Barak. — The name means “lightning” (Jos., Antt.), as does Barca, the family name of Hannibal and Hasdrubal. So in Virgil, the Scipios are called “two lightnings of war.” (Comp. Boanerges, Mark 3:17.)
Kedesh-naphtali. — The name “Kedesh” means a holy city. There were, therefore, many towns of the name, as Kadesh-Barnea (Numbers 20:1; Joshua 15:23), and Kedesh in Issachar (Joshua 12:22). Jerusalem is called “the holy, the noble” (El kuds, es shereef). This sanctuary of Naphtali was a Levitical refuge city in Galilee (Joshua 19:35; Joshua 20:7; Joshua 21:32). Josephus says that it was not far from Phœnicia (Jos., Antt. xiii. 5, § 6). The site of it is probably at Kades, four miles north-west of Lake Merom. The reading of the Syriac and Arabic versions here — Rakam — is inexplicable. The fact that the fame of Barak had penetrated from the northern city to the southern limits of Ephraim shows that he must have been a man of great mark.
Draw. — The meaning of the word is uncertain. The Rabbis understand “the people,” others understand “thy steps,” referring to Genesis 37:21; Exodus 12:21 (Heb.). The LXX. has “thou shalt depart;” the Vulgate, “lead;” the Chaldee, “spread out,” as in Judges 20:37. There, however, our version gives in the margin the alternative “made a long sound with the trumpet,” and the verb is used in that sense in Exodus 19:13; Joshua 6:5, but there the substantive is added. The word probably implies that Barak is to draw his troops together in small contingents to prevent suspicion.
Mount Tabor. — The broad flat top of this strong, beautiful, and easily fortified mountain (which is nearly a mile in circumference) would serve the double purpose of a watch-post and a stronghold. It was in the district of Issachar, about six miles from Nazareth, and its peculiarities attracted notice in very early days (see Joshua 19:22; Psalms 89:12; Jeremiah 46:18). Josephus calls it Itaburion; he held it for some time successfully against Placidus and the Romans (Jos., B. J. iv. 1, § 8). Its huge truncated cone of limestone rises isolated from the plain to the height of nearly nineteen hundred feet, and its sides are clothed with oaks and terebinths. It is now called Jebel et Tur. It was long regarded as the scene of the Transfiguration, but it must yield this glory to Mount Hermon. But the sacred character of the hill seems to be distinctly intimated in Deuteronomy 33:19 : “They (Zebulon and Issachar) shall call the people unto the mountains; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness;” Jeremiah 46:18 : “As I live, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of Hosts, surely as Tabor is among the mountains... so shall he come.”
Of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun. — The northern tribes would feel most painfully the tyranny of Jabin, and these were the two most energetic of them.