Speak. — Rather, Think of it. or, perhaps, “Meditate the song.” It is placed in the original in far more forcible position at the end of the verse.
Ye that ride on white asses. — That is, nobles and wealthy (Judges 10:4; Judges 12:14). The word can hardly mean “white,” because there are no such things as white asses. It means rather “bright-coloured” (Ezekiel 27:18), “glossy-skinned,” or “dappled” (super nitentes asinos, Vulg.). These were the more valuable sort of asses, and were used by the rich and great. It is only because this was not understood among the Greeks and Romans, who despised the ass, that the LXX. and Josephus so often disguise the word in writing for Gentiles, using pôlon, “steed,” or the general word hupozugion, “beast of burden,” instead. No incident was more derided among the Gentiles than the riding to Zion of her king, “meek and sitting upon an ass” (Zechariah 9:9), (see the Life of Christ, 2:197). Here though the Alexandrine MS. of the LXX has “on female asses of the South “ — i.e., of Ethiopia — we find in other MSS. “on beasts of burden.”
Ye that sit in judgment. — Rather, ye that sit on rich divans, though our version follows the Vatican MS. of the LXX., the Chaldee, and the Vulgate. The Hebrew is, “ye that sit on middin,” and some Jews understood it to mean “at Middin” — i.e., ye inhabitants of the town Middin (which is mentioned in Joshua 15:61, and which they suppose may have been peculiarly oppressed and insulted by the enemy). Others, again, suppose that middin is saddle-cloths (comp. Matthew 21:7). The Alexandrine MS. of the LXX. has epi lampênôm — i.e., on sedans or covered chariots. There can be little doubt that it means “bright carpets” (compare mad in Psalms 109:18).
And walk by the way. — Rather, ye that walk in the way. Deborah appeals (1) to the wealthy, riding through the safe highways: (2) to those of all classes who now sit at ease on divans, bright with carpets, of which Easterns are so fond: and (3) to foot-passengers in the ordinary life — to join in the thought and song of praise. On the phrases “sitting at home and “walking on the roads” to describe the ordinary avocations of life, see Deuteronomy 6:7 : “When thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way.”