Judges 5:12-18

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 interpreting.

Judges 5:13. Read, Then came down Israel like noble ones, the people of Yahweh came down for Him like heroes.

Judges 5:14. The response to the martial call is varied. Some of the tribes, leaping to arms, achieve deathless honour; others, lagging at home, are covered with eternal shame and contempt. Phrase after phrase seizes the reader's memory. How striking is the contrast between shirkers and heroes Reuben sitting among the sheep-folds, listening to the calling of the flocks, Gilead abiding beyond Jordan, Dan remaining by his ships, and Asher sitting still in his creeks at the shore, while Zebulun, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin quit their mountain homes, Issachar provides a commander-in-chief, Zebulun and Naphtali come down from the high places to jeopardise their lives unto the death!

Judges 5:14. Machir was the eldest son, i.e. the chief clan, of Manasseh (Joshua 17:1).

Judges 5:15. In Reuben there are great searchings or soundings of heart to be or not to be craven deliberations and discussions while the enemy's chariots are thundering through the land and a nation's existence is at stake.