Judges 5:1-12 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Judges 5. The Song of Deliverance. The Song of Deborah so called because of the words I, Deborah, arose (Judges 5:7) is a splendid battle-ode, evidently contemporaneous with the events which it celebrates. It breathes the patriotic fervour and religious enthusiasm which inspired the loftiest minds in Israel, and proves that a great faith was already working wonders in the tribes which till lately had been desert nomads. It is a work of genius, and therefore a work of that highest art which is not studied and artificial, but spontaneous and inevitable (Moore, 135). R. H. Hutton calls it the greatest war-song of any age or nation. Unfortunately the text has suffered a good deal, and in some passages we can do no more than guess the sense.

Judges 5:1 f. Yahweh is praised for two reasons: because the leaders of the people were leaders, taking their proper place at the post of honour and danger; and because the battle was fought not by conscripts but by volunteers (cf. Psalms 11:03).

Judges 5:3. Read I, to Yahweh I will sing, where it is possible, though not necessary, that I, as in many of the Psalms, means collective Israel. I will sing praise means, I will make melody with voice and instruments.

Judges 5:4 f. Yahweh's special place of abode was still Seir, in the field of Edom, from which He is conceived as coming forth in a thunderstorm. As He passes, the earth trembles and the heavens are in commotion (so the LXX). The second half of Judges 5:5 disturbs the flow of ideas, and is probably a marginal gloss which has found its way into the text

Judges 5:6. If Shamgar was one of the Judges (Judges 3:31), it is very strange that he should be named here as if he had recently been a leading oppressor of Israel, perhaps the immediate forerunner of Sisera. Moore treats the words in the days of Jael as a gloss. The Heb. of Judges 5:7 b is ambiguous, meaning either till I, Deborah, arose, or till thou, Deborah, didst arise. The LXX has till Deborah arose.

Judges 5:8 a yields no certain sense

Judges 5:8 b means that the Israelites had to fight with such poor weapons as they could find.

Judges 5:10 f. Very obscure.

Related Commentaries of Judges 5:1

Judges 5:1-12

1 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,

2 Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.

3 Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.

4 LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.

5 The mountains melteda from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.

6 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellersb walked through byways.

7 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.

8 They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

9 My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the LORD.

10 Speak,c ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment, and walk by the way.

11 They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.

12 Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.