Judges 4:8 Kommentar

The method of the history of Deborah and Barak (the heroes in this chapter) is the same with that before Here is, I. Israel revolted from God (Jdg 4:1). II. Israel oppressed by Jabin (Jdg 4:2, Jdg 4:3). III. Israel judged by Deborah (Jdg 4:4, Jdg 4:5). IV. Israel rescued out of the hands of Jabin. 1. Their deliverance is concerted between Deborah and Barak (Jdg 4:6, Jdg 4:9). 2. It is accomplished by their joint-agency. Barak takes the field (Jdg 4:10). Sisera, Jabin's general, meets him (Jdg 4:12, Jdg 4:13). Deborah encourages him (Jdg 4:14). And God gives him a complete victory. The army routed (Jdg 4:15, Jdg 4:16). The general forced to flee (Jdg 4:17). And where he expected shelter he had his life stolen from him by Jael while he was asleep (Jdg 4:18-21), which completes Barak's triumph (Jdg 4:22). and Israel's deliverance (Jdg 4:23, Jdg 4:24).

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 4 This chapter shows how that Israel sinning was delivered into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, by whom they were oppressed twenty years, Jdg 4:1; and that Deborah and Barak consulted together about their deliverance, Jdg 4:4; and that Barak, encouraged by Deborah, gathered some forces and fought Sisera the captain of Jabin's army, whom he met, and obtained a victory over, Jdg 4:10; who fleeing on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber, was received into it, and slain by her while asleep in it, Jdg 4:16; which issued in a complete deliverance of the children of Israel, Jdg 4:23.

And Barak said unto her,.... To Deborah, after she had delivered the words of the Lord unto him: if thou wilt go with me, then I will go; which showed faith hi the word of the Lord, for which he is commended, and a readiness to do the will of God, and courage to engage in such a work with a powerful adversary, and is therefore reckoned among the heroes for faith, Heb 11:32, but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go; which though it might discover some weakness in him, yet showed the high opinion he had of Deborah as a judge of Israel, and prophetess of the Lord; being desirous that he might have her with him to pray to God for him, to give him advice and counsel on any emergency, she being as the oracle God; and whereby he testified his regard to the Lord, and to his presence, which he concluded he should have, the prophetess being with him; and more especially his reason for insisting on her going with him might be to prevail upon the inhabitants of Naphtali and Zebulun to go with him, who he might fear would not believe him, or pay any regard to his words, and be in dread of engaging with the enemy, unless she was present; which he supposed would satisfy them as to the mind of God in it, and animate them, and give them heart and spirit.

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.” How great, I say, the fortitude of the widow who does not protect her son from dangers through motherly affection but rather with the zeal of a mother exhorts her son to go forth to victory, while saying that the decisive point of that victory is in the hand of a woman!

Indeed, nothing—nothing, I repeat—is more potent than a good and prudent woman in molding a man and shaping his soul in whatever way she desires. For he will not bear with friends, or teachers, or magistrates in the same way as with his wife, when she admonishes and advises him. Her admonition, in fact, carries with it a kind of pleasure, because of his very great love of the one who is admonishing him. Moreover, I could mention many men, formerly harsh and stubborn, who have become more tractable by this means. She shares with him his table and couch, the procreating of his children, his spoken words and secret thoughts, his comings and goings, and a great many other things as well. She is devoted to him in all things and as closely bound to him as the body is fastened to the head. If she chances to be prudent and diligent, she will surpass and excel all in her solicitude for her husband.Therefore, I beseech women to carry this out in practice and to give their husbands only the proper advice. For, just as a woman has great power for good, so also she has it for evil. A woman destroyed Absalom; a woman destroyed Amnon; a woman would have destroyed Job; a woman saved Nabal from being murdered; a woman saved an entire nation. Furthermore, Deborah and Judith and innumerable other women directed the success of men who were generals. And that is why Paul said, “For how do you know, woman, whether you will save your husband?” In his day, too, we see Persis and Mary and Priscilla sharing in the apostle’s difficult trials. You also ought to imitate these women and mold the character of your husbands, not only by your words but also by your example.

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. Lord, because they are so arrogant, because they have come with a mighty army, because their prince is Nebuchadnezzar the king of the Assyrians, because they are the forces of the sons of Lot, because they follow the example of the fallen angels, because in their pride they have claimed equality with you; for all these reasons, I beg of you to overpower them, not by a man but to their shame by a woman.“They became dung on the ground.” Who? Midian, Sisera and Jabin, these three became putrid on the ground like dung. The name Midian means “one who is negligent of judgment.” The warriors against your people are heedless of the judgment that is to come. Sisera is understood as “the vision of a horse.” Your people’s enemies are not of your flock or of your herd but are stallions that rage with madness over the fillies. Stallions are always ready for battle. “And Jabin.” Jabin means “discernment.” They who trust in their own wisdom and not in the glory of God rot on the ground like dung. They who were glorying in their army, whose king was the Assyrian, and who used to boast “I will scale the heavens,” not only fell down to earth but on the ground became dung.

DEBORAH AND BARAK DELIVER ISRAEL FROM JABIN AND SISERA. (Jdg. 4:1-17) The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, when Ehud was dead--The removal of the zealous judge Ehud again left his infatuated countrymen without the restraint of religion.

Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go--His somewhat singular request to be accompanied by Deborah was not altogether the result of weakness. The Orientals always take what is dearest to the battlefield along with them; they think it makes them fight better. The policy of Barak, then, to have the presence of the prophetess is perfectly intelligible as it would no less stimulate the valor of the troops, than sanction, in the eyes of Israel, the uprising against an oppressor so powerful as Jabin.

Oppression of Israel by Jabin, and Deliverance by Deborah and Barak - Judges 4-5 This fresh oppression of the Israelites, and the glorious victory which they obtained over Sisera, Jabin's general, through the judge Deborah and the heroic warrior Barak, are so fully described in Deborah's triumphal song in Judg 5, that this song may be regarded as a poetical commentary upon that event. It by no means follows from this fact, however, that the historical account in Judg 4 was first of all founded upon the ode, and was merely intended to furnish an explanation of the song itself. Any such assumption is overthrown by the fact that the prose account in Judg 4, contains, as even Bertheau acknowledges, some historical details which we look for in vain in the song, and which are of great assistance in the interpretation of it. All that we can infer with any probability from the internal connection between the historical narrative and the Song of Deborah is, that the author of our book took both of them from one common source; though the few expressions and words which they contain, such as שׂמיכה in Jdg 4:18, תּצנח in Jdg 4:21, משׁכתּ in Jdg 4:6, and ויּהם in Jdg 4:15, do not throw any light upon the source from which they were derived. For, with the exception of the first, which is not met with again, the whole of them occur in other passages-the second in Jdg 1:14 and Jos 15:18, the third in the same sense in Jdg 20:37, and the fourth in Exo 14:24 and Jos 10:10. And it by no means follows, that because in the passages referred to, "yaahom is found in close association with songs or poetical passages" (Bertheau), the word itself must be borrowed from the same source as the songs, viz., from the book of Jasher (Jos 10:13). For המם is found in the same signification in Sa1 7:10; Exo 23:27, and Deu 2:15, where we look in vain for any songs; whilst it always occurs in connection with the account of a miraculous overthrow of the foe by the omnipotent power of God.

Barak replied that he would not go unless she would go with him - certainly not for the reason suggested by Bertheau, viz., that he distrusted the divine promise given to him by Deborah, but because his mistrust of his own strength was such that he felt too weak to carry out the command of God. He wanted divine enthusiasm for the conflict, and this the presence of the prophetess was to infuse into both Barak and the army that was to be gathered round him. Deborah promised to accompany him, but announced to him as the punishment for this want of confidence in the success of his undertaking, that the prize of victory - namely, the defeat of the hostile general - should be taken out of his hand; for Jehovah would sell (i.e., deliver up) Sisera into the hand of a woman, viz., according to Jdg 4:17., into the hand of Jael. She then went with him to Kedesh, where Barak summoned together Zebulun and Naphtali, i.e., the fighting men of those tribes, and went up with 10,000 men in his train ("at his feet," i.e., after him, Jdg 4:14; cf. Exo 11:8 and Deu 11:6) to Tabor ("went up:" the expression is used here to denote the advance of an army against a place). Kedesh, where the army assembled, was higher than Tabor. זעק, Hiphil with acc., to call together (cf. Sa2 20:4-5). Before the engagement with the foe is described, there follows in Jdg 4:11 a statement that Heber the Kenite had separated himself from his tribe, the children of Hobab, who led a nomad life in the desert of Judah (Jdg 1:16), and had pitched his tents as far as the oak forest at Zaanannim (see at Jos 19:33) near Kedesh. This is introduced because of its importance in relation to the issue of the conflict which ensued (Jdg 4:17 ff). נפרד with Kametz is a participle, which is used in the place of the perfect, to indicate that the separation was a permanent one.