Judges 5:16

among the sheepfolds Genesis 49:14, cf. Psalms 68:13; the meaning is uncertain; it ought to be -fire-places" or -ash-heaps," according to the etymology of the Hebr. word.

the pipings for the flocks The root is used of whistling, hissing, in order to call together, Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 7:18; Zechariah 10:8; cf. pastoria sibilaof Ovid, Met. xiii. 785 (Moore); it does not mean -to play on the flute." The last line of this verse is incorrectly repeated from Judges 5:15 b.

Reuben was settled E. of the Jordan, N. of Moab, and probably became to a great extent merged in the native population; see the prayer in Deuteronomy 33:6. Already the tribe was losing political importance; it preferred an isolated, agricultural life to taking part in the national movement.

Gilead is usually the country occupied by the Israelites on the E. of the Jordan, from the Yarmuk (Sherî-at el-Menâḍire) in the N. to the valley of Heshbon (Wadi Ḥesbân) in the S. Reuben inhabited the lower part, and East-Manasseh, probably at a later period, obtained possession of the upper. Here Gilead is not a country but a tribe, and, we may suppose, stands for Gad.

Dan, why did he remain in ships? An obscure line. The reference is not to the southern settlements of Dan (Joshua 19:40 ff.), but to the northern (ch. Judges 18:27 ff.): the migration described in the latter passage must have taken place before the time of this Ode; see on Judges 1:34. Laish (Tell el-Ḳâdî, near Bâniâs), however, is far inland; Dan nowhere reached the sea-coast. Hence remain in shipsis taken to mean -sojourns near the sea-faring people." The verb strictly = -to dwell as a protected alien," and might imply that Dan lived in dependence upon a powerful neighbour; but to take shipsas = -shipping people," i.e. the Phoenicians, is to strain the language. Sojourns in shipsmight perhaps mean that the Danites had to work the Phoenician galleys, and so were not at liberty to take up the cause of their Israelite brethren (so Budde Comment., and E. Meyer).

Asher occupied the Hinterlandof the Phoenician coast, and perhaps was not sufficiently independent of the Phoenicians to join the Israelite muster.

by his creeks The word occurs only here; but light is thrown upon it by Arabic, which uses nouns from the same root in the sense of a gapby which boats ascend the mouthof a river; so render landing-places.

In Genesis 49:13 the expressions -dwells by the sea shore," -the shore of ships" are found in connexion with Zebulun, and may be borrowed from here. Lagrange, on the contrary, thinks that they are inserted here from Genesis 49, and that Dan and Asher are foreign to the original text; he retains creeksin the sense of gorgesfor Gilead. This is one way of overcoming the difficulties.