JUDGES 4-5. DEBORAH AND BARAK DELIVER ISRAEL. The record of this deliverance appears first in a prose and then in a poetical form, of which the latter is the older, written without doubt under the inspiration of the actual events. There are some striking differences between the two versions. In the... [ Continue Reading ]
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 i... [ Continue Reading ]
GLORY AND SHAME. Deborah and Barak are apostrophised. She is called to awake and utter a battle-song, such as will arouse a slumbering people like the sound of a trumpet; a _Men of Harlech_ or a _Marseillaise_, that summons heroes to victory or death; not a song _after_ battle, like the pæ an we are... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BATTLE OF MEGIDDO. The waters of Megiddo were tributaries of the Kishon. Taanach and Megiddo (p. 30) were both towns on the left bank of the river. The battle-field of Megiddo long afterwards suggested the name of the last weird battle of the nations the apocalyptic Armageddon (Revelation 16:16)... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BLESSING OF JAEL. Jael's deed is unhesitatingly and emphatically approved. While the oppressor of Israel stood in her tent, drinking the milk she gave him, she suddenly felled him to the earth with her tent-hammer. In Judges 5:26 read, She put her hand to the mallet, Her right hand to the hammer... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MOTHER OF SISERA. There is irony almost matchless irony in the closing lines of the poem, but it is not cruel mocking irony. The words were neither written, nor meant to be recited or sung, in a spirit of derision. Can any one read them now without emotions of pity and fear? With inimitable art,... [ Continue Reading ]