Judges 4:1
_DEBORAH AND BARAK DELIVER ISRAEL FROM JABIN AND SISERA: JAEL PUTS SISERA TO DEATH._ _Before Christ 1294._... [ Continue Reading ]
_DEBORAH AND BARAK DELIVER ISRAEL FROM JABIN AND SISERA: JAEL PUTS SISERA TO DEATH._ _Before Christ 1294._... [ Continue Reading ]
JABIN, KING OF CANAAN— _Canaan_ here means the Canaanites properly so called. Jabin was, doubtless, a descendant of the Jabin spoken of Joshua 11:1; Judges 11:23 and _Jabin,_ probably, (like Pharaoh,) was the common name of these kings. From the formidable _number_ of his chariots, Joshua 4:3 we may... [ Continue Reading ]
DEBORAH, A PROPHETESS, &C.— Like Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, Deborah was enriched with the gifts of heaven, necessary to instruct, to direct, and to govern: besides which, God excited her by the Holy Spirit to declare his will to the people, as appears by the following part of this histor... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SHE SENT AND CALLED BARAK, &C.— In virtue of her supreme authority, which was uncontested by the whole nation, she sent for Barak; concerning whom we know no more than that he was born or dwelt in the city of _Kedesh,_ in the tribe of _Naphtali. Tabor,_ towards which Barak was ordered to draw hi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND BARAK SAID UNTO HER— Does not Barak shew here some degree of incredulity, ill agreeing with that eulogy given of him by St. Paul, Hebrews 11:32? Certainly not: his is not the language of incredulity, but of prudence and precaution. He doubts not that Deborah speaks to him in the name of the Lord... [ Continue Reading ]
AT HIS FEET— Deborah and Barak first went to Kedesh to levy the necessary forces, Judges 4:9.; which collected, they set forward for mount Tabor, Judges 4:6. Barak having the men _at his feet; i.e._ following him as their general.... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW HEBER THE KENITE— This verse is a parenthesis, to render more intelligible what follows in the 17th verse. The Kenites lived after the manner of the Midianites, from whom they descended, in _tents,_ not in _houses. Zaanaim_ was in the tribe of Naphtali, where there was _a plain,_ or rather _an o... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD DISCOMFITED SISERA— Though the expression in the text may be well understood according to the Scripture idiom, without any miraculous interposition; yet it is generally supposed, from the signification of the original word ויהם _vayaham,_ (which imports a terror by the noise of thunder... [ Continue Reading ]
SISERA FLED—TO THE TENT OF JAEL— The common Arabs so far observe the modes of the east, as to have a separate apartment in their tents for their wives, made by letting down a curtain, or a carpet, upon occasion, from one of their pillars; though they are not so rigid as some of the eastern people in... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN JAEL, HEBER'S WIFE, &C.— This nail was one of those great _pins_ with which they fastened the tents to the ground. Bishop Patrick upon this event observes, that she might as well have let Sisera lie in his profound sleep till Barak took him, if she had not felt a Divine power moving her to this... [ Continue Reading ]