Judges series - Judges 5

The way to read this article is that the orange underlined texts are the verses of the Bible (NIV, unless otherwise stated). The black texts following the Bible verses (and enclosed by square brackets) are my commentaries. At the end of these Bible texts and commentaries, I have inserted a section on "Points to take note".
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Judges 5

[The Song of Deborah – The entire chapter 5 is a long song, called ode by some. An ode is a poem typically of elaborate or irregular metrical form, and expressive of exalted/enthusiastic emotion, and it is intended to be sung. I would not “sweat” over it too much, although I have spent quite a bit of time to put in the commentaries. I think it suffice that we understand that we should be quick to give thanksgiving unto God for exploits God done on our behalf, and keep an account of the occasions. Probably, nobody would write odes except a select few, but testimonies are good replacements.]

1 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:
2 "When the princes in Israel take the lead,
when the people willingly offer themselves—
praise the LORD! [In this thanksgiving song, believed to be composed by Deborah, it started with offering praise to God for readying the hearts of the Tribal {tribes of Israel} princes and the people of God to offer themselves.]
3 "Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!
I will sing to the LORD, I will sing;
I will make music to the LORD, the God of Israel.
4 "O LORD, when you went out from Seir,
when you marched from the land of Edom,
the earth shook, the heavens poured,
the clouds poured down water.
5 The mountains quaked before the LORD, the One of Sinai,
before the LORD, the God of Israel. [Deborah began to magnify the Lord. “All kings, all rulers (of the Canaanite land), I will sing to the Lord, I will make music to Him, the God of Israel. To the God who when He went from Seir, marched from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens poured, the clouds poured, the mountains quaked. These things must have been witnessed in the past, and through these narrations, Deborah was exalting the name of God]
6 "In the days of Shamgar {the judge before Deborah} son of Anath,
in the days of Jael {wife of Heber}, the roads were abandoned;
travelers took to winding paths.
7 Village life in Israel ceased,
ceased until I, Deborah, arose,
arose a mother in Israel.
8 When they chose new gods,
war came to the city gates,
and not a shield or spear was seen
among forty thousand in Israel. [Around those times, under oppression of Canaanites, roads or highways were not used by the Israelites, fearing harassment from enemies, travelers had no choices but to take the by-ways; village life ceased, until Deborah arose like a mother (defending and tending to the welfare of the children) in Israel. People turned to deities, but it did not help, enemies still warred against the Israelites, and the latter was afraid or NOT willing to fight.]
9 My heart is with Israel's princes,
with the willing volunteers among the people.
Praise the LORD!
10 "You who ride on white donkeys,
sitting on your saddle blankets,
and you who walk along the road,
consider 11 the voice of the singers at the watering places.
They recite the righteous acts of the LORD,
the righteous acts of his warriors in Israel.
"Then the people of the LORD
went down to the city gates.
12 'Wake up, wake up, Deborah!
Wake up, wake up, break out in song!
Arise, O Barak!
Take captive your captives, O son of Abinoam.' [Deborah said her heart was with the tribal princes and all those who volunteered to go to war. Deborah paid tribute to those who volunteered. She cited that these rode on white donkeys and walked along the road, passed by the watering places, encouraged and cheered on by the crowd, and eventually got sent off, out of the city gates.]
13 "Then the men who were left
came down to the nobles;
the people of the LORD
came to me with the mighty.
14 Some came from Ephraim, whose roots were in Amalek;
Benjamin was with the people who followed you.
From Makir captains came down,
from Zebulun those who bear a commander's staff.
15 The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
yes, Issachar was with Barak,
rushing after him into the valley.
In the districts of Reuben
there was much searching of heart.
16 Why did you stay among the campfires
to hear the whistling for the flocks?
In the districts of Reuben
there was much searching of heart.
17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan.
And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?
Asher remained on the coast
and stayed in his coves.
18 The people of Zebulun risked their very lives;
so did Naphtali on the heights of the field. [It seemed that Deborah was here recording the account that all of Israel was made aware of this battle but not all the tribes were willing to go to war on the account of Deborah’s words. Ephraim tribe was mentioned here, so were Manasseh (Makir – the son of Manasseh) Benjamin, Zebulun, Issachar, Reuben, Gilead (Gilead of itself is not a tribe of Israel, but Gad, Reuben and particularly Manasseh inherited Gilead, as a place{Num 32}), Dan, Asher and Naphtali. It seemed that only the Naphtali and the Zebulun tribes were the ones who went to war, risking their very lives. Maybe of significance was also that Deborah was also pointing to the insufficiency of much searching of the heart without leading to positive actions for the Lord – noticed she repeated the searching of hearts by the Reubenites but made no mention of them going out to war.

{{Inserted: 16 June 2010}} The alternative rendering for Gilead in verse 17 is this: Gilead was the son of Makir who was the son of Manasseh (Num 26:29). In verse 14, Makir or Makirite clan joined in, but not the younger Gilead or Gileadite clan (verse 17). Each Israelite Tribe could have several clans. In the case of the Manasseh Tribe, Makirite and Gileadite clans were just 2 of the clans.]
19 "Kings came, they fought;
the kings of Canaan fought
at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo,
but they carried off no silver, no plunder. [It looked like some other Canaanite kings also came to fight, but they were without victory]
20 From the heavens the stars fought,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.
21 The river Kishon swept them away,
the age-old river, the river Kishon.
March on, my soul; be strong!
22 Then thundered the horses' hoofs—
galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds. [A poetic account of the battle at river Kishon]
23 'Curse Meroz,' said the angel of the LORD.
'Curse its people bitterly,
because they did not come to help the LORD,
to help the LORD against the mighty.' [According to Bible Scholars, Meroz was a village. Deborah mentioned it that the angel of the Lord cursed its people because they refused to come to help the Lord in the battle.]
24 "Most blessed of women be Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
25 He asked for water, and she gave him milk;
in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.
26 Her hand reached for the tent peg,
her right hand for the workman's hammer.
She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,
she shattered and pierced his temple.
27 At her feet he sank,
he fell; there he lay.
At her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell-dead. [In her ode, Deborah gave an account of how Sisera was killed, by Jael, wife of Heber, the Kenite, a tent-dwelling woman who gave the commander milk when he asked for water, only to kill the commander later in his sleep by driving a tent peg into his forehead.]
28 "Through the window peered Sisera's mother;
behind the lattice she cried out,
'Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?'
29 The wisest of her ladies answer her;
indeed, she keeps saying to herself,
30 'Are they not finding and dividing the spoils:
a girl or two for each man,
colorful garments as plunder for Sisera,
colorful garments embroidered,
highly embroidered garments for my neck—
all this as plunder?' [The commander (Sisera)’s mother, Deborah was picturing, would be waiting in vain for his son to come back. Deborah was putting herself in the shoes of a mother {figuratively, the mother here could also be referring to the one who oversaw Jabin’s people, much like herself (v7), was a mother to the Israelites}, longing to see the victorious return of her son with great spoils of war, but that would never to come anymore – Sisera was dead]
31 "So may all your enemies perish, O LORD!
But may they who love you be like the sun
when it rises in its strength."
Then the land had peace forty years. [Deborah concluded her song/ode with the wish that all the enemies perish, and the people who love the Lord will shine like the morning sun.]

Points to note:

1. “We should be quick to give thanksgiving unto God for exploits God done on our behalf, and keep an account of the occasions. Probably, nobody would write odes except a select few, but testimonies are good replacements.”

2. Although this song is not about intercession, it is interesting to note that at the opening, Deborah gave thanks to the Lord for the people coming forth to go to battle. One gives thanks to another when the latter contributed to whatever that the former is giving thanks for. So what was implied here is that the Lord does work to ready the hearts of people for a cause. Though not all the people responded to the call, but enough were ready by the Lord. As ministers of God, we must {because at the least, we cannot do everything ourselves}, and as even ordinary Christians, we can {even if you cannot take part} intercede for God to ready more people for any God-worthy {for lack of a better word} causes.

3. I repeat here another line from the above commentary that we may want to ponder about: Maybe of significance was also that Deborah was also pointing to the insufficiency of much searching of the heart without leading to positive actions for the Lord – noticed she repeated the searching of hearts by the Reubenites but made no mention of them going out to war.

4. It is very interesting to find recorded in this Song of Deborah a curse of God on the village of Meroz. Firstly, we Christians, just have to accept that there was sovereign corporate predestination of the Israelites as the chosen people of God. As such, men who were enemies of the Israelites as a people, were enemies of God. In other words, the implication was that if one was not for God’s people, one was not for God. Secondly, if you are not for God, then you are against God. In both the Luke and Matthew’s gospels, this is clearly spelt out - He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters (Mat 12:30 & Luk 11:23). We are unclear if originally Meroz village was an enemy of the Israelites. But since it was not mentioned we can assumed that it was not, but when the time came for side to be taken, apparently, sitting on the fence was not an acceptable choice as far as God was concerned (I believe it is still the case, today), Meroz was cursed for not coming over to God’s side, to take arms and fight God’s enemy. Are there any Meroz among your loved ones? Intercede that they come over to God’s side. Some Bible scholars believed that there was no more remembrance of Meroz because of this bitter curse of God.

5. Four long verses were devoted to Jael’s killing of the Commander of Jabin. This honor was supposed to be for Barak. We read that in Judges 4; but since Barak hesitated, perhaps not trusting fully the prophesy of Deborah, the honor went to Jael, a tent-dwelling woman. This story tells us that if we are not willing to act according to what God wants, God can choose another to do the task He has in mind, giving the honor away to another, in the process.




Anthony Chia – No odes, perhaps, Lord, but I will keep account, give you thanksgiving, and testify of your goodness, even as you bless me and deliver me.

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