Song of Deborah - Judges 5

Chapter 5 gives a lot more details about the battle that happened in chapter 4 because it’s a song that everyone agrees Deborah wrote. TB spends over 3 hours discussing this chapter but I’m just going to go over what I thought was interesting. One reason I’m not going to get into too much detail with this chapter is because TB says that even amongst Biblical scholars, this chapter is difficult to understand simply because it contains so much cultural reference that it’s hard to decipher. So if THEY can’t do it, surely I stand no chance. Verse 2 begins the song “Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.” I’m not a translation expert or anything but I like the caveat here that God did indeed deliver victory to Israel but only AFTER “the people willingly offered themselves,” which to me means after they repented. The victory didn’t come because God felt like it, it came because the people had been sufficiently humbled by the hardships at the hands of Jabin and they were ready to be obedient. Yesterday I talked about the concept of preparation and the role that it plays in people’s readiness to fulfill God’s will. This is an excellent example of that because the people were righteous under Ehud, but then rebelled against God, then it took 20 years of occupation under the hand of Jabin before they were ready to repent and be righteous again. This begs the question, for me anyway, why did it take 20 years for them to be ready to repent? Why didn’t they do it after 8 years? Why did they do it at all in the first place? Were they ready to repent earlier but they had to sit in their suffering for longer in order to cement that loyalty? How does God determine the time line for suffering? What factors are involved? It’s like an equation of human psychology, what requirements go into someone being considered ready? It’s just interesting to think about.

Verses 10 and 11 are complicated but basically it means that when Barak went to the other tribes to gather soldiers, Ephraim sent many soldiers, Machir means Manasseh in this context and even their politicians came out to fight, and Zebulun “that that handle the pen of the writer.” This phrase was in reference to the fact that the only people who knew how to write were well educated and businessmen and even they came out to fight in God’s battle as well as “princes of Issachar were with Deborah,” all these were men who probably wouldn’t have been expected to fight as soldiers in a battle, but they did, they had enough faith to put down their cushy lives and go march around in the dirt to fight a vastly superior force. Now that’s courage.

However, Reuben didn’t come to fight, which was a breach of contract because when Moses gave them the ok to live in the land east of the Jordan river, the tribes of Rueben and Gad promised to send soldiers to fight in Israel’s wars, but neither Reuben nor Gad fulfilled their end of the bargain at this point, instead staying among their sheep. Dan stayed in his “ships” which means he stayed in his ports because Dan had made alliances with all those Canaanite peoples and shipping was big business, they didn’t want to give that up. Zebulun and Naphtali risked their lives to fight in “the high places of the field… they took no gain of money.” I’m not sure what that means but I think Tb mentioned something that this meant that this wasn’t a war waged in order to loot their enemies, it was a war “they fought from heaven,” or that was ordained of heaven.

Interestingly, remember yesterday when I wondered what exactly Sisera and his troops saw that scared them so badly that they panicked and ran away and I speculated that maybe it was an Elijah situation where there were surrounding angel troops fighting for Israel. Well, in verse 20 it says, “they found from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.” TB mentioned that the stars of heaven is many times used to reference angels and HE speculated that perhaps angels came and fought against Sisera on Israel’s behalf, just like I wondered yesterday, which was interesting. Verse 21 was referenced yesterday because it seems to indicate that there was a river that “swept them away.” This is referring to the River Kishon which was usually a trickle during the summer months but can become flash flooding in the case of storms that happen sometimes in the desert. It seems that one of these storms happened at the exact moment Sisera was waiting for Barak to come fight. The IM says, “The song of Deborah seems to suggest that just such an unexpected downpour, accompanied by thunder and lightening, suddenly struck the area. The chariots of Sisera bogged down in the resulting overflow of the Kishon River, making is possible for the smaller forces of Deborah and Barak to achieve victory. Deborah rightly saw in this event the hand of the Lord and gave Him credit for the victory.”

Deborah quotes an angel of the Lord who curses a specific city, Meroz, because they would not come out to help, but no other information is given about that. She next goes on to praise Jael, “blessed above women.” TB notes that this doesn’t actually mean that she’s to be revered above any other woman, it’s just a saying expressing admiration for her. Jael was not a Hebrew, she did not worship the Hebrew God so she had no obligation to Him, but she carried out his will anyway and whenever a non-Israelite works for the benefit of Israel, they are impressed.

Finally, there’s a weird part where it seems like Deborah is mocking Sisera’s mother as she waits for him to return from battle, I’m not sure about this but basically it is from the mother’s perspective asking why her son was taking so long to return home and her handmaids answer that it’s probably because he’s taking so many spoils of war that it’s a long time to divide among his men. Finishing, she says, “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.” Let all of God’s enemies be defeated just like Sisera was, is what she’s saying. And under Deborah’s leadership, that part of Israel “had rest” or was righteous for 40 years.