Outline of Chapter 5:

         vv.     1–3           Introduction/Recipients of Psalm

         vv.     4–5           God’s Power in Israel’s March is Made Manifest at the Battle of Barak and Sisera

         vv.     6–12         Deborah establishes time and place

         vv.    13–18         The tribes which participated in battle and the tribes which did not

The Tribes that Participated

The Tribes that did not Participate

The True Heroes of this Time

         vv.    19–23         The battle between Israel and the Canaanites

         vv.    24–27         Jael kills Sisera

         vv.    28–30         Sisera’s mother anxiously awaits her son

         v.      31a–b         Coda

         v.       31c           The Result of Deborah and Barak’s Victory

Charts, Maps and Short Doctrines:

         Introduction         Psalms and Songs Scattered Throughout Scripture

         Introduction         Keil and Delitzsch’s Outline of Judges 5

         Introduction         Matthew Henry’s Outline of Judges 5

         v.       3              God Speaks to Foreign Unbelievers during the Age of Israel

         v.       4              Divine Guidance

         v.       4              A Summary Interpretation of Judges 5:4

         v.       5              The Parallel Passages

         v.       6              Matthew Henry’s List of What Israel’s Oppression Consisted Of

         v.       7              The Poetic Nature of Judges 5:7

         v.       8              Theories as to Why was Israel Unarmed

         v.      10              A Summary of the Doctrine of Sîyach

         v.      11              How is Châtsats Generally Translated?

         v.      12              What it Means When a Person is Told to Wake up or to Rise up

         v.      12              If Sisera’s Army is Destroyed, Who is Led Away Captive?

         v.      12              The Trip from Judges 5:12 to Ephesians 4:8

         v.      12              Who Sings What in Deborah’s Song?

         v.      12              Dr. Kennicott’s Division of Vocals

         v.      13              The Players Named in Judges 5:13

         v.      14              A List of Problems with the First Phrase of Judges 5:14

         V.      14              Various Commentators Explain Judges 5:14a

         v.      14              Douglas MacArthur on Citizen-Soldiers

         v.      14              A Map of Northern Israel

         v.      15              Hebrew Poetry (as Opposed to Prose)

         v.      17              A Summary of the Tribes who Failed

         v.      17              Other Commentators Discuss the Tribes who Did not Help

         v..     19              Israel’s War Against the Canaanites was not Completed in one Battle

         v.      19              A Summary of the Doctrine of Megiddo

         v.      20              The Stars Fight from Heaven—Various Interpretations

         v.      23              Where is Meroz? Various Theories

         v.      24              Why we Know God Blesses Jael

         v.      24              Geisler and Howe’s View of Jael

         v.      25              What Jael Served Sisera

         v.      25              The Circumstances behind Sisera Deserving to be Killed

         v.      27              The Chronology of Sisera’s Death

         v.      31a            God and His Enemies as found in the Psalms

         v.      31b            The Sun as found in Scripture

         v.      31b            Heathen Worship of the Sun as found in Scripture

         v.      31c             Summation of Judges 5 by New Analytical Chronicles

         v.      31c             A Complete Translation of Judges 5

I ntroduction: Judges 5 is a repeat of Judges 4, except from Deborah’s poetic point of view. You will recall that in the last chapter, my educated guess is that Deborah wrote most of it, although it is a tough call whether the final version was a result of exceptional editing on the part of someone like Samuel, or whether she wrote the entire chapter, inserting the standard language at the beginning. You will recall that the transition from the introduction to her experience was pretty much seamless. What we found in the book of Genesis were many generations of men who were examined, some closely, some just by family line. Throughout this book, we found the similar phrasing, And these are the generations of... Whether this was the work of an editor, who pieced this information together at a later date, or whether believers inspired by God the Holy Spirit, wrote these words in order to hold the book together, is a matter of debate (and, of course, there are other opinions).

Similarly, we have a pattern in this book. Israel sins, is placed under outside control; calls out to God, God hears, God sends them a deliverer, the deliverer saves them, the country has rest; and they fall into apostasy again. As we have discussed before, the language is very similar throughout—although not precisely so. We have the two most likely options: either a later editor, e.g., Samuel—pieced all of this together later, and included this language; or, believers, inspired by God the Holy Spirit, wrote these words—even following the pattern of what came before.

This chapter is somewhat of a parenthesis or an interlude to this pattern. However, there are things in this chapter which help to explain God’s view of what happened in the previous chapter. Recall, one of the great debates of the previous chapter is Jael—is she this lying, deceptive bitch who just happened to do God’s will; or is she a woman to be honored throughout history for her deeds?

In this chapter, Deborah and Barak sing, and it is reasonable to suppose that she wrote the song. Barak was fairly good at taking orders and he did have the ability to lead a large group of Israelites (which is no small feat); however, few of them probably realized that it was Deborah who was running the show. The writer of this song is quite clear—in v. 7, we have the use of the first person in reference to Deborah, so Deborah wrote this song.

Now, Judges 5 is poetic, making it different all of the rest of the book of the Judges. Because it is poetic, we have to be careful about being too literal, and, at the same time, keep from being too out there. Let me give you a good explanation is to limitations. The analogy of Moses and Joshua and leading the children of Israel into the land and Jesus Christ being able to do what the Law cannot do, is a marvelous analogy. The events of the lives of Moses and Joshua are historical events; however, we have seen in many instances, God’s plan put into motion great historical events which shadowed His salvation which was to come (e.g., Abraham and the sacrificial offering of his son Isaac). However, to take the book of Joshua and start speaking about how the Israelites walking through the Jordan was a kind of baptism foretelling of the water baptism to come—that’s weird. People who celebrate baptism as some great central point of Christian doctrine are confused and often very legalistic, although they don’t realize it (and, many times, not even saved). That an analogy could be drawn? Certainly, I will grant anyone that. That the point of the analogy is the importance of water baptism? No, that misses the point entirely. God did not have Joshua cross over the Jordan so that we would be forever reminded how important water baptism is. He and the people of Israel crossed over dry-shod; they were not immersed. We as believers are all baptized into the body of Christ, and that is a real baptism, not a symbolic baptism, and there is no water involved. If we want to draw some analogies, then what we should compare are things which are important, like being baptized into Christ, rather than things which are divisive, symbolic and non-essential, like water baptism. Although this is not the time nor the place for it, at some time we will need to examine the doctrine of baptisms.

One of the negatives (to some people) about poetry, is that it will require a fully analysis of the original language than simple narrative would. There will be dozens of words which are found in this chapter and this chapter alone. At times, we can find some cognates in order to better determine the meaning; however, there are times we will have to make reasonable guesses (of course, based upon the work of Gesenius and BDB).

Once we have a reasonable translation, then we have to determine just what the heck does Deborah mean by that. Even though this will be tough sledding at times, particularly for those of you who grimace when we get into the Hebrew, let me reassure you that by the time we are done, you will understand almost every detail of this chapter. Furthermore, you will have a full, graphic description of what transpired when Sisera was killed.

There is also the interesting phenomenon of repetition in this chapter. That is, certain phrases will be repeated once or twice; or Deborah will make a slight change here or there, and repeat some words—words found nowhere else but in this chapter of Judges. These various eccentricities of the language here tell us a number of things: the author of the book of Judges did not write this psalm; it is possible that the person who wrote this psalm had a very regionalized language—that is, Deborah spoke in a slightly different fashion than most of the writers of Scripture. Finally, the language of this psalm gives great credence to the idea that this was written by a different author; and it also gives us great insight as to Jewish poetry.

The Bible is a hell of a long book. Sometimes, when reading through in some translation, done by the same handful of men, we don’t really notice a difference in style; however, we have a marked difference in style and vocabulary in this chapter which just jumps out at you in the Hebrew. One of the nice things about the Bible is, we do not find a repetitive style of writing throughout, but there are a variety of styles and approaches, which makes reading Scripture and exegeting it more entertaining. Had one man or a handful of men written the Bible, we would find it to be a very boring book indeed.

One of my own personal weaknesses as a teacher is that I have a tendency toward sarcasm. When I come across poetry like this, I feel somewhat vindicated, however. There are places in this chapter where Deborah will be extremely sarcastic and demeaning toward those tribes who did not participate in the war against the Canaanites. Now, there are a lot of things which are completely missed by the casual reader, and even by the careful exegete in this chapter. Poetry is difficult for anyone. When it comes to verses 15–16, Deborah is being bitingly sarcastic. However, I defy you to find commentary one which catches this and points it out.

Now, what might be important to bear in mind is that this is an epic poem which is not set in any sort of chronological order. Vv. 2–3 are somewhat of an introduction; vv. 4–5 looks back to God’s power as demonstrated on Mount Sinai; and vv. 6–11 give an overview of the entire campaign against Canaan. In this overview, we go from the life that Israel was forced to lead while under the thumb of the Canaanites (they were both disarmed and were subject to restricted movement). Although we do not have a clear proclamation of victory, Deborah, the author, praises those who volunteered to fight and indicates in vv. 10–11 that a great debt is owed those who fought for the freedom of Israel. Then, in vv. 13–18, Deborah speaks of those who participated and those who did not participate in the war against the Canaanites (this would really be subsequent to the battle against Sisera). Then she goes back in time and speaks specifically of the battle against Sisera, the assassination of Sisera, and the pining away of Sisera’s mother for him (vv. 19–30). In other words, there is very little concept of chronology in this epic poem.

Introduction/Recipients of Psalm

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And so sang Deborah and Barak ben Abinoam in the day the that, to say:...

Septuagint                              And Debbora and Barac son of Abineem sang in that day, saying,...

Significant differences:           None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       After the battle was over that day, Deborah and Barak sang this song: ...

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         On that day Deborah and Barak, son of Abinoam, sang this song: ...

HCSB                                     On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang: ...

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

ESV                                       Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day: ...

Young’s Updated LT             And Deborah sings—also Barak son of Abinoam—on that day, saying:.

What is the gist of this verse? Deborah and Barak both sing the following song.

Translation: So Deborah and Barak ben Abinoam sang, in that day, saying: ... The first verb is the Qal imperfect of shîyr (רי ̣ש) [pronounced sheer], which means to sing. We first encountered this verb when Moses and the sons of Israel sang a victory song to Jehovah in Ex. 15:1. We will find it many times throughout the psalms (e.g., Psalm 7:title 13:6 33:3 21:13), as well as scattered throughout the Old Testament (1Sam. 18:6 1Chron. 16:9 Eccles. 2:8 Isa. 5:1). We’ll cover this in greater detail when we get to Psalm 144 (to be studied while we are in 1Sam. 18).

First thing, in that day does not refer to the day of the battle between Barak and Sisera. Don’t forget that in between that battle and this verse came Judges 4:31, which read: And the hand of the sons of Israel pressed heavier and heavier on Jabin, king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin, the king of Canaan. In other words, the last battle was not between Barak and Sisera, but the war continued between Jabin and Israel, with Israel as the eventual victor. Furthermore, when the war between Jabin and Israel continued, many of the tribes of Israel began to join in. The phrase in that day does not refer to a particular day (although it did occur on a particular day), but at a particular period of time when victory over Jabin and the Canaanites had been achieved. Then a song of celebration was in order. We are not given any time frame over which this took place. It could have been a relatively short period of time, lasting less than a year following the battle between Barak and Sisera.

In the Bible, the word day does not always refer to a 24 hour period of time. In the Gen. 1, there, one day referred to a 24 hour period of time (Gen. 1:5, 7). However, the phrase, The Day of the Lord refers to the 7 years of the tribulation and the millennium, which a total of 1007 years (Isa. 2:12 13:6 Joel 2:1). The day of salvation refers to the period of time during which we are saved, which is instantaneous (2Cor. 6:2). In other words, a day can be longer or shorter than 24 hours, or it can be precisely 24 hours. For more detail, refer back to the Doctrine of Days—from Gen. 1:5. In this particular context, this song was written and sung either after victory had been secured against the Canaanites or when such victory had been assured (which could have been soon after the defeat of Sisera). The participation of the other tribes indicates that this was written after the battle in Judges 4, bu tnot immediately after. The emphasis on the defeat of Sisera in particular indicates that was the turning point in this struggle between Israel and the Canaanites.

Keil and Delitzsch: The historical introduction...takes the place of a heading, and does not mean that the song of Deborah and Barak which follows was composed by them jointly; but simply that it was sung by them together, in commemoration of the victory [which they together affected]. The poetess or writer of the song, according to Judges 5:3, 7, 12, was Deborah.

And now I remember why I stopped exegeting the book of Job. It was a royal pain in the neck. Poetry in the Hebrew is much more difficult to work with that prose, and I suspect that in this chapter, you will see a lot of different translations as we attempt to zero in on what has actually been said.

Ancient texts:

Latin Vulgate                          O you of Israel, that have willingly offered your lives to danger, bless the Lord.

Masoretic Text                       In a letting loose of those who let loose in Israel; in a free volunteering of people;

Peshitta                                  With requital has Israel been avenged; praise the Lord with a song for avenging Israel.

Septuagint                              A revelation was made in Israel when the people were made willing: Praise ye the Lord.

Significant differences:           The Hebrew is rather difficult, and I believe the translators of the LXX gave it their best guess. The Peshitta seems only barely similar here, and the Vulgate only slightly more so.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       We praise you, LORD! Our soldiers volunteered, ready to follow you.

NAB                                       Of chiefs who took the lead in Israel, of noble deeds by the people who bless the Lord.

NJB                                        That the warriors in Israel unbound their hair, that the people came forward with a will, bless Yahweh!

NWT                                      For letting the hair hang loose in Israel for war, For the people’s volunteering, Bless Jehovah.

REB                                       For the leaders, the leaders in Israel, for the people who answered the call, bless the Lord. [or, in the alternative: ‘For those who had flowing locks in Israel, for the people who answered the call, bless the Lord.’]

NLT                                        “When Israel’s leaders take charge,

and the people gladly follow—

bless the Lord!

TEV                                        Praise the Lord! The Israelites were determined to fight; the people gladly volunteered.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         Praise the LORD! Men in Israel vowed to fight, and people volunteered for service.

HCSB                                     When the leaders lead in Israel, when the people volunteer, praise the LORD.

JPS (Tanakh)                         When [In many parts of this poem the meaning is uncertain] locks go untrimmed [Apparently an expression of dedication; compare Num. 6:5] in Israel,

When people dedicate themselves—

Bless the Lord!

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Emphasized Bible           For the leadership of leaders in Israel, For the volunteering of the people, Bless ye Yahweh!

Edersheim                              For the loose flowing of the long hair, For the free dedication of the people, Praise ye Jehovah!

LTHB                                     For the loosing of locks of hair in Israel; for the willing offering of the people, bless Jehovah!

MKJV                                     Praise Jehovah for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.

NASB                                     That the leaders led in Israel, That the people volunteered, Bless the Lord!

NKJV (alternate reading)       When locks are loosed in Israel, When the people volunteer themselves, Bless the Lord!

Owen's Translation                That the leaders took the lead in Israel; that offered themselves willingly the people; bless Yahweh.

NRSV                                     “When locks are long in Israel, when the people offer themselves willingly—bless the Lord.” [or, in the alternative: “When locks are long in Israel, you who offer yourselves willingly among the people, bless the Lord.”]

Robinson                                “Praise ye Jehovah; for the free are freed in Israel--the people have willingly offered themselves"

Thieme                                   When the strong showed themselves strong in Israel, when the people volunteered, [you] bless the Lord.

WEB                             Because the leaders took the lead in Israel, because the people offered themselves willingly, be blessed, Yahweh!

Young’s Updated LT             “For freeing freemen in Israel, For a people willingly offering themselves. Bless you Jehovah.

When you see this many translations, then you know that something is up; in this case, we have a number of difficulties with the translation of several words in this verse.

What is the gist of this verse? Because Israel is willing to fight, Jehovah is blessed.

Translation: When [there is] a cutting loose of those who cut loose [or, when there is vengeance cut loose by military types] in Israel;... The verb here has four primary meanings, which must be determined according to the context: 1) to let go of, to let loose of in the sense of to remove, to take off, to uncover; 2) to let go of, to unleash [vengeance]; 3) to let go of, to take [from oneself] [learning, counsel, doctrine]; 4) to let go of, to let loose [of someone]; to let the reins loose; to unbridle; to become lawless, unrestrained. Given the context, only the second option makes any sense.

Following this word, we have the masculine plural of its noun cognate, and this word is found only here and in Deut. 32:42. Now, there is another cognate, the word for locks (as in locks of hair), found in Num. 6:5 Ezek. 44:20. One explanation found in BDB, was that there would be a vow taken by the soldiers, when in war, not to cut their hair. I prefer to think that the men involved were degenerate and one of the exterior signs of degeneracy was their long-hair (1Cor. 11:14). In the book of Judges, we are either dealing with men who have made a vow not to cut their hair until victory has been achieved, or with men who have cut all of their hair off (i.e., they let loose of their locks) as a sign of going to war. In my opinion, it is the latter. So, what I’ve got so far is: In a letting loose of those who let loose in Israel... The NRSV reads: “When locks are long in Israel...” The NJB reads: That the warriors in Israel unbound their hair. It is possible that we are dealing with something akin to the Nazarite vow here as well (a Nazarite was not to cut his hair).

Translation: ...when [there is] a free volunteering of the people;... BDB gives several meanings of the verb here; among them to incite, impel, volunteer, to offer free-will offerings. Without a direct object, we could probably render this as freely volunteer. In other words, these men were not drafted; no one had to talk them into volunteering to fight the Canaanites. They appeared of their own volition on behalf of the entire nation Israel. The bêyth preposition and an infinitive construct together may be rendered as a temporal clause; i.e., the bêyth can be reasonably rendered when.

I was raised during a strong anti-war movement (during the Vietnam War) and during the time of the Jesus freaks, where Christianity was presented to some as a hip, counter-culture approach to life; like Jesus, a long-haired hippy who wandered around peacefully in sandals. We find this throughout the history of Christianity; Christianity is made palpable to the hoi polloi by incorporating some popular culture into the doctrine. This is how we got our Christmas and Easter traditions, as a matter of fact.

The Bible presents an entirely different viewpoint. What you cannot find in Scripture is an anti-war stance, or any of this hippie view of peace and love. Here, men are praised for going to war; those who do not volunteer are cursed (Judges 5:23). We find this again and again in the Old Testament. In the New, when Jesus spoke to a Roman centurion, He did not tell the man to “Lay down your weapons, and follow Me.” What Jesus did say was, “I have not found such a great faith in all Israel.” Over and over again, Paul and Peter had run-in’s with the Roman government; not one time do they cite civil disobedience as the Christian approach (except when it came to evangelizing and teaching God’s Word, and there, “we ought to obey God and not man”). Now, you may not like this, but it is divine viewpoint. This is the way God sees things, which is quite different from the way that we see things. I was brought up to admire Gandhi and his non-violent approach to removing the British from India; however, India fell into great lawlessness and bloodshed as a result of Gandhi’s actions. When I was raised, I only got half of the story. So, the point of view that we find in Scripture is 180° out of sync with the way I was brought up. I had to get over it.

Application: Today, as I write this (September 2006), we have the phenomenon of suicide bombers and radical Islamic fanatics. There are many in our culture who want to take the same approach: you reason with these men, and, when reasoning fails, you take some sort of economic sanctions against them, until they are so uncomfortable that they are won over to our western ways. This is pure, unadulterated foolishness! These men are our godless enemies. They seek to kill us in any way possible. They raise their children from the youngest age to aspire to kill us and to destroy freedom and democracy. Their hatred of us and of Jesus Christ is so deeply engrained in their souls that they would kill themselves if they knew that they could take with them dozen or more English speaking men, women or children. If they take out a military target, that is fine; but they are just as comfortable taking out non-military targets—in fact, more so. Non-military targets tend to have a lot less security attached to them. All of the western world is anathema to them. There is no approach that we can take to these kind of fanatics apart from force, that will work. We cannot reason with them; we cannot levy sanctions against them. A few years ago, in the middle of summer, a bee flew into my car with me. I stepped out, closed the door, and determined that, a exceptionally hot car is going to teach this bee not to fly into cars. These were my sanctions against this bee. A few hours later, when I stepped into the car, the bee stung me—immediately. Sanctions did not work against this bee.

Application: The culture and beliefs of Islamic fascists does not mean that we should round up Muslims wherever we can find them, and haul them off to jail, shoot them, or otherwise persecute them. Like Christianity, the Muslim religion is multi-faceted. One cannot lump them altogether as Islamic fascists, because that is just plain wrong. However, setting up battle fronts against them throughout the world is reasonable and intelligent. Our CIA should be doing everything it can to infiltrate mosques here in the United States with right thinking, eastern types, under deep cover—to uncover those within our borders whose mind-set and intentions are the same.

Translation: ...bless Y^ehowah. The very last line has the 2^nd person masculine singular, Piel imperative of the word to bless; we are ordered to bless Jehovah. This was mentioned in Deut. 8:10, but it bears mentioning again. When the word bless is presented in Scripture and in churches, it is too often this vague religious term of little meaning. That is, if you cannot express what it is that it actually means, then it doesn't mean anything to you. When man blesses God, man recognizes that God has provided him with what he has received. Blessing, in this case, is gratitude and recognition of God's provision which comes out of God's character. When we say a blessing at meal time, ideally, this is what we are doing. When God blesses us, He is providing us with prosperity which overflows from His perfect character. When we bless other men, we are asking for God to give them His blessings—His prosperity and grace.

Now pull this together with what has come before: we are called upon to bless Jehovah because Israelites have volunteered to enter into a military action against the Canaanites.

Application: Don’t get out of control when it comes to understanding God’s relationship to the military. This does not mean that the military is the correct approach to each and every situation. Furthermore, given that we have an all-volunteer army, we can only fight on so many fronts. However, what we have done in the Middle East during this time period is brilliant. We are facing one nation which may develop nuclear capabilities in the near future (Iran); we have terrorist training grounds in a number of different Middle Eastern countries; so we need our troops in the Mideast. We need strong allies in the Mideast.

Application: I know I might seem like I am getting far too political here, and, to some extent, I am. Let’s clarify the situation. The only true solution is spiritual. As a nation, we must do certain things in order to protect ourselves, and these are honorable and Biblically sanctioned. However, our biggest mistake in both Afghanistan and Iraq is not insisting upon their adopting a Bill of Rights similar to our Bill of Rights. We should require them to allow freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The people there need the ability to choose Jesus Christ as their Savior. They should not have to hide their faith; and they should not have to face persecution for believing in Jesus Christ. We should be able to send missionaries over there. Apart from a spiritual revival, all we are doing is standing with the finger in the dyke. The military can provide, at best, a temporary solution; faith in Jesus Christ can provide a permanent solution.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Listen, O kings, give ear, O princes,

I to Y^ehowah, I will sing;

Septuagint                              Hear [this], you kings, and listen [carefully] you rulers: I will sing, it is I who will sing to the Lord, it is I, I will sing a psalm to the Lord the God of Israel.

Significant differences:           There is some interpretation and shifting of the order of the words; however, there are no significant differences between the Greek and Hebrew.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Listen, kings and rulers, while I sing for the LORD, the God of Israel.

NLT                                        “Listen, you kings!

Pay attention, you mighty rulers!

For I will sing to the Lord.

I will lift up my song to the Lord, the God of Israel.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         Listen, you kings! Open your ears, you princes! I will sing a song to the LORD. I will make music to the LORD God of Israel.

HCSB                                     Listen, kings! Pay attention, princes! I will sing to the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.

JPS (Tanakh)                         Hear, O kings! Give ear, O potentates!

I will sing, will sing to the Lord,

Will hymn the Lord, the God of Israel.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

LTHB                                     Listen, O kings; give ear, O princes. I, even I, will sing to Jehovah; I will sing praise to Jehovah the God of Israel.

Young’s Updated LT             Hear, you kings; give ear, you princes, I, to Jehovah, I—I do sing, I sing praise to Jehovah, God of Israel.

What is the gist of this verse? Deborah asks for kings and princes to listen to her as she sings praises to Jehovah, the God of Israel.

Now, in reading this verse apart from the other verses, This verse appears to be what is said prior to the song itself. However, the poetic alliteration of the previous verse indicates that we are already into the song and that this verse is simply a part of it. In fact, we have precedent and subsequent substantiation for this sort of verse found early in a song (see Ex. 15:1 Deut. 32:1 Psalm 27:6b–7a).

Translation: Listen, O kings... There were no kings in Israel at this time—Deborah was singing this, as it were, to the heathen nations, in glory to God. Essentially, she is evangelizing the heathen nations who will hear this psalm.

Translation: ...[and] give ear, O princes:... Again, there are no princes in Israel; the intent is that this psalm be sung throughout the surrounding lands, and that heathen from all around hear what God, through Deborah, has to say to them.

Some have suggested that this is addressed to the kings and princes of the Canaanites, but many of them died in this war between Israel and the Canaanites. Furthermore, bear in mind, this is an evangelical song; not a nyah, nyah, we kicked your butts psalm. There are imprecatory songs and psalms, where the writer asks that God deal with those who are evil; but, I don’t recall any psalms where the writer later rubs salt in the wound after the fact.

Translation: ...I—even I—will sing to [or, with regards to] Y^ehowah,... This portion of v. 3 could read I—even I—will sing to Jehovah; or, I—even I—will sing with regards to Jehovah. If it is the former, we would have expected the preposition unto, which indicates respect or deference. In the latter case, Deborah is asking heathen kings and princes to listen, as she will sing with regards to Jehovah. She is going to tell them about Jehovah. She does not use the term for the Godhead, Elohim; she uses the specific name of each member of the Godhead (although, that there is a Godhead has only been hinted about previously). In any case, the name Jehovah identifies the specific God of Israel; not just God as a concept and not just the idea of a God, but of a God Who is above all other gods, and Who has chosen to work in, through and by the nation Israel.

Translation: ...I will make a melody to [or, with regards to] [or, I will make music in praise of] Y^ehowah, the God of Israel. The phrase God of Israel should not be ignored; the Bible has always presented a very specific God, with a specific identity and specific characteristics. During the Age of Israel, God worked primarily through the nation Israel. This does not mean that there was not evangelization far outside the nation Israel—it is possible that the book of Job found its way to heathen far from Israel. What we know, is God did deal with Israel and the nations which came into contact with Israel. That relationship is so powerful, that huge numbers of Arabs despair over the nation Israel—a nation that is a mere spec in the Arab world—and see the Jews as the cause of many, if not all, their ills. Their unreasonable hatred is a testimony to God and God’s working through Israel.

I believe that the gist of this verse is, Deborah is singing to the kings and princes of the surrounding heathen, and that she is singing to them about Jesus Christ, the God of Israel; and that her song praises Jesus Christ, the God of Israel.

A case could be made, however, for this psalm to be addressed to God, as God is spoken to directly in the next verse. What I think is the case is, this tiny preposition, affixed to the noun Elohim, acts in both ways. To the heathen, Deborah speaks of the God of Israel; and in this psalm, she speaks directly to God.

God’s Power in Israel’s March is Made Manifest at the Battle of Barak and Sisera

Psalm 68:7–9 Habakkuk 3:3–16

After sitting in one place for 38½ years, Israel began to march into the Land of Promise through Edom and northward on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. This followed Israel’s initial march out of Egypt to Mount Sinai, and then to the southern border of the Land of Promise. These two marches, and God’s power manifest at that time, are seen as a whole here, and are also reviewed in Psalm 68 and (of all places) Habak. 3.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Y^ehowah, in a going forth from Seir

in Your marching from a region of Edom, [the] ground quaked

furthermore, [the] heavens dripped;

yea, clouds dropped water.

Septuagint                              O Lord, in your going forth on Seir, when you went forth out of the land of Edom, the earth quaked and the heaven dropped dews, and the clouds dropped water.

Significant differences:           No significant differences.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Our LORD, God of Israel, when you came from Seir, where the Edomites live,...

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         O LORD, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the country of Edom, the earth quaked, the sky poured, the clouds burst,...

HCSB                                     LORD, when You came from Seir, when You marched from the fields of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens poured rain, the clouds poured water.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

ESV                                       "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.

MKJV                                     Jehovah, when You went out of Seir, when You marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.

Young’s Updated LT             Jehovah, in Your going forth out of Seir, In Your stepping out of the field of Edom, Earth trembled, also the heavens dropped, Also thick clouds dropped water.

What is the gist of this verse? Deborah is setting up an analogous situation—God’s great power revealed as Israel marched from Egypt to the Land of Promise. Here, we begin where Israel began to march again, from Edom.

It is in this verse where we begin to get an idea as to what exactly happened which allowed Israel to win the battle against Sisera and all of his chariots. What Deborah gives us here is verification of God’s power in relation to the elements. She will first establish God’s power, and then later incorporate it into her song.

Translation: Yehowah, when You went forth from Seir,... Deborah begins with Seir, when the Jews began to develop some forward momentum again.

Easton tells us that Seir is the name of a mountainous region occupied by the Edomites, extending along the eastern side of the Arabah from the south-eastern extremity of the Dead Sea to near the Akabah, or the eastern branch of the Red Sea. Fausset tells us that Seir is probably more of a title or a descriptive name, rather than the proper name for this mountain region.

Let’s get a little background here. Israel marches from Egypt to the Land of Promise, stopping first at Mount Sinai; later at the southern border of the Land of Promise; apparently remains in the southern desert for 38½ years; and then begins their march again, heading toward Edom this time and traveling northward on the east side of the Dead Sea. In other words, we are actually viewing 2 marches, with one stop. During this time, God manifests Himself in raining upon the desert and by the quaking of the earth. In the Pentateuch narrative, interestingly enough, we see references to the quaking of the earth (at the foot of Mount Sinai), but I do not recall any references to heavy rainstorms. However, bear in mind that we have as many as 2,000,000 Jews in the desert, so something must have occurred in order to provide them with water. Also, interestingly enough, whereas, we might be willing to dismiss the references herein to rainstorms, we find them mentioned again in Psalm 68:9 and Habak. 3:9–10, 15.

Translation: ...when You marched from the region of Edom,... Seir, as mentioned, is associated with Edom (Gen. 36:9) and the Edomites. The Edomites are descended from Esau, Jacob’s twin brother. God had already told Israel not to try to displace the Edomites: Deut. 2:4–6 (these would have been given prior to Deut. 2): “Give the people these instructions: 'You're going to pass through the territory of your relatives, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They'll be afraid of you, but be very careful. Don't start a fight with them, because I'm not giving you any of their land-not even enough to stand on. I've given Esau's descendants the region of Mount Seir as their property. You must pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.' ”

Translation: ...the ground quaked;... One of the negative aspects of breaking the Bible into verses is, we associate the earth quaking and the rain of this verse with Seir in Edom; because, quite obviously, they are all in the same verse. However, we do not have an historical record of this occurring in Edom. This is not to say that it did not occur; but we simply don’t have a record of it. On the other hand, we do have indications of seismic events when Israel was in Sinai and God met Moses on Mount Sinai. Sinai will be mentioned in the next verse.

Translation: ...moreover, the heavens dripped;... The psalmist David recognized God’s power in the storms as well, and he seems to have taken from this passage when he wrote: O God, who You went before Your people, when You marched through the wilderness (Selah); Then earth quaked, the heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God. Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel. You shed abroad a plentiful rain, O God; You confirmed You inheritance when it was parched (Psalm 68:7–9). When we get to Sinai, we will try to pull all of this together.

Translation: ...yea, clouds dropped water. You will note the poetic imagery here, even though it can be all taken literally. We speak first of the land, then of the heavens, and then of what is between them, the clouds. Poetic images does not mean that this is not to be literally understood. If this song had the line, and Barak’s army came like a fierce storm, we would not interpret this passage in the same way; we would realize that storm is being used metaphorically. However, here, we are looking back on literal events which occurred—while Israel was in Sinai, as Israel marched on from Edom, there were earthquakes and there were rainstorms, even in desert areas where rainstorms did not generally occur.

So, what does this mean? Why does Deborah begin talking about literal earthquakes and literal rainstorms? This is because she is going to describe a battle between Barak and Sisera, and she wants to make it clear that Barak’s army was not like a rainstorm, but that there apparently was a sudden and intense rainstorm, the result of God’s power. This happens in the battle between Barak and Sisera, and it is the result of God’s power, much like previous events in Israel’s history.

Whereas the information was not clearly conveyed in the previous chapter, it will be quite clear in this chapter that there was a storm which worked against Sisera. Now, by strict interpretation, this verse does not refer to that storm; we will get that in vv. 20–21. It is the way that Sisera was defeated that brings to mind what God has done in the past. God has often unleashed the forces of nature against His enemies. So, what we have in this verse is not an attack by God against Sisera, but Deborah is establishing God’s awesome power with respect to the use of the elements of nature. This passage in particular is a poetic remembrance of what God had done before when He appeared to Israel as a cloud in the desert, leading them through the desert. This is brought to mind because we have a similar situation occurring at this time.

Barnes comments that this passage, Psalm 687–9 and Habak. 3:3–16 are parallel passages which (1) cover the march of Israel into the land of Canaan; and (2) that these three passages serve to explain one another. Barnes sees the victory of Deborah and Barak as being parallel to God’s guidance to Israel from Seir on up to Jericho and then into the land, rather than the origin of the storms as coming out of the south.

Interestingly enough, God is often associated with storms and earthquakes throughout Scripture. David alludes to this in 2Sam. 22:7–12: In my distress, I called up Jehovah. Yes, I cried to my God and from His temple He heard my voice and my cry for help went out to his ears. Then the earth shook and quaked and the foundations of heaven trembled and they were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up out of His nostrils and fire from His mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and He came down, with thick darkness under His feet. And He rode upon a cherub and flew and He appeared on the wings of the wind. And He made darkness canopies around Him, a mass of waters, thick clouds out from the sky. Psalm 77:17–18: The clouds poured out water, the skies gave forth a sound, Your arrows flashed here and there. The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook. Isa. 13:13: “Therefore, I will make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken from its place at the furry of Jehovah of the armies, in the day of His burning anger.” Jer. 10:10: But Jehovah is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath, the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation. See also Psalm 18:7 Isa. 2:19, 21 24:18–19 64:3 Jer. 51:29 Nahum 1:5.

Meteorology has become quite an important and dynamic science today. We know about pressure, wind velocity and direction, what seems to draw a weather system this way or that, the location of clouds, the meaning of clouds. We have a variety of radar, we can track storms; and yet, our ability to predict weather and to predict heavy storms is weak. In the year 2005, forecasters were surprised by about twice as many tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic than they expected; so far, this year, it appears as though the opposite will occur. However, in eterminity past, God knew everything there is to know about every storm; and it is all set into motion to concur with His plan for this earth and for our lives.

A topic which one might ponder is, do these storms follow natural, scientific laws or does God choose for them to behave as they behave? First of all, scientific laws is a misnomer, because science does not make these laws and science cannot enforce them; the weather and all things natural function according to God’s laws. However, we cannot look at this within the confines of time. We might see a situation and determine that, “Now would be a good time to bring in a storm” because we are in time and confined to time. God invented time and is not bound by time. God does not view a situation here on earth and say, “Holy crap, I didn’t know this would happen; I had better make a storm to fix it.” God is never surprised; God is never caught off guard. God never saves one of us, and then later, thinks, “I did not know that boy was going to end up being such a weasel; he is out of my Book of Life.” These things in mind, I believe that God, in eternity past, determined weather patterns, determined each and every storm, each and every earthquake; and set up a system of divine laws which they invariable obey, which science is still working to discover. Furthermore, God took into account each and every person’s volition; each and every prayer which we would offer up—as well as the motivation behind each and every prayer—and set up all natural events to coincide perfectly with His plan. From our viewpoint, it may appear as though God suddenly brings on a storm for this or that reason (the case in point is Sisera and his charioteers doing battle with Barak); but God determined the path and direction and function of each and every storm from eternity past.

Application: Since God has planned each and every storm, and God knows every decision that I will ever make; if there is a weather related warning, can I therefore ignore it, because I am a believer in Jesus Christ? Don’t be silly! Some believers will find themselves in precarious situations with respect to weather; as some will be caught in unexpected natural phenomena; and some believers will even lose their lives over natural events (we will all die). If you are in a city under mandatory hurricane evacuation, don’t be an idiot and refuse to go. If there is a severe weather alert, and you have been warned to remain inside, don’t just hop in your car, based on God’s omnipotence and omniscience, so that you can catch the sale at Macy’s. You are in the same world as the unbelievers around you; you are subject to the same things which all unbelievers are subject to. If your city is under a mandatory evacuation, then don’t barricade yourself in your home, deciding that you are staying right there because God will provide. Did you ever think that maybe there is a reason that you, and 200,000 of your neighbors, are being moved for a reason? Did you ever think that you might be rubbing shoulders with the great unwashed out there for a reason? You do not get to simply enjoy day in and day out what you have begun to take for granted. Things change, but God governs this. There are times that you just go with the flow.

I am reminded of a person who is facing a heavy storm; and an evacuation bus goes down her street, offering her a ride. She refuses, saying, “Don’t worry; God will provide.” The rain keeps on going and, at some point, she finds herself sitting on top of their home during heavy flooding, and she is praying and praying to God for deliverance. A crowded boat goes by and they offer her a ride, and she calls out, “Don’t worry, God will take care of me.” The waters continue to rise, even though the storm has subsided; and a rescue helicopter comes to remove any victims that it can find; but she says, “Don’t worry about me; I have prayed to God; He will deliver me.” She dies in the storm, her house overrun with water, and when she meets God she asks Him about why He did not deliver her; and He answers, “I sent you a bus, a boat and a helicopter. I finally decided that you were too dumb to live and brought you home.”

I have run into a number of people who, from the outside, it is obvious to see God’s prodding. I am recalling one prospective tenant from the Katrina hurricane; and God had given her a place to stay; the people who became acquainted with her were going to get her set up in a new home; and had furniture and other things for her; and I was going to accept her as a tenant. It was obvious to me that everything had come together to provide her with pretty much all that she had lost in that storm; and yet, the last time I was in touch with her benefactors, she had overstayed her welcome and was unable to make a decision of what to do (at the time, she could not determine if she wanted to remain in the Houston area or move up to Dallas where her grown son, also an evacuee, was). Now, to me, when all of the doors open as they did, then you walk through those open doors.

Application: What’s the problem? How can God open so many doors; how can He make it so obvious; and yet, some believers cannot make a decision to save their lives? It is a lack of doctrine and a lack of the filling of the Holy Spirit. You know this or that Scripture, which you tout over all others; you have this or that phoney holy attitude; and the result is, you either cannot make a decision or you are unable to make the correct decision. Personally, I can’t tell you what is going to happen in my life tomorrow. I do not know what I will be faced with, or what is going to happen, or what decisions I am going to make; however, I do know that looking back on my life, divine guidance has never been a difficult thing. I’ve never had to pray and pray and pray for days on end in order to make a decision; and I have made some big, life-changing decisions.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Mountains quaked from faces of Y^ehowah;

this Sinai from faces of Y^ehowah,

Peshitta                                  The mountains melted from before the Lord, even this Sinai from the presence of the Lord, the Holy one of Israel.

Septuagint                              The mountains were shaken before the face of the Lord Eloi, this Sina before the face of the Lord God of Israel.

Significant differences:           The LXX adds in another word for God in this verse. The Peshitta has the Holy One instead of God. Apart from those things, there are no significant differences.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       ...rain poured from the sky, the earth trembled, and mountains shook.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         ...and the mountains shook in the presence of the LORD God of Sinai, in the presence of the LORD God of Israel.

HCSB                                     The mountains melted before the LORD, even Sinai before the LORD, the God of Israel.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

ESV                                       The mountains quaked before the LORD, even Sinai before the LORD, the God of Israel.

WEB                             The mountains quaked at the presence of Yahweh, even Sinai, at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Young’s Updated LT             Hills flowed from the face of Jehovah, This one—Sinai—From the face of Jehovah, God of Israel.

What is the gist of this verse? God even causes earthquakes, including those which occurred on Mount Sinai.

Translation: Mountains quaked from before the face of Yehowah;... One of the things that you should like about Hebrew poetry is the order in which it is written. The subject of the verse comes first and then the verb, rather than vice versa. This makes Hebrew poetry sound like normal English and Hebrew prose sound somewhat poetic when literally rendered with regards to the word order.

There is some disagreement with regards to the first verb. The MT has to drip, to distill, to flow, to trickle. The word which possibly should be here is the 3^rd person plural, Niphal perfect of zâlal (ל ַל ָז) [pronounced zaw-LAHL], which means to shake, to be agitated, to quake. This latter view agrees with the Septuagint. However, you need not obsess on this, as I mention in the Hebrew exegesis. Certainly, there is a relationship; the quaking would result in a mountain which would tumble, flow, and become almost liquid in its behavior. What we might expect to find is both verbs, as they could be used to describe the same phenomena from a different perspective.

Gill comments: The sense is, the mountains melted, just as the famous mountain Sinai in a literal sense did, when it trembled and quaked at the presence of God on it; the tokens of it, the fire and smoke, thunders, lightnings, and tempests there seen and heard.

You will recall the violent quaking and the thunderstorms of Mount Sinai when Israel first stopped there: So it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thundering sounds and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because Jehovah descended upon in it fire; and it smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked violently (Ex. 19:16–18). Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off (Ex. 20:18).

Translation: This Sinai [quaked] from before the face of Y^ehowah, the God of Israel. Apparently, there was apparently a terrific earthquake in north-central Israel during the war of Deborah and Barak, as well as a rainstorm which neutralized the chariots of Sisera. Actually, we don’t know about the earthquake, but we have a mention of the Torrent Kishon sweeping them away in Judges 5:21, which suggests a rainstorm. In any case, there are natural phenomenon during this battle which cause Deborah to recall Israel at Mount Sinai, and to cite it as a similar example of God’s power and involvement. So, even though she is historically pointing back to Moses and the people of Israel at Sinai, she is, at the same time, drawing a parallel to what occurred during the war against the Canaanites. She therefore calls it this Sinai. This indicates to me that, while the Jews were on Mount Tabor, and charging down to the Canaanites, that God caused great natural phenomenon which accompanied their charge.

It was well understood by all peoples of that area that there was a special relationship between Israel and Jehovah. It was recognized that Jehovah’s power might be greater than the average heathen god; although the extent of that acknowledgment was usually the difference between salvation and damnation. However, to understand the psychology here, these men of Sisera had control over Israel for two decades, although they did have this understanding of this peculiar relationship between Israel and Jehovah. Now that they are going to war against Israel, the sudden thunder, lightning and quaking of the earth makes these people realize that they are facing more than just an army of foot soldiers. Israel expects the help of God and Sisera and his men fear that such a thing could occur. So when all of the elements appear to conspire against the army of Sisera, they are struck with a terrific fear. Many people are themselves struck with great fear when faced with earthquakes or tremendous storms. Imagine further if you realized that this storm was brought upon by God for the purpose of being against you. This made the storm all the more frightening.

Deborah Establishes Time and Place

We lose a lot of the alliteration in the English, as well as the repetition of certain words in slightly different forms. It is a very playful use of words. Perhaps some of the looser translations can help to convey this and some might help to convey the meaning of all this:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       In days of Shamgar ben Anath; in days of Jael,

ceased highways

and goers of paths went [on] highways crooked.

Septuagint                              In the days of Samegar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, they deserted the ways, and went in by–ways; they went in crooked paths.

Significant differences:           No significant differences.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       In the time of Shamgar son of Anath, and now again in Jael's time, roads were too dangerous for caravans. Travelers had to take the back roads,...

NAB                                       In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of slavery caravans ceased; Those who traveled the roads went by roundabout paths.

NJB                                        ...there were no more caravans; those who went forth on their travels took their way along by-paths.

NLT                                        “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,

and in the days of Jael,

people avoided the main roads,

and travelers stayed on crooked side paths.

TEV                                        In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, caravans no longer went through the land, and travelers used the back roads.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, roads were deserted. Those who traveled took back roads.

HCSB                                     In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the main ways were deserted, because travelers kept to the side roads.

JPS (Tanakh)                         In the days of Shamgar son of Anath [or, the Beth-anathite],

In the days of Jael, caravans [or, roads] ceased,

And wayfarers went

By roundabout paths.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

MKJV                                     In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were empty, and the travelers walked through crooked ways.

NRSV                                     “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,

in the days of Jael, caravans ceased

and travelers kept to the byways.

WEB                             In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied. The travelers walked through byways.

Young’s Updated LT             In the days of Shamgar son of Anath—In the days of Jael—The ways have ceased, And those going in the paths go in crooked ways.

What is the gist of this verse? During the time of Shamgar and Jael, there was no real freedom in Israel; when traveling, Israelites kept to the off-roads, and did not go on the main highways (for fear of the Canaanites).

Translation: In the days of Shamgar ben Anath... Shamgar is mentioned twice in Scripture—here, and in Judges 3:31, but all we know is that he struck down 600 Philistines with an ox-goad, thus delivering Israel. We are not told of the precise circumstances.

Translation:...[and] in the days of Jael,... Here, it is implied that Shamgar and Jael are contemporaries. Possibly, his old age coincided with her in her youth. This does help to set up a time line for this time period, however. Recall that I mentioned that some judges would be contemporaries and that they would function in different parts of Israel. In Judges 3, we discussed Ehud, and, in the final verse, Shamgar is mentioned. Again here, he is mentioned, and in conjunction with Jael, suggesting that they are contemporaries. Furthermore, Judges 4 take place after Ehud dies (Judges 4:1). All of this suggests that, Ehud delivered Israel from the hand of Moab; he died, and Israel went apostate again. During this time of apostasy, there was a judge, Shamgar, who killed 600 Philistines (he probably lived in northern Judah or in far western Israel); and there was Deborah, a judge who presided simultaneously in north central Israel. Because Shamgar and Deborah are contemporaries, we do not have a separate listing of how long he ruled, the period of rest, and then have this repeated for Deborah. In fact, all we will be told is, [after these things] the land had rest for 40 years (Judges 5:31c).

Translation: ...the highways ceased... The verb is the Qal perfect of to leave off, to cease, to desist. What ceased was the masculine plural paths, ways, highways. This is elliptical. The highways didn’t cease, per se (i.e., they did not disappear, they were not destroyed), but traveling along the highways did cease almost entirely. When ancient roads fell into disuse, weeds and trees and bushes grew up in them, causing the roads themselves to degenerate into countryside.

Translation: ...and travelers of paths traveled on crooked highways. The participle of to go, to come, to depart, to walk is found here, and rendered variously as those going (Young); travelers (KJV, NASB and Owen, who all ignore the noun which follows); frequenters (Rotherham, whose translation does not make sense without the noun that follows). What follows this construct is the feminine plural path, course of life, path of life. So our subject is the travelers of paths.

The verb which follows is the Qal imperfect of to go, to com, to depart, to walk (we just had the participle). This is followed by the feminine plural of ôrach, again, which path, way, highway. These paths or highways are described by the adjective which means crooked, roundabout paths.

What has happened is that free trade has become restricted and travel has either ceased or done along back routes. One of the signs of a dictatorship is the restriction of travel and the restriction of free trade; or, as was probably the case at this time, the roads were unsafe due to enemy garrisons and marauding bands. We have a similar situation spoken of when Israel will fall under the judgment of God again: The highways are desolate, the traveler has ceased. He has broken the covenant; he has despised the cities. He has not regard for man (Isa. 33:8).

Matthew Henry describes the life like this: [There is little or] no trade. For want of soldiers to protect men of business in their business from the incursions of the enemy, and for want of magistrates to restrain and punish thieves and robbers among them (men of broken fortunes and desperate spirits, that, having no employment, took to rob on the highroad), all commerce ceased, and the highways were unoccupied; no caravans of merchants, as formerly...[Furthermore, there was] no traveling. Whereas in times when there was some order and government the travelers might be safe in the open roads, and the robbers were forced to lurk in the by-ways, no, on the contrary, the robbers insulted on the open roads without check, and the honest travelers were obliged to skulk and walk through by-way.

Gill suggests: The public roads were so infested with thieves and robbers, who stopped all they met with, and robbed them of what they had, that travellers and merchants with their carriages were obliged either to quit their employments, and not travel at all; or, if they did, were obliged to go in private roads, and roundabout ways, to keep clear of those rapparees the highways and public roads abounded with.

Interestingly enough, freedom of movement (or lack of) is alluded to several times in Scripture: Lev. 26:22 2Chron. 15:5 Isa. 33:8 Lam. 1:4, 18 Micah 3:12.

There are a few significant differences between translations, so I will list them here:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Ceased true leadership in Israel ceased until which I arose,

Deborah, I arose, a mother in Israel. .

Septuagint                              The mighty men in Israel failed, they failed until Debborn arose, until she arose a mother in Israel.

Significant differences:           The meaning of this first noun is discussed below; but there are disagreements when it comes to the interpretation of it. More importantly, the Hebrew is emphatically 1^st person; the Greek is a 3^rd person approach. The Latin and the Greek agree; the Syriac and the Hebrew agree.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       ... and villagers couldn't work in their fields. Then Deborah took command, protecting Israel as a mother protects her children.

NLT                                        There were few people left in the villages of Israel—

until Deborah arose as a mother for Israel.

REB                                       Champions there were none, none left in Israel, until you, Deborah, arose, arose as a mother in Israel.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         Villages in Israel were deserted- deserted until I, Deborah, took a stand- took a stand as a mother of Israel.

HCSB                                     Villages were deserted, they were deserted in Israel, until I, Deborah, I arose, a mother in Israel.

JPS (Tanakh)                         Deliverance ceased,

Ceased in Israel,

Till you [Hebrew: qamti, archaic second-person singular feminine] arose, O Deborah,

Arose, O mother, in Israel!

NIV                                         Village life [or, Warriors] in Israel ceased, ceased until I, Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                The villages were unoccupied, and rulers ceased in Israel, until you arose, you Deborah, arose, a mother in Israel.

The Emphasized Bible           There was a failure of rulers In Israel, a failure, Until I arose, a Deborah, arose a mother in Israel:—

NASB                                     “The peasantry ceased, they ceased in Israel, Until I, Deborah, arose, Until I arose, a mother in Israel.

WEB                             The rulers ceased in Israel. They ceased until I, Deborah, arose; Until I arose a mother in Israel.

Young’s Updated LT             Villages ceased in Israel—they ceased, Till that I arose—Deborah, That I arose, a mother in Israel.

What is the gist of this verse? True leadership did not exist in Israel until Deborah arose, as she herself tells us in this verse.

Translation: True leadership ceased in Israel. What first ceased is discussed above. This word occurs here and in v. 11. We might could get away with the rendering rural expansion. In examining this in context—Deborah saying, until I arose—makes me think that this word should be rendered true leadership. There was not a leadership; there was no police force, there was no army in place. There was nothing to insure the protection of the individual. We do not have personal freedom without an umbrella of authority. Furthermore, traveling and free trade in Israel were restricted or simply ceased until Deborah arose, a mother in Israel.

What the NIV Study Bible suggests is that the inhabitants of villages fled to walled towns for protection. Clarke gives essentially the same interpretation (The people were obliged to live together in fortified places; or in great numbers, to protect each other against the incursions of bands of spoilers). Gill goes into greater detail: Not only did those Canaanitish robbers go upon the highway, and robbed all they met with, which made travelling difficult and dangerous; but entered into the villages and unwalled towns, and broke into houses and plundered them; so that the inhabitants of them were obliged to quit their dwellings, and go into the fortified cities for security; by which means the villages were left empty, and in time fell to ruin, and ceased. You see, when some hostile rulers take over an area, they provide some modicum of protection for the inhabitants of the area. Jabin and Sisera were interested in ruling over the land and collecting their due from the people, but they did not give back anything in return.

The alternate interpretation which I am going with is, the local rulership and control ceased; Jabin and Sisera control these areas, as well as the men under them. This makes even better sense, but is more difficult to support from the original languages.

Even given those two interpretations, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown gives a generalized approach: The song proceeds in these verses to describe the sad condition of the country, the oppression of the people, and the origin of all the national distress in the people's apostasy from God. Idolatry was the cause of foreign invasion and internal inability to resist it. The idea is, they are being oppressed by a foreign power due to their idolatry and apostasy; and this is what we would have expected. It is my view that Deborah cites something more specific for her era, and that is a complete lack of spiritual leadership (in Israel, that would mean a lack of spiritual and political leadership).

Translation: It ceased... We are going to have a repetition of words here. This entire verse has a lot of repetition and when viewed as a whole, the poetic nature of the verse will be clear. What has ceased is, true leadership in Israel, a void which Deborah fills.

Translation: ...until I—Deborah—arose,... Whatever was lacking, Deborah arose and filled the gap. My interpretation comes from this portion of the verse; something is missing; Deborah arises to replace that which is missing. What makes sense is, there is a lack of leadership in Israel; and, as unusual as it may seem, Deborah, a woman, rises up to take a position of leadership. I say unusual, as women are not generally portrayed as leaders or as those in authority in Scripture. However, in a period of time when men do not assume positions of leadership, then sometimes it is necessary for a strong woman to do so.

The interpretation that peasantry, or rural population or something of that nature ceased, until Deborah arose, just does not seem to make much sense.

Translation: ...I arose, a mother in Israel. F.F. Bruce suggests (and The Amplified Bible as well as others go along with him) that the doubling of the verb here could be understood not as a 1^st person (which is how it reads in the Hebrew), but as an archaic 2^nd person singular—you arose. To add to this confusion, the Greek reads that Deborah arose. I don’t see any pressing reason why we should stray from the actual Hebrew. The doubling of the second verb would match poetically with the doubling of the first.

McGee: Deborah confesses that she is a mother in Israel and was not looking for a job at all. The fact that she took the lead is no reflection on her. She was God’s choice. History affords man such examples. There was Molly Pitcher, the wife of a Revolutionary soldier, who, at the battle of Monmouth, manned the cannon at which her husband had just fallen. Other examples are Joan of Arc, the French heroine, and Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra. And, of course, Xena, warrior princess.

McGee, again: Deborah was one of the outstanding judges. She far exceeded Othniel in ability. It is an evidence of decline, however, when women come in into the position of authority. It is a sign of weakness and of a flabby age. We have already seen that weak-kneed general, Barak. He was a sissy. He wanted to stay home and did not want to fight at all. Deborah had to agree to go with him before he was willing to go and battle the enemy...Regardless of what you might think (and I know I may sound very out of date, especially in this day of women’s rights), America is paying an awful price for taking women into its defense system and into industry. I made this statement as far back as 1948, and I am no prophet, but I predicted a backwash of immorality if women left the home. Well, it certainly came to pass. First there was an epidemic of women shooting their husbands, deserting their children, becoming dope peddlers and committing suicide. There are many things that are considered a menace in our country—inflation, crime, foreign aggression—but I feel that the greatest danger is that women are leaving their place in the home.

What McGee did not mention, and something which was probably unthinkable to him at that time, was the incredible sexual immorality which would befall American women as well, who have debased themselves with lewdness, promiscuity and Lesbianism. And it begins early. Female children barely entering puberty dress provocatively. Very few associate their first sexual experience with marriage and very few associate marriage with a forever commitment.

Let me quote from the well-known article from Forbes Magazine, written by Michael Noer, Aug. 22, 2006, which caused quite a stir, because it does not fit feminist doctrine: Guys: a word of advice, don't marry a woman with a career. Why? Because if many social scientists are to be believed, you run a higher risk of having a rocky marriage. While everyone knows that marriage can be stressful, recent studies have found professional women are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat and less likely to have children. And if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it. A recent study in Social Forces, a research journal, found that women—even those with a "feminist" outlook—are happier when their husband is the primary breadwinner.