Then sang Deborah. — She was a prophetess, I and the word for “prophet,” like the Latin vates, involved gifts which were closely allied to those of the poet.
And Barak. — Doubtless Deborah was the sole author of the song, as is implied by the singular verb (Judges 5:3); but no doubt Barak joined in antiphon when it was sung, just as Moses, at the head of the warriors, and Miriam, at the head of the women, sang the song of Moses, in Exodus 15. As the English version requires some correction, I have appended a translation at the end of the chapter, which must be regarded as a kind of running commentary.