Judgeschapter 4
24 verses · Samuel, by tradition · 11th century BC · History
And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
Introduction
Samuel, by tradition, History, Judges Overview.
Samuel, by tradition · Narrative · Judges, the Former Prophets · [The book of Judges](/book/judges) This chapter tells a northern war in prose, and the chapter after it sings the same war as a poem. The writer is unnamed. It was written for tribes who had spent twenty years pressed into the hills while an enemy held the valley below them. Listen for who gives the orders, who hesitates and who finishes the work, because the answers surprised a first hearer. Notice how much the account depends on the ground where it happens. Read it beside chapter 5 to see how Israel remembered one victory twice.
Context
- Who
- Israelites in the north who farmed within sight of the great valley
- What
- The prose account of Israel's victory over Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, under Deborah and Barak, finished by Jael.
- Where
- The valley of Jezreel in the north, with Mount Tabor and the Kishon river, and Deborah's seat between Ramah and Bethel.
- When
- About 1210 to 1170 BC on the traditional reckoning, after twenty years of pressure from Hazor counted from the death of Ehud.
- Why
- To record how the LORD broke twenty years of Canaanite control of the northern valley.
Historical context
Three people carry the chapter and two of them are women: Deborah, a prophetess already judging Israel when it opens; Barak son of Abinoam of Kedesh in Naphtali, the commander she summons; and Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, whose household had separated from the rest of the Kenites and camped in the north. The time is the end of a twenty year pressure from a Canaanite city in the north, counted by the text from the death of Ehud.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The valley of Jezreel is the flat heart of the north, the corridor used by every army moving between Egypt and Mesopotamia, and the one part of Israel where chariots worked to full effect. Mount Tabor rises abruptly out of that plain and the Kishon runs along its foot. The occasion is the LORD's word already given to Barak, which Deborah puts to him as a question at verse 6 rather than as fresh news.
A first hearer knew what an open-air court was, since Deborah sits under a palm on a known road with no building and no bench, hearing disputes where the whole town could see whether the ruling was fair. He knew why Tabor was chosen, since chariots cannot climb it, so ten thousand men on its slopes are a threat Sisera has to answer from the flat ground at its foot.
He knew that the Kishon is a dry cracked bed for most of the year and becomes a bog in a downpour that takes a wheel to the axle. And he knew the rules of a nomad camp, where the women pitched and struck the tents, so a woman had a mallet in her hand and knew how hard to drive a peg. Offering a fugitive milk and a covering placed him under the household's protection.
Significance
For hearers in the north this was the day the valley was opened. Twenty years of being held to the hills ended in a single afternoon.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter also puts two women at the centre of a war story, one who summons the general and one who kills the enemy commander, while the man with the army has to be talked into going. Barak takes the victory and the honour of the day goes elsewhere, exactly as he was warned at verse 9.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This is one of two chapters in the first half of Judges that a congregation hears in the synagogue, and it is heard once a year. It stands in the reading from the Prophets that follows the Torah portion of the crossing of the sea, the portion called Beshalach. The Ashkenazi rite begins that reading inside this chapter and carries it through the song of the next. The Sephardi rite begins at the song, so the prose account of Deborah and Barak is heard in the Ashkenazi rite alone. That the reading was paired with the crossing of the sea so that one victory song would follow the other is the writer's reading. It rests on the file that carries the three Haftarah uses of this book, and it is marked as the writer's reading until a source for the pairing is filed. Judges has no weekly portion of its own, so a reader should picture this chapter as a passage heard on one Sabbath rather than as part of a run through the book.
How it is read
The corpus keeps twenty-three notes on this chapter and is the most evenly divided in the book. Rashi stands in thirteen places in the Metsudah Tanach series of Lakewood, New Jersey, under CC-BY, and Radak and Metzudat David in ten between them, in the Sefaria Community Translation under CC0. The Jewish reading of Deborah begins with a tradition about her household. Rashi takes the name Lappidoth, which means torches, and reads it as a trade rather than only as a husband's name. She "fashioned wicks for the sanctuary", on the authority of a discussion in tractate Megillah (Rashi on Judges 4:4:1). At the next verse he adds that she owned date trees in Jericho, which is how she came to sit under a palm (Rashi on Judges 4:5:1). The office itself the commentators leave where the text puts it. This site's own treatment of that question, with the holders on each side, stands in the book dossier rather than here.
Rashi reads the twenty years of oppression as a particular kind of cruelty. Reporting Rabbi Tanchuma, he takes the word for harshness to mean that Sisera oppressed Israel "through ridicule" (Rashi on Judges 4:3:1). He proves the sense from a line in Malachi where the same word carries mockery of the worship of God. Harosheth-hagoyim he identifies with Targum Jonathan as a fortified seat of authority (Rashi on Judges 4:2:1). Radak explains the drawing out of Sisera at the Kishon by a tradition about his diviners. They had seen that he would lose if he went out, and God drew his heart to go out anyway (Radak on Judges 4:7:1). At the fourteenth verse Radak again takes the Targum's reading, that the angel of the LORD had gone out before Barak to make him succeed (Radak on Judges 4:14:1).
The one open dispute in the chapter is over Deborah's word to Barak about a woman. Radak reports the reading he rejects before he gives his own. "Some explain it as Yael, since Sisera was delivered into her hands", and they hold that Deborah said it prophetically. Radak answers that this does not fit the first half of the verse about Barak's own glory. He reads the woman as Deborah herself, so that the deliverance would be called by her name (Radak on Judges 4:9:1). A Christian reader who has always heard the line as a prediction of Jael should know that the great medieval commentator read it of the prophetess who spoke it.
Radak also explains why Sisera ran where he did. He fled apart from his army, which ran for home, because he knew he would be overtaken on that road. He chose a place near the battle where no one would look for him, and where there was peace between the two houses (Radak on Judges 4:17:1). Rashi's notes on the tent are short and physical. The milk was given because milk brings on drowsiness (Rashi on Judges 4:19:1). The peg is the one driven into the ground to hold the lower flap of the tent out (Rashi on Judges 4:21:1). At the twenty-second verse he says she had driven it through the temple and into the ground (Rashi on Judges 4:22:1). Metzudat David opens the chapter by dating the evil from the day Ehud died, which is why he holds the deliverance under Shamgar was a small one (Metzudat David on Judges 4:1:1).
The chapter's other kept notes are short. Deborah's summons is read as a command already given through Moses, on the authority of the Mekhilta (Rashi on Judges 4:6:1). Barak's answer means that he would go if she went with him (Metzudat David on Judges 4:8:1). The ten thousand at his heels went with him (Rashi on Judges 4:10:1). Elon-bezaanannim is the marshland plain, on the Targum's reading, with the old French and the Talmudic phrase for water-filled ditches behind it (Rashi on Judges 4:11:1). Sisera understood from Barak's going up that he meant war, and that he had gone up to fortify himself on the mountain (Metzudat David on Judges 4:12:1). Sisera mobilized his force from Harosheth to the stream of Kishon (Rashi on Judges 4:13:1). The rout is death by the sharpness of the sword (Metzudat David on Judges 4:15:1), and the phrase for the survivors means that even one was gone (Metzudat David on Judges 4:16:1). The covering Jael threw over him is a cloak, on the reading of Rav Hai (Rashi on Judges 4:18:1). His order to her to stand at the door Rashi reads two ways, as a charge to be watchful and as an infinitive, because the Hebrew form is masculine (Rashi on Judges 4:20:1). The hand of Israel grew heavier on Jabin more each time (Metzudat David on Judges 4:24:1). Malbim on Judges 4:45:1 stands with no English text and is cited here unquoted.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-four Midrash and six Talmud, and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Jabin and his city are taken up at Bamidbar Rabbah 16:10 and Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 1:1. The nine hundred chariots and the cry to the LORD draw Bamidbar Rabbah 10:2, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Pesakhim 10:17 and Esther Rabbah 5:4. Deborah herself draws the run a reader will want first. Her prophecy is taken up at Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Megillah 1:30, Ein Yaakov, Megillah 1:37 and Megillah 14a:16. Her seat under the palm draws Megillah 14a:17, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 2:31 and Sifrei Devarim 357:24. The two places in tractate Megillah are where the Talmud counts the prophetesses of Israel.
The summons of Barak draws Bereshit Rabbah 40:4 and Megillah 14b:10, with Bereshit Rabbah 98:17 across the sixth and seventh verses. His answer that he would go only with her is taken up at Bava Kamma 92b:16, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Kama 8:10 and Ein Yaakov, Bava Kamma 8:17. The ten thousand at his heels draw Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 14:20, and Heber the Kenite draws Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 30:10, Sifrei Bamidbar 78:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 169:3.
The muster at the Kishon is taken up at Aggadat Bereshit 60:1, Arakhin 15a:17 and Ein Yaakov, Pesakhim 10:28. Deborah's order to go down draws Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 17:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 964:5. The rout draws Midrash Shmuel 13:3 and Midrash Tehillim 18:16, and Sisera's flight draws Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 16:1 and Shemot Rabbah 4:2. Jael at the tent door draws Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 18:1 and Otzar Midrashim, Midrash Shelosha v'Arba'ah 1:14, and the milk draws Midrash Tehillim 136:3 and Niddah 55b:21. His order to her to stand at the door draws Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 29:4:3 and Vayikra Rabbah 7:6. The tent peg draws Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 31:25:2 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 10:19:3. The showing of the body to Barak draws Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayeshev 2:1. The subduing of Jabin closes the chapter at Midrash Tehillim 4:16. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Judges 4:2:1 to 4:22:1, thirteen notes, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Judges 4:7:1, 4:9:1, 4:14:1 and 4:17:1, the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Judges 4:1:1 to 4:24:1, six notes, the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0; Malbim, Malbim on Judges 4:45:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/judges/4.json, the 40 rabbinic locators of this chapter, 34 Midrash and 6 Talmud; The reading table, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the Beshalach entry at lines 116 and 117, read by haftarahUsesForChapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Deborah sends for Barak; he will not go alone
Judges 4:1-3
Hazor is the city Joshua burned at Joshua 11:11. Readers differ over whether Jabin is a throne name carried by a later king or a house rebuilt on the old ground, and Adam Clarke takes him for a descendant of the first. His "nine hundred chariots of iron" answer Judges 1:19, and the cry of verse 3 is the book's third, after 3:9 and 3:15.
Judges 4:1
“When Ehud was dead - Why not when Shamgar was dead? Does this not intimate that Shamgar was not reckoned in the number of the judges?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Wesley explains the name Harosheth-hagoyim by the Gentiles who lived there or came there to trade. The region later bore the name "Galilee of the Gentiles". Adam Clarke reports a view that Jabin ruled Naphtali, Zebulun and Issachar while Deborah judged in Ephraim and Shamgar in Judah.
Judges 4:2
“Jabin king of Canaan - Probably a descendant of the Jabin mentioned Jos 11:1, etc., who had gathered together the wrecks of the army of that Jabin defeated by Joshua. Calmet supposes that these Canaanites had the dominion over the tribes of Naphtali, Zebulun, and Issachar; while Deborah judged in Ephraim, and Shamgar in Judah.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 4:2
“Of the Gentiles - So called, because it was much frequented and inhabited by the Gentiles; either by the Canaanites, who being beaten out of their former possessions, seated themselves in those northern parts; or by other nations coming there for traffick, whence Galilee, where this was, is called Galilee of the Gentiles.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Albert Barnes notes that the word for oppressed is the one Exodus 3:9 uses of Egypt's oppression of Israel. If the tribes were set to cutting timber, he says, their state resembled their ancestors' brick making. Twenty years is the longest servitude so far.
Judges 4:3
“Oppressed - The same word is used Exo 3:9 of the oppression of Israel by the Egyptians. If they were put to task-work in hewing timber, their condition was very like that of their ancestors making bricks.”
Judges 4:4-5
Deborah is the second woman in Scripture called a prophetess, after Miriam at Exodus 15:20, and like Miriam she sings the victory that follows. She is the one judge shown doing what the word means, since "the Israelites would go up to her for judgment". Her palm stands between Ramah and Bethel, in the middle of the land, while the war she sends Barak to is far north.
Judges 4:4
“Deborah, a prophetess - One on whom the Spirit of God descended, and who was the instrument of conveying to the Israelites the knowledge of the Divine will, in things sacred and civil. She judged Israel - This is, I believe, the first instance of gynaecocrasy, or female government, on record. Deborah seems to have been supreme both in civil and religious affairs; and Lapidoth, her husband, appears to have had no hand in the government. But the original may as well be translated a woman of Lapidoth, as the wife of Lapidoth.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 4:4
“Because these nations have come as enemies against your people, let us hear what judgment the psalmist calls down upon them. "Deal with them as with Midian; as with Sisera." You have read the book of Judges; this is that Midian whom Gideon defeated. "As with Sisera and Jabin." Jabin and Sisera are the foes whom Deborah and Barak conquered. "At the torrent Kishon, who perished at Endor." Deborah and Barak destroyed Sisera, the general of the army. So much for what Scripture says; learn now what it means.”
Jerome · written before 420 · HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 15 (Ps 82)patristic
Albert Barnes notes that judgment was usually given at the city gate, while Deborah sat under a palm on the secure heights of Ephraim. That setting suited her and the unsafe times. He draws from the verse that judges held civil as well as military office.
Judges 4:5
“She dwelt - Rather, “she sat,” namely, to judge the people Jdg 4:10, but not in the usual place, “the gate” Rth 4:1-2; Pro 22:22. It suited her character, and the wild unsafe times better, that she should sit under a palm-tree in the secure heights of Mount Ephraim, between Ramah and Bethel (Jdg 20:33 note). This verse shows that the Judges exercised the civil as well as military functions of rulers 1Sa 7:15-17.”
Judges 4:6-7
The two tribes called are Naphtali and Zebulun. Isaiah 9:1 names "the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali" as the country humbled in the past, the ground Matthew 4:15 places at the start of Christ's preaching. Tabor is a hill and the Kishon a riverbed, so the plan puts the foot soldiers on high ground and draws the chariots down to the low.
Judges 4:6
“Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded?--a Hebrew form of making an emphatic communication. Go and draw toward mount Tabor--an isolated mountain of Galilee, northeast corner of the plain of Esdraelon. It was a convenient place of rendezvous, and the enlistment is not to be considered as limited to ten thousand, though a smaller force would have been inadequate.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 4:6
“Kedesh Naphtali - So called, to distinguish it from other places of that name, one in Judah, and another in Issachar. Hath not the Lord, &c. - That is, assuredly God hath commanded thee; this is not the fancy of a weak woman, which peradventure thou mayst despise; but the command of the great God by my mouth.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
to the river Kishon: Albert Barnes describes the Kishon winding across the level plain of Esdraelon, the course that gives the stream its name. One of its sources rises at Mount Tabor, where Barak is told to gather. It flows west under Carmel to the Bay of Acre.
Judges 4:7
“The brook or stream Kishon (Nahr Mukutta), so called from its winding course, caused by the dead level of the plain of Esdraelon through which it flows, rises, in respect to one of its sources or feeders, in Mount Tabor, and flows nearly due west through the plain, under Mount Carmel, and into the Bay of Acre.”
Judges 4:8-9
Barak will go only if Deborah goes. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see an eastern commander taking what he trusts most into the field, Albert Barnes a weak faith, and Hebrews 11:32 lists Barak among the faithful without comment. Deborah names the cost, "the LORD will be selling Sisera into the hand of a woman", with the verb of verse 2.
Judges 4:8
And lastly, her son Barak shows the chief part of the victory was in the hands of a woman when he said, "If you will not go with me I will not go, because I do not know on what day the Lord will send his angel with me." How great, then, was the might of that woman to whom the leader of the army says, "If you will not go I will not go."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Concerning Widows 8.43-46patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 4:8
“I will not go - His offer to go with her, shews the truth of his faith, for which he is praised, Hebrew xi, 32, but his refusal to go without her, shews the weakness of his faith, that he could not trust God's bare word, as he ought to have done, without the pledge of the presence of his prophetess.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
into the hand of a woman: Albert Barnes sets this weak instrument beside Gideon's three hundred, David's sling, Shamgar's ox goad, and Samson's jawbone. In each case the power is shown to be God's. Shamgar's goad appeared only a few verses back, at 3:31.
Judges 4:9
“Mark the unhesitating faith and courage of Deborah, and the rebuke to Barak’s timidity, “the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (Jael, Jdg 4:22). For a similar use of a weak instrument, that the excellency of the power might be of God, compare the history of Gideon and his 300, David and his sling, Shamgar and his ox-goad, Samson and the jawbone of the ass. (See 1Co 1:26, 1Co 1:31.) Barak would probably think the woman must be Deborah. The prophecy was only explained by its fulfillment.”
Judges 4:10-11
Ten thousand foot soldiers follow Barak against nine hundred chariots, on ground the chariots own. The narrator stops the march to pitch one tent near Kedesh, placing Heber before he is needed. He comes from "the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses", so the household that ends this war descends from the kin who came in with Judah at 1:16 and then moved north alone.
Judges 4:10
“Ten thousand at his feet - That is, who followed him; possibly he intimates that they were all foot-men; and so this is emphatically added, to signify by what contemptible means God overthrew Sisera's great host.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Nine hundred chariots of iron swept away
Albert Barnes reports an identification of Zaanannim with Bessum, twelve miles southeast of Tabor. He takes Heber's move north as recent and suggests Philistine pressure caused it. John Gill says the cause of the move is uncertain.
Judges 4:11
“Now Heber the Kenite,.... A descendant of Kain, a principal man among the Midianites; the Targum calls him the Salmaean: which was of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses; who came along with the children of Israel through the wilderness into the land of Canaan, and first settled about Jericho, and then removed into the wilderness of Judah, Jdg 1:16, had severed himself from the Kenites; which dwelt in the said wilderness; to whom he belonged when this separation was made, and on what account is not certain.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 4:11
“Read, “Heber the Kenitc had severed himself from the Kenites which were of the children of Hobab,” etc., “unto the oak (or terebinth tree) in Zaanaim” (or Bitzaanaim, which Conder identifies with Bessum, twelve miles southeast of Tabor, and near Kedesh on the Sea of Galilee). This migration of Heber the Kenite, with a portion of his tribe, from the south of Judah to the north of Naphtali, perhaps caused by Philistine oppression, had clearly taken place recently.”
Judges 4:12-13
Sisera brings "all nine hundred of his iron chariots" to the Kishon, putting iron wheels into a riverbed at the foot of Tabor. The prose gives no reason for what becomes of them, and the song gives two: "from their courses they fought against Sisera" at 5:20, and "The River Kishon swept them away" at 5:21. The narrative keeps the means out of sight while the poem names it.
Sisera's own order carries out the word of verse 7, where the LORD said He would draw Sisera to the River Kishon. The commander marches where God said he would. Nine hundred iron chariots is the same force named in verse 3.
Judges 4:14-16
Deborah gives the order as a report, "the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand", with the verb already past. The King James word at verse 15, discomfited, has the LORD for its subject again at Joshua 10:10 and 1 Samuel 7:10. Barak meets chariots on the flat ground Judah could not hold at 1:19, and the man with nine hundred chariots "fled on foot".
Judges 4:14
“Up; for this is the day - This is exactly the purpose for which the Septuagint state, Jdg 4:8, that Barak wished Deborah to accompany him. “I know not,” says he, “The Day in which God will send his angel to give me prosperity: come thou with we that thou mayest direct me in this respect.” She went, and told him the precise time in which he was to make the attack: Up, for This is the Day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 4:14
“Barak went down from mount Tabor--It is a striking proof of the full confidence Barak and his troops reposed in Deborah's assurance of victory, that they relinquished their advantageous position on the hill and rushed into the plain in face of the iron chariots they so much dreaded.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Albert Barnes gives two reasons Sisera left his chariot. It may have stuck in the marsh, or he hoped pursuers would follow its tracks while he fled. Matthew Henry passes on a report that a violent hailstorm beat in the Canaanites' faces and drove them back.
Judges 4:15
“Lighted down off his chariot - Probably his chariot stuck in the morass (see the note at Jdg 4:7); or he might leave his chariot in order to mislead his pursuers, and in hope of gaining a place of safety while they were following the track of the chariot-wheels and the bulk of the host.”
2 more voices on this verse
Judges 4:15
“Discomfited - With great terror and noise, as the word signifies, probably with thunder and lightning, and hail-stones, poured upon them from heaven, as is implied, chap. v, 20. Edge of the sword - That is, by the sword of Barak and his army, whose ministry God used; but so, that they had little else to do, but to kill those whom God by more powerful arms had put to flight.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Judges 4:15
“Josephus says that a violent storm of hail which beat in their faces gave them this rout, disabled them, and drove them back; so that they became a very easy prey to the army of Israel, and Deborah's words were made good: " The Lord has delivered them into thy hand; it is now in thy power to do what thou wilt with them." V.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Barak chases the army all the way back to Harosheth-hagoyim, the town Sisera marched out from in verse 13. John Gill notes that no survivor reached Hazor to bring Jabin the news, Sisera alone excepted. Albert Barnes adds that the flooded Kishon drowned many.
Judges 4:16
“But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, unto Harosheth of the Gentiles,.... The place from whence they came, and to which they endeavoured to escape: but he followed them, so close all that way, and made such havoc of them, that all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword, and there was not a man left; no, not one, excepting Sisera, as in Jdg 4:17; or "even to one" (l), as in the original text; not one escaped to Hazor to acquaint Jabin of the loss of his army.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 4:16
“What with the overflowing of the Kishon Jdg 5:21, by which numbers were drowned, and the panic which had seized the defeated army, and made them an easy prey to the sword of the pursuing Israelites, Sisera’s whole force was cut to pieces and broken up.”
A tent peg through the temples
Judges 4:17-18
The peace between Jabin and "the house of Heber the Kenite" is stated first, so the reader knows why Sisera runs to that door. Adam Clarke notes that a man would not enter the women's quarters without leave, which made it the one place a pursuer would pass by. Jael says "Do not be afraid" and covers him "with a blanket", as a host does for a guest.
Jael goes out to greet Sisera here, and in verse 22 she goes out to greet Barak in the same words of the narrative. The blanket returns in verse 19, when she covers him again. Adam Clarke adds that every eastern dwelling kept a separate apartment for the women.
Judges 4:18
“Jael went out to meet Sisera - He preferred the woman’s tent because of secrecy; for, according to the etiquette of the eastern countries, no person ever intrudes into the apartments of the women. And in every dwelling the women have a separate apartment.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Judges 4:19-21
He asks for water and is given milk, which 5:25 tells again as curds "In a magnificent bowl". Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call the act murder, Matthew Henry holds she acted under a divine impulse as Ehud did, and Albert Barnes weighs that age's treachery against her faith and gives her due praise. Judges 5:24 calls her "Most blessed among women", and this chapter passes no sentence.
Judges 4:19
“She opened a bottle of milk - She gave more than he requested; and her friendship increased his confidence and security.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Gill hears the request as a plea. He notes that Jael gives no recorded answer to it. When a man does come in verse 22, Jael shows him the man he is seeking.
Judges 4:20
“And he said unto her, stand in the door of the tent,.... This he said, not in an imperious way, as some think, but by entreaty: and it shall be, when any man shall come and inquire of thee; seeing her at the door, and where he desired she would stand to prevent their coming into the tent: and say, is there any man here? any besides what belongs to the family? or any of Sisera's army? that thou shalt say, no; there is no man; but to this she made no answer that is recorded.”
John Wesley holds that Jael was emboldened by seeing heaven and the elements turned against Sisera, as a man marked for destruction. The peg, in the view of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, was one of the pins that fastened the tent ropes to the ground. Sleep left him defenseless.
Judges 4:21
“Then Jael took a nail of the tent--most probably one of the pins with which the tent ropes are fastened to the ground. Escape was almost impossible for Sisera. But the taking of his life by the hand of Jael was murder.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Judges 4:21
“A nail of the tent - Wherewith they used to fasten the tent, which consequently was long and sharp. This might seem a very bold attempt, but it must be considered, that she was encouraged to it, by observing that the heavens and all the elements conspired against him, as one devoted to destruction.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Judges 4:21
“If we can overlook the treachery and violence which belonged to the morals of the age and country, and bear in mind Jael’s ardent sympathies with the oppressed people of God, her faith in the right of Israel to possess the land in which they were now slaves, her zeal for the glory of Yahweh as against the gods of Canaan, and the heroic courage and firmness with which she executed her deadly purpose, we shall be ready to yield to her the praise which is her due. See Jdg 3:30 note.”
Judges 4:22-24
Barak arrives to be shown the man he came for, and the word of verse 9 is fulfilled before him. Albert Barnes holds that Barak would have taken the woman of that prophecy for Deborah, and only the event explained it. Verse 23 makes God the subject, "God subdued Jabin king of Canaan", and "the land had rest" is held back until 5:31.
Judges 4:22
“Behold, Sisera lay dead - What impression this made on the victorious Barak is not said: it could not give him much pleasure, especially when he learned the circumstances of his death.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
On that day answers Deborah's words in verse 14, this is the day. One day's battle ends a king's twenty years of harsh oppression from verse 3. The verb subdued belongs to God alone here.
Judges 4:23
“So God subdued on that day Jabin king of Canaan before the children, of Israel.”
Adam Clarke notes that the Hebrew doubles its verb here, going on and going, which the Berean renders as stronger and stronger. Israel followed up the victory until Jabin and his kingdom were destroyed. The end came by degrees.
Judges 4:24
“The hand of the children of Israel prospered - ותלך הלוך vattelech haloch, it went, going - they followed up this victory, and the consequence was, they utterly destroyed Jabin and his kingdom. It will naturally be expected that something should be said to justify the conduct of Jael: it must be owned that she slew Sisera in circumstances which caused the whole transaction to appear exceedingly questionable. They are the following: - 1. There was peace between her family and the king of Canaan.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A battle narrative in prose, framed by the cycle formula and closed in a tent rather than on the field, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The formula that opens the cycle | Verse 1 carries the fourth of the seven times the book says Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, at 2:11, 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6 and 13:1. The cry of verse 3 is the third of six in the book, after 3:9 and 3:15. The closing formula, that the land had rest, is withheld from this chapter and falls at 5:31 instead.The site's published exposition note on Judges 4:1 to 3, The store's `verse_notes` for Judges 4, catchword "Israel again did evil", citing Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863. | Judges 4:1, Judges 4:3 |
| The chariots of iron, answered | Nine hundred chariots of iron stand behind Sisera at verses 3 and 13, and the same phrase stood at 1:19 as the reason Judah could not hold the valley. The phrase falls four times in the whole Bible, at Joshua 17:16, Judges 1:19 and twice in this chapter. The obstacle that stopped the strongest tribe in chapter 1 is destroyed here on the ground it was strongest on.The site's published exposition note on Judges 4:1 to 3, The store's `verse_notes` for Judges 4, catchword "Israel again did evil", citing Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863. | Judges 4:3, Judges 4:13, Judges 1:19 |
| The word given, and the word discharged | Deborah tells Barak at verse 9 that the honour of the road he is taking will go to a woman, because the LORD will sell Sisera into a woman's hand. The sentence is discharged at verse 22, when Jael comes out to meet Barak and shows him the man he came for. Albert Barnes holds that Barak would have taken the woman of that saying to be Deborah, and that the word was explained only by its fulfilment.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Judges 4:22. | Judges 4:9, Judges 4:22 |
| The verb that sells a nation and a general | Verse 2 says the LORD sold Israel into the hand of Jabin. At verse 9 Deborah uses the same verb of Sisera, that the LORD will sell him into the hand of a woman. The word that describes the oppression at the start of the chapter describes its undoing at the end.The site's published exposition note on Judges 4:8 to 9, The store's `verse_notes` for Judges 4, catchword "And Barak said unto her", citing Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, and Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1832 to 1869. | Judges 4:2, Judges 4:9 |
| The tent set in place before it is needed | The narrator stops the march at verse 11 to say that Heber the Kenite had separated from the other Kenites and pitched his tent by the oak in Zaanannim near Kedesh. Nothing in the battle needs that sentence until verse 17, when Sisera runs to the one door a pursuer would pass by. The aside is the narrator speaking to the reader over the head of the story.The site's published exposition note on Judges 4:10 to 11, The store's `verse_notes` for Judges 4, catchword "Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali", citing Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763. | Judges 4:11, Judges 4:17 |
The structure of the chapter in the book's argument
15 more paragraphs on the patterns
The site's published guide for this book carries the third cycle as Deborah, Barak and Jael against Jabin of Hazor and his general Sisera, with twenty years of oppression at 4:3 and forty years of rest at 5:31. Twenty years is longer than the eight under Cushan-rishathaim and longer than the eighteen under Eglon, so the oppression has grown each time the cycle has turned.
The chapter also changes who does the fighting. Othniel went out himself and Ehud worked alone, and here the deliverer sends someone else and the enemy dies at a third person's hand. Deborah is the one judge in the book shown doing what the word ordinarily means, since people come to her for judgment before any deliverer is raised.
What this chapter hands to chapter 5 is the same battle told a second way. The prose gives no reason for what became of the chariots in the riverbed. The song gives two, that the stars in their courses fought against Sisera at 5:20 and that the river Kishon swept them away at 5:21. Both accounts stand in the book, the narrative keeping the mechanism out of sight and the poem naming it.
Deborah gives the order at verse 14 as a report rather than as a promise, since the verb is already past: this is the day the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand. The word rendered routed at verse 15 falls nine times in the King James Bible, and the LORD is its subject at Joshua 10:10 and 1 Samuel 7:10, where hailstones and thunder do the work.
The historical value
Hazor has been excavated. The site's published dossier records the work of Yigael Yadin from 1955 to 1958 and of Amnon Ben-Tor from 1990, and a Late Bronze destruction layer of about 1230 BC at the largest site in Canaan, burned violently, with statues of gods and kings deliberately mutilated. The dossier states plainly what is argued about it: who burned Hazor is contested, with Israelites, Sea Peoples or a rival Canaanite city all proposed. The excavated fact is the destruction of the exact city this chapter names as Jabin's seat.
The dossier also carries the Amarna Letters of about 1360 to 1330 BC, which describe city-kings with chariots holding the valleys while unsettled populations live in the hills. That is the military geography this chapter turns on, and it is why the plan draws the chariots into a riverbed.
The chariots themselves were light two-horse war carts with iron fittings, fast on flat ground and of little use on soft or broken ground. The site's published historical layer for Judges 1 sets out the same description, and the outcome at verse 15 is that the man with nine hundred of them finishes the day on foot.
The New Testament's use
The two tribes Deborah calls at verse 6 are Naphtali and Zebulun. Isaiah 9:1 names the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali as the country first brought into contempt, and Matthew 4:15 quotes that verse of the ground where Jesus began to preach. The country that furnished the infantry for this battle is the country the Gospel names as the first field of the ministry.
Hebrews 11:32 names Barak among those who through faith conquered kingdoms, and the letter records nothing of the condition he set at verse 8.
Where the chapter reaches
The Kenites of verse 11 are the family that came up with Judah from the City of Palms at 1:16, so the household that ends this war descends from the kin who entered the land with Moses' relatives. Jael's tent stands in the north because that one household moved north alone.
Deborah is the second woman in Scripture called a prophetess, after Miriam at Exodus 15:20, and like Miriam she sings the victory in the chapter that follows. The pairing is why the synagogue reads this chapter and the next as the Haftarah for the portion carrying the Song of the Sea.
The towns of the valley the battle is fought over are the towns Manasseh failed to clear at 1:27, and Taanach and Megiddo are named again in the song at 5:19.
Keep studying
Studies5
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Judges 4:22; The site's published dossier for Judges, src/components/book/dossier-content/judges.ts, the timeline entry anchored on Judges 4:21 and The site's published guide for the book of Judges, src/components/book/guides/judges/JudgesGuide.tsx, the cycle table.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.