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.