel, "the house of
God." Secondly, she is called "a mother in Israel (chapter 5), one who's nourishing
her children, encouraging them, building them up, bringing them into maturity.
Thirdly, she is a wife, so she understands the relationship between man and woman.
Fourthly, she is a prophetess, "one who stands before the Word of God and makes it
shine"--not telling people what she thinks, but telling people what God thinks. That
is where she got her authority, and that is why people came to her. They wanted to
know who God was."
1E. "She was leading Israel, but men were the ones she led. There were not women
who were called to go to battle, and she did not wield the sword herself. She was
gifted in knowing the will of God and of leading others to obey it. She is an unusual
women in history of Israel. She is a minority with great impact, as many minorities
are." ot all are happy, however, about this part of the Bible that gives a woman
such a major role in leadership over men. It goes against the grain of the male ego.
Believe it or not, Zahava Lambert wrote, "To some of the rabbis such strong
character in a woman was very threatening. Rabbi ahman, in his dislike of "strong
women" twists the true translation of her name from "bee "to "wasp" (Genesis
Rabbah 18:1). This resistance to women in an active role by male commentators is
one factor that makes it difficult to uncover the true memory and significance of the
first biblical Deborah."
2. The prophetess was a part of Israel's history from the start as they came out of
Egypt. We have a number of texts that refer to them.
Exodus 15:20 Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her
hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing.
2 Kings 22:14 Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to
speak to the prophetess Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son
of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District.
2 Chronicles 34:22 Hilkiah and those the king had sent with him [ One Hebrew
manuscript, Vulgate and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts do not have had sent
with him . ] went to speak to the prophetess Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum
son of Tokhath, [ Also called Tikvah ] the son of Hasrah, [ Also called Harhas ]
keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District.
ehemiah 6:14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, because of what they
have done; remember also the prophetess oadiah and the rest of the prophets who

30. have been trying to intimidate me.
Isaiah 8:3 Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son.
And the LORD said to me, " ame him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.
Luke 2:36 There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe
of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her
marriage.
Acts 21:8-9 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of
Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9He had four unmarried daughters who
prophesied
3. I want to share some notes from a sermons I preached on this most unusual
woman. I wrote, " I have enjoyed war stories and war heroes since I was a small
boy watching the news on the movies screen in the local theater. I never realized,
however, that not all of the heroes were men. I heard of Joan of Arc when I got into
the upper grades of school, but I never had the concept of the heroin in my mind
until recently as a retired pastor. The history of the women warriors on the
battlefield has not been available until recent years when female historians have
brought them to light. Even those in the Bible have not been known because they
are overshadowed by the great male warriors of the Bible. It has been my delight to
discover that women have played a major role in defending the freedom and value
system of America and of the people of God through history. One of the most
outstanding is Deborah.
Here we have a woman who rose to the top in a day when all the world around here
was filled with masculine brutality. Her story takes place between the years 1209
and 1169 B.C. Life was one war after another, and every man did that which was
right in his own eyes. Moral standard were so low that even the godly people did
things that would be a disgrace in our day. Almost nothing was unacceptable. The
masses of people were following pagan practices and were not different from the
pagan people around them. But in the midst of this awful period of history we
suddenly come to chapter 4 of Judges, and to our surprise a woman is in charge. o
woman had been a judge of Israel before and none came after her. She was a one of
a kind female, and she was able by her God-given gifts to rise to the point of being
the leader of God's people. Israel had been oppressed by the cruel Canaanites for
twenty years. They were devastated and were crying out to God for help. This is
when we begin to get the story of this delightful leader named Deborah. In Judges
4:4-10 we get some basic facts about her.
She was a prophetess.
She was a wife.
She was a leader of Israel.
She was a literal judge who decided disputes.