Judges 5 English Standard Version The Song of Deborah and Barak 5 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day: 2 “That the leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly, bless the LORD! 3 “Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; to the LORD I will sing; I will make melody to the LORD, the God of Israel. 4 “LORD, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, yes, the clouds dropped water. 5 The mountains quaked before the LORD, even Sinai before the LORD, the God of Israel. 6 “In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned, and travelers kept to the byways. 7 The villagers ceased in Israel; they ceased to be until I arose; I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel. 8 When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates. Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel? 9 My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the LORD. 10 “Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets and you who walk by the way. 11 To the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the LORD, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel. “Then down to the gates marched the people of the LORD. 12 “Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, break out in a song! Arise, Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abinoam. 13 Then down marched the remnant of the noble; the people of the LORD marched down for me against the mighty. 14 From Ephraim their root they marched down into the valley, following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen; from Machir marched down the commanders, and from Zebulun those who bear the lieutenant's staff; 15 the princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar faithful to Barak; into the valley they rushed at his heels. Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. 16 Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling for the flocks? Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. 17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan, why did he stay with the ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings. 18 Zebulun is a people who risked their lives to the death; Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field. 19 “The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan, at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they got no spoils of silver. 20 From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. 21 The torrent Kishon swept them away, the ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. March on, my soul, with might! 22 “Then loud beat the horses' hoofs with the galloping, galloping of his steeds. 23 “Curse Meroz, says the angel of the LORD, curse its inhabitants thoroughly, because they did not come to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty. 24 “Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. 25 He asked for water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl. 26 She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple. 27 Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead. 28 “Out of the window she peered, the mother of Sisera wailed through the lattice: ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?’ 29 Her wisest princesses answer, indeed, she answers herself, 30 ‘Have they not found and divided the spoil?-- A womb or two for every man; spoil of dyed materials for Sisera, spoil of dyed materials embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil?’ 31 “So may all your enemies perish, O LORD! But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.” And the land had rest for forty years. We see many places in Scripture where those the people of the LORD burst out into song (and usually prophecy) through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit when the LORD has provided some great deliverance (The Song of Miriam and The Song of Moses are two great examples). We, the redeemed of the LORD, will sing a new song to Him which is given in the book of Revelation and here Deborah and Barak sing unto the LORD, for He alone has provided their salvation.
They sang first of the changed hearts of the people so that the leaders of the people stepped up and began to lead (remember this was the point I made yesterday that the sin in the culture had led to a lack of leadership). The LORD is then extolled for winning the battle that Shamgar fought. Shamgar's deeds are not recorded for us, but Deborah's song gives us some indication that the LORD fought for his people by making the heavens open with heaven rain so that the chariots of the enemy were useless and with an earthquake like the one felt at Mount Sinai that split the rocks in two so that the horses and the enemy would fear the mighty power of the LORD who could shake the heavens and the earth. Deborah sang of how things started to go bad again when the Israelites once again chose other gods other than the LORD. It was no longer safe to travel the highways, and the people of the small villages were being driven away or killed off, for they did not have the numbers to defend themselves. This is the time when Deborah rose up when not even one of the men out of the forty thousand that were counted among the people of that tribe were willing to rise up and fight. Now the commanders of the people willingly submitted themselves to the LORD. Deborah calls the future generations that will enjoy peace and prosperity to remember this day and give thanks to the LORD. The only proper response is singing, and music and praise. So the people joined them in and cried out for Deborah to sing even more verses of this song and for Barak to lead to procession. There is then an accounting given of all the tribes that joined in the battle and all those who did not--for some stayed in their land and did not fight for their brothers, and the LORD made sure they were called out for this. Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, Naphtali and Issachar joined the battle, but Reuben, East Manasseh (referred to here as Gilead), Dan, and Asher all refused to heed the call of the trumpet that sounded for them to join the battle. Then the names of the enemy Canaanites kings and the commander of their armies, Sisera, are given. The various battles are listed against each of the Canaanite kings. Then something strange happens. The angel of the LORD (that is the preincarnate name of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity), stops and curses the people of Meroz (Mount Tabor) where Balak went and blew the trumpet to gather the people to war and the people closest to that call ignored it. There were others mentioned in this list that were far away that perhaps did not fight because they felt the battle was far away and did not affect them, but the battle lines were right here in their own back yard and they did not respond to the call. This is the only time these people are mentioned in Scripture and we find no other historical references to them other than this curse (similar to the people of a certain city that Jesus would curse in the New Testament) so that the curse not only completely destroyed all the people, but nearly all record that these people even existed. The song then goes to the next verse which praises Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite for her role in slaying Sisera. It tells of how Sisera asked for water and she gave him milk and curds and when he laid down to rest, she killed him with a tent peg and he fell and died between her feet. Then the song switches scenes to the perspective of Sisera's mother who must have been watching and waiting for her son to ride home victoriously from battle, yet his chariot never returned. She waits and asks when he is going to return, but in her heart she knows the answer that he has fallen in battle and that even his clothing is now the spoils of war for those who defeated him. He will not be returning to his mother. The end of the songs asks the LORD to make all his other enemies perish like this, but for all of friends to be like the sun that rises and is strong. If the LORD were to destroy all of His enemies at this point, then much of the world would be destroyed (even the rebellious within the people of Israel) for few of the Gentile peoples feared the LORD and worshiped Him--just a single person here and there to show us that the LORD had a plan to bring about salvation for all the nations, not only the Jews. However, being Jewish was not enough to save anyone either. So it is to this day that only those that have come by the one true Way belong to the LORD and are called His friends. To them and them alone do the blessings of the kingdom of our God belong. The chapter ends by letting us know that once again the Land was at peace for forty years (an entire generation at this time). Then there would be a new generation that would come behind them who would not know of the LORD or the works that the LORD had done, and this generation would be even more wicked than those that we've studied so far. We are now to the point in the story where the later judges will be called who have very obvious flaws--the first in chapter 6 that we'll start to study next time will be Gideon. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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