_THE SONG OF DEBORAH AND BARAK._ _Before Christ 1294._ _JUDGES 5:1. THEN SANG DEBORAH,_ &C.— According to the usual custom of those times, a triumphant _song_ or ode was composed by the prophetess Deborah, and sung by her and Barak, the people, most probably, bearing their part with them. Dr. Lowt... [ Continue Reading ]
PRAISE YE THE LORD— Full of gratitude for this signal mark of divine favour, Deborah begins her song with a noble acknowledgment of God's assistance, and, as usual in poems of this kind, bursts forth in the next verse into a fine apostrophe, with all that variety of change in numbers and persons, wh... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD, WHEN THOU WENTEST OUT OF SEIR— The argument of this ode is, the delivery of the people of Israel, by the assistance of God, from bondage; which the sacred writer briefly proposing at the beginning, and having summoned the kings and princes of the neighbouring nations to take note of so great a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Judges 5:5_. The mountains flowed down at the presence of Jehovah, Even Sinai at the presence of Jehovah, the God of Israel. See Habakkuk 3:6. Isaiah 64:1; Isaiah 64:12. Psalms 68:8. Deuteronomy 1:19. An introduction so unexpectedly made from such great topics, breathes the free and fervent spirit... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE DAYS OF SHAMGAR— The prophetess in these verses gives us a description of the wretched state of Israel during the time of that captivity, from which she, by the assistance of God, delivered them. It is very easy, says the author of the _Observations,_ (p. 216.) to turn out of the roads in the... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY CHOSE NEW GODS— This verse is differently rendered. Some interpreters suppose that the meaning simply is, that in consequence of the Israelitish idolatry, war and destruction overtook them: forsaking God, they were forsaken of him, and given up into the hand of their enemies; who, to prevent th... [ Continue Reading ]
SPEAK, YE THAT RIDE ON WHITE ASSES— These are supposed to have been _asses_ of the _Zebra_ kind צחר _zachar._ The author of the _Observations,_ however, (p. 268.) is of opinion, "that these asses are not called _white_ on account of their natural colour, but rather from their _caparisons,_ according... [ Continue Reading ]
LEAD THY CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE—THEN HE MADE HIM, &C.— I conceive that this passage is to be understood totally different. The word rendered _have dominion,_ in the 13th verse ירד _ierad,_ is in the 14th very properly rendered _came down,_ which is its true meaning, and agreeably to that which it ought t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE PRINCES OF ISSACHAR— Mr. Green, transposing the concluding word of the last verse_, seper,_ to the beginning of this, reads, _The princes of Issachar were numbered with Deborah and Barak, when Barak was sent on foot into the valley._ See ch. Judges 4:10. After having commended those who glor... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KINGS CAME AND FOUGHT— Several kings of Canaan, most probably, had united themselves with Jabin in this expedition. _Taanach_ and _Megiddo_ were two cities belonging to the Manassites, Joshua 17:11. _They took no gain of money,_ is variously interpreted. "The simple sense," says Bishop Patrick,... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY FOUGHT FROM HEAVEN— This would be rendered more properly, _the stars fought from heaven: they fought from their orbits_ [their _paths_ or _courses_] _against Sisera._ See on ch. Judges 4:14. It is no unusual thing for the sacred writers to speak of inanimate things as engaged in war against the... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN WERE THE HORSE-HOOFS BROKEN— The word _prancings_ destroys the whole force of this passage. The sacred writer means to inform us of the extreme haste and precipitation with which the vanquished fled. The word דהר _dahar_ is used but once more in Scripture, Nahum 3:2 where, from the words it is... [ Continue Reading ]
CURSE YE MEROZ, SAID THE ANGEL OF THE LORD— It is plain from the corresponding clause, that Meroz was a city, the _inhabitants whereof_ refused to assist in this war, and therefore are thus solemnly devoted by the angel of the Lord. See Joshua 5:14. _Against the mighty,_ at the close of this verse,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MOTHER OF SISERA LOOKED OUT, &C.— Dr. Lowth produces this passage as a most beautiful example of the prosopopoeia: "We have, in the first place," says he, "the most striking image of maternal solicitude, and of a mind divided between hope and fear, both in the behaviour and words of Sisera's mot... [ Continue Reading ]