This is the day. — See the addition of the LXX. to Judges 4:8. The ancients attached the utmost importance to fortunate and unfortunate days, and Barak was guided by a prophetess, not by idle auguries.
Is not the Lord gone out before thee? — “Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle” (Zechariah 14:3; comp. Deuteronomy 9:3).
Went down from mount Tabor. — As he had neither cavalry nor chariots it required no little faith in Barak to abandon his strong post and assume the aggressive against the kind of forces which struck most terror into the Israelites (Hebrews 11:32). Hence the emphatic addition, “at his feet” (Heb., and see Judges 4:10). If the beginning of the battle was at Taanach, the Israelites had to march thirteen miles along the caravan road. Probably the Canaanites watched this bold and unexpected movement with as much astonishment as the huge Persian host saw the handful of Athenians charge down from the hill-sides into the plain of Marathon.