Judges 5:20 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

They fought from heaven— This would be rendered more properly, the stars fought from heaven: they fought from their orbits [their paths or courses] against Sisera. See on ch. Judges 4:14-15. It is no unusual thing for the sacred writers to speak of inanimate things as engaged in war against the enemies of Jehovah. See Habakkuk 3:11. Concerning the river Kishon, mentioned in the next verse, we refer to the note on chap. Judges 4:6. Some have supposed, that by the stars here are meant the angels, see Job 38:7. Perhaps, as the Canaanites were worshippers of the Host of Heaven, the prophetess may mean to say, that the stars in the firmament, recognizing their great Master, declared at his command for the Israelites; and, in some extraordinary manner, assisted at the discomfiture of their false worshippers. The beautiful energy of the repetition in the next verse scarcely need be hinted, any more than the fine apostrophe at the close; wherein we see, that Deborah was so full of the important subject, that she is no longer able to pursue a regular train, but bursts forth into that elegant exclamation, to which, perhaps, there is nothing superior in the finest writings of the heathen poets.