Outline of Chapter 4:

         vv.     1–3           Israel is oppressed by Jabin, a king of the Canaanites

         vv.     4–10         Deborah calls for Barak; they go out to war against the Canaanites

         vv.    11–12         Heber the Kenite

         vv.    13–16         The battle between Barak and Sisera

         vv.    17–22         Jael, the wife of Heber, kills Sisera

         vv.    23–24         Israel is victorious over Jabin

Charts, Maps and Short Doctrines:

         Introduction         Matthew Henry Outlines Judges 4

         Introduction         The Three Kedesh’s

         Introduction         Maps of the Correct and Incorrect Locations of the Various Kedesh’s

         Introduction         How Did Israel so Easily Fall into Idolatry?

         Introduction         Authorship Summary of Judges 4 and 5

         v.       1              The Five Cycles of Discipline

         v.       4              The Doctrine of a Prophetess

         v.       8              Judges 4:8c Text from the Greek Septuagint (not found in MT)

         v.       8              What is Wrong with Barak Asking Deborah to Accompany him in Battle?

         v.      11              The Kishon River and Mount Tabor (A Map)

         v.      11              Why Does the Bible Tell Us that Heber the Kenite Lives Here?

         v.      12              Mount Tabor

         v.      14              Deborah says, “This is the Day!”

         v.      15              Commentators on the Battle between Barak and Sisera

         v.      17              Commentators on the Kenites

         v.      19              Thirst in Scripture

         v.      21              Commentators Weigh in on Jael’s Act

         v.      21              Summary Points on Jael and Personal Application

         v.      21              Clarke’s False Premises and False Conclusion

         v.      21              Principles which we Use to Interpret this Passage and Jael’s Actions

         v.      24              A Comparison between Barak’s Battle and Israel’s War

         v.      24              A Complete Translation of Judges 4

I ntroduction: Judges 4 takes place after the death of Ehud and introduces, Deborah, one of the very few female leaders to be found in the Bible. In fact, not only is she a judge, but she is also a prophetess, which is, in general, a true rarity in Scripture. Barak was to be the man of the hour, but he had to be led and guided by Deborah. The two villains in this chapter are Jabin, a king of the Canaanites, and Sisera, who was the commander-in-chief of Jabin’s army. Israel, at least northern Israel, is in subjection to Jabin and Sisera, and Deborah and Barak will lead Israel in war against the Canaanites. This is the general subject matter of the next two chapters of the book of Judges. Judges 4 is an historical account; and Judges 5 is a poetic account.

This chapter begins again the pattern established in the previous chapter: Israel does evil in the sight of God, and God allows a non-Jewish ruler (Jabin, king of the Canaanites) to oppress them for 20 years (vv. 1–3). Deborah, one of the few legitimate prophetesses in the Bible, calls upon Barak to lead Israel out of slavery (vv. 4–7). Barak agrees to this, only if Deborah will go up with him to war (v. 8). Deborah agrees, but warns Barak that he will receive limited glory for his actions (v. 9). Barak gathers men from Zebulun and Naphtali and they will gather and defeat Jabin and his general Sisera (vv. 10, 12–16). Sisera will escape the battle on foot and go to neutral territory (vv. 11, 17). He will be met by a woman, Jael, who encourages him to come into her tent to rest and hide out (vv. 18–19). Sisera instructs her to stand guard while he apparently falls asleep; and once he is asleep, she kills Sisera (vv. 20–21). By this time, Barak arrives, and Jael leads him to Sisera dying (v. 22). This chapter is summarized in vv. 23–24.

We can guess at the time period that this battle takes place. Megiddo was completely destroyed in the middle of the 12^th century and uninhabited until about 1100 b.c. The subsequent inhabitants appear to be Israelites. Megiddo is never mentioned as a city in this chapter or the next, although the waters of Megiddo will be mentioned in Judges 5:19. This suggests that there is no city of Megiddo (otherwise, the battle would have taken place at Taanach near Megiddo, rather than at Taanach near the waters of Megiddo). Archeological evidence indicates that Taanach and Megiddo were but five miles apart, but not simultaneously occupied, as does the Biblical record. ZPEB tells us: The convergence of historical, archeological, and literary evidence has made a date c. 1125 b.c. virtually certain. This places the dates given in The Narrated Bible, which I lean upon for a rough outline of time, about a century off (they give a date of 1224 b.c.).

The geography of this is problematic for some—but only for those who have an incomplete understanding of the geography. We have the city of Kedesh-Naphtali mentioned in v. 6, which is where Barak is from. Then, throughout this narrative, we have mention of the city of Kedesh. Now, Kedesh-Naphtali is in north central Naphtali, 20 miles north of the Sea of Chinnereth (later known as the Sea of Galilee) in the foothills of Mount Naphtali. However, we continually hear about this Kedesh which appears to be near the River Kishon, which is southwest of the Sea of Chinnereth. No way are these Kedesh’s the same. You may want to refer to the Doctrine of the Three Kedesh’s in Joshua 12:22. However, to give you a brief run-down: Barak was born in Kedesh-Naphtali, which is pretty far away from the action which takes place. There is the River Kishon, which runs between Issachar and Manasseh, near Mount Tabor, where most of the action of this and the next chapter takes place. All of this is about forty miles south of Kedesh-Naphtali. Now along the River Kishon is a city known both as Kishion and as Kedesh (compare Joshua 19:20 21:28 1Chron. 6:72). This is the Kedesh referred to throughout most of this passage, which is quite different from the Kedesh where Barak was from. We will, near the end of this chapter, have Sisera make a running escape to the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh. Sisera’s run is less than ten miles. He does not make some 40 mile run north. As long as you understand the location of these two different Kedesh’s, then the geography of this passage makes perfect sense.

Maps of the Correct and Incorrect Locations of the Various Kedesh’s
Correct Locations	Incorrect Locations
From http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:1759_ map_Holy_Land_and_12_Tribes.jpg and edited. I added the three Kedesh’s.	From The MacMillan Bible Atlas; 3rd Edition; Aharoni, Avi-Yonah, Rainey, and Safrai; MacMillan; ©1993 by Carta; p. 67. Only a portion of the map is shown.

It is in these differences that we can develop a better grasp of the correct understanding of the oral tradition. The mistaken understanding is that the oral tradition of the Jews preserved Scripture orally for centuries until someone decided to write it down. Part of this theory was based upon Scripture (where the Jews were told to tell their children about the great acts of God) and part of this theory was based upon faulty historical presumptions—specifically, that early man did not have the ability/means/desire to record things in writing. When it comes to truth, it is not unusual for a false idea, based upon a faulty premise, to remain, even after the faulty premise has been shown to be clearly false. This simple reason for this is that “...men love darkness rather than light.” (John 3:19b). Now even though we have archeological proof that very ancient men were able to record whatever they wanted to in writing, still remains the idea that early books of Scripture (like the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges and Job) were kept alive orally and finally written down much later in history than when they occurred. As we have studied these writings, this contradicts what we find recorded in the writings themselves; it defies explanation to think that men, who had the ability to write things down, chose, instead, to repeat them orally for century after century and then suddenly decide, Hey, why not write all this stuff down? And then his buddy cried, Brilliant idea! It sounds stupid, I realize, but some scholars hold to this idea. So, even though the faulty premise is shown to be faulty; and even though the idea is preposterous, still men hold to the idea that Scripture was written long after the fact (and, in radically different writing styles, to boot; the writing style and vocabulary of Moses and Joshua are not at all similar; the writing style and vocabulary of Judges appears to change with almost every chapter). Oh, and I forgot: this goofy concept of the oral tradition is considered to be the more scholarly view (along with the idea that several people and groups of people wrote the books of Moses after the fact). This is taught in many seminaries and carefully refuted by Josh McDowell in More Evidence that Demands a Verdict Part Two.

On the other hand, there was some truth to the oral tradition of the Jews. Even though it has been distorted into something other than what it was, there was a real oral tradition, and it is taught in Scripture. Because the average person did not have access to Scripture, what men observed in the deliverance of Israel at the Sea of Reeds, they were told to tell this to their sons and to their daughters (Deut. 4:5–14 6:20–25). Often, when God performed some great, seemingly supernatural act, a memorial would be set up, so that fathers would tell their sons the meaning of that memorial, so that the sons would tell their own sons (Joshua 4:1–7). Parts of the Law were to be carried on the person of a Jew, or written on the door frames, so that they would recall and then teach what is true (Deut. 6:6–9 11:18–20). Then, as now, there is nothing more important than knowing the Word of God and then teaching His Word. Recall what Moses said near the end of his life: “Take to your heart all the words with which I have warned you today, which you will command your sons to observe carefully—even all the words of this law. For it is not an idle word for you; indeed, it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land into which you are about to possess after crossing the Jordan.” (Deut. 32:44–47). In other words, the ancient Israelites taught their children about the character of God for the exact same reason that we study God’s Word today and teach it to our own children. Similarly, many fathers failed then to teach it to their children, as occurs today as well.

One of the false assumptions is that, this historical event was kept alive by the song which follows, and that someone, much later in history, wrote out Judges 4. Keil and Delitzsch deal with this assertion: This fresh oppression of the Israelites, and the glorious victory which they obtained over Sisera, Jabin's general, through the judge Deborah and the heroic warrior Barak, are so fully described in Deborah's triumphal song in Judg 5, that this song may be regarded as a poetical commentary upon that event. It by no means follows from this fact, however, that the historical account in Judg 4 was first of all founded upon the ode, and was merely intended to furnish an explanation of the song itself. Any such assumption is overthrown by the fact that the prose account in Judg 4, contains, as even Bertheau acknowledges, some historical details which we look for in vain in the song, and which are of great assistance in the interpretation of it.

In our lives, we have a lot fewer reasons for failure. We all have the Holy Spirit and possibly 95% of us (in the United States) have Bibles. We don’t have a lot of reason for failure. Furthermore, if we desire to know God’s Word, God will see to us that we are taught. Satan is certainly hard at work in the United States, however, we have overcome the evil one (Rom. 8:15 Col. 1:13a 1John 2:13)—if not in practice, then in position (Matt. 4:1–11 Rom. 8:16 Gal. 3:26 Col. 1:13–14) and by choice (1John 1:9 2:5).

With Deborah and Barak, we will see that there are two very different ways of looking at Barak. The common way people see Barak is as someone who has been told by God what to do, and then Deborah has to call him into her office and repeat what God has for him to do. That is the view which I held to for many years. However, the more that I examine this book, the more I have allowed for the possibility that the first time that Barak received direction from God was in this book at the mouth of Deborah. In any case, Barak did not show good judgment in asking Deborah to accompany him, and, for that reason, was told that his glory would be usurped by a woman (not by Deborah, but by Jael). Barak needs a woman to accompany him into battle; therefore, there is no reason that Barak should be remembered as the man who killed Sisera. This is God’s sense of irony.

This chapter, written in prose, will be paralleled by Judges 5, which is written in poetry. This is possibly a his and hers approach to this material. In this chapter, it is difficult determining who the writer was. We have a very detailed description of Jael and Sisera, the latter of whom dies at the end of this narrative, making him an unlikely candidate to record the narrative. The account is so vivid, however, that it had to be given at least via direct interview with Jael, if not recorded by Jael herself.

We have summary verses at the beginning, very similar to a summary written throughout, indicating that whoever added to the book was aware of a format that needed to be followed; or, more likely, that all of this material was pulled together later by an editor who would put in the filler, but wrote the information which was recorded directly from the records that he had at his disposal. What I am saying is that he did very little, if any, editing, as the style of writing from chapter to chapter is so different. My guess would be that Deborah wrote this and the next chapter (or Barak wrote Judges 4), but neither of them wrote the first few verses. However, even that is a difficult call, because there does not appear to be a separation between the introduction and the historical occurrences. That is, there is no clear break in the writing style or the topic where you could say, for instance, Samuel wrote the first three verses and then copied down the history which Barak or Deborah wrote after the introduction. Our third option is that the editor is very good and wrote in such a way as to preserve a seamless effect between what he inserted and what Deborah actually wrote. Believe it or not, that can be a tougher sell, as we will have an example in the middle of Judges 20 where an additional account of the events is given, and there is no smooth transition from one account to the other. However, if Samuel pieced this together (which is the popular view), Judges 20 could have already existed as a literary unit which he was loath to change (we find verses which were added in the surrounding chapters, but not in chapter 20).

Let me explain what I mean by seamless. We begin by v. 1, which reads: But the sons of Israel continued to do evil in the eyes of Y^ehowah and Ehud died. This appears to be tied directly to the previous chapter. That is, the person who wrote it, was well-aware of the previous chapter. The next verse where the situation of the Israelites is described, where they are under the control of Jabin and Sisera, appears to be the next natural thing to say, expounding upon the general statement of v. 1. Then we have the cry of the sons of Israel to God in v. 3, a result of the oppression of v. 2. This is a formula which we have seen Judges 3:7–8 and 3:15, and which is repeated throughout most of the book of the Judges. Such a formula would suggest a final editor who would insert these transitional verses. However, the formula is not precise—that is, it does not appear as though the author of the book of Judges actually had a set thing that he said in between the various Judges. What this suggests to me is that this book was written like the book of Genesis. Someone would write a chapter or three, put it down, and then someone from several decades later would write in another few chapters, maintaining the general outline of the book by a catch-phrase (in the book of Genesis, it was, and these were the generations of...). Here, the catch-phrase is, And Israel did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and Jehovah delivered them into the hands of Bob, the electriclite, and they served Bob for twenty years. Then the children of Israel cried to Jehovah and he heard their cry. So, Jehovah raised up Rex, the judge. The more that I think about this, the more it appears as though this was written by several hands over the course of several hundred years and not necessarily by an editor who pulled the information together from various sources. What this does have, though, are implications that the book of Judges is a linearly-written book. That is, even though the episodes individually are not necessarily chronological (Judges 4 and 5 are concurrent), the overall book itself is chronological, which may cause us some dating problems. However, the styles are so different from chapter to chapter, it only seems reasonable that this is the product of several authors.

The portion of the chapter where Barak and Deborah speak to one another was likely written by either one of them. The battle seems to have been written from a high vantage point rather than from being in the midst of the action. Barak’s point of view in pursuing Sisera is almost non-existent. For this reason, the bulk of this chapter was probably written by Deborah, gathered in part from a report from Barak and Jael.

Israel Is Oppressed by Jabin, a King of the Canaanites