And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.
Jabin king of Canaan - Jabin was a dynastic title (Joshua 11:1). Although the number of petty chiefs who were leagued with this northern sovereign (cf. Joshua 11:1-4) is inconsistent with the statement, that the various tribes of Canaan were, at the period of the Israelite invasion, consolidated under one monarchy (as Suidas supposes Canaan), there does seem to have been a sort of confederacy, or united states, which looked to Jabin as their suzerain or head. Hence, he is designated "king of Canaan." The second Jabin had built a new capital on the ruins of the old (see the note at Joshua 11:10-11).
In addition to what was formerly said in regard to Hazor, the opinion of Porter ('Handbook of Syria and Palestine,' p. 442) is here subjoined. Hazor stood at the eastern base of the mountains near, or in the plain of, Huleh. On the right bank of a little stream, Nahr Hendaj, high up among the hills, half an hour from the road, is a ruined town called Kasyun, which deserves a visit, since it is at least as likely as any other place yet known to be the site of the long-lost Hazor. It must be sought for along the western or southwestern border of the basin of el-Huleh. Josephus says that Hazor lay over the lake Samochonitis ('Antiquities,' b. 5:, ch. 5:, sec.
1), and two passages of Scripture seem to imply that it lay southward of Kedesh. The northern Canaanites had recovered from the effects of their disastrous overthrow in the time of Joshua, and triumphed in their turn over Galilee and the whole region on both sides of the Jordan, as far south as the middle division of the land. Jabin had established, by the aid of Sisera, a military despotism, which was the severest oppression to which Israel had been subjected. But it fell heaviest on the tribes in the north; and it was not until after a grinding servitude of twenty years they were awakened to view it as the punishment of their sins, and to seek deliverance from God.
Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles. He is the only general of whom we read in these very ancient times, the kings themselves commonly leading their armies. The residence of Sisera was at a distance from Hazor, in a fortress called Harosbeth, which, judging from the tenor of the sacred history, must have stood on the western side of the lake of Merom (Bahr el-Huleh). Dr. Thomson ('The Land and the Book,' 1:, p.
144) thinks he has discovered its site further west, in a tell called Harothieh, 'situated just below the point where the Kishon, in one of its turns, beats against the rocky base of Carmel.' It was called Harosheth of the Gentiles, from its mixed population, as Galilee was in later times 'the woodcutting or quarry,' as the word signifies, of the mixed pagan population on the outskirts of Lebanon (Stanley, 'Jewish Lectures,' p. 320).