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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J U D G E S
CHAP. V.
This chapter contains the triumphal song which was composed and sung
upon occasion of that glorious victory which Israel obtained over the
forces of Jabin king of Canaan and the happy consequences of that
victory. Probably it was usual then to publish poems upon such
occasions, as now; but this only is preserved of all the poems of that
age of the judges, because dictated by Deborah a prophetess, designed
for a psalm of praise then, and a pattern of praise to after-ages, and
it gives a great deal of light to the history of these times.
I. It begins with praise to God,
II. The substance of this song transmits the memory of this great
achievement.
1. Comparing God’s appearances for them on this occasion with his
appearances to them on Mount Sinai,
2. Magnifying their deliverance from the consideration of the
calamitous condition they had been in,
3. Calling those to join in praise that shared in the benefits of the
success,
4. Reflecting honour upon those tribes that were forward and active
in that war, and disgrace on those that declined the service,
5. Taking notice how God himself fought for them,
6. Celebrating particularly the honour of Jael, that slew Sisera, on
which head the song is very large,
It concludes with a prayer to God,
| The Song of Deborah and Barak. | B. C. 1285. |
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1 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day,
saying,
2 Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the
people willingly offered themselves.
3 Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will
sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of
Israel.
4 LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out
of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens
dropped, the clouds also dropped water.
5 The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai
from before the LORD God of Israel.
The former chapter let us know what great things God had done for
Israel; in this we have the thankful returns they made to God, that all
ages of the church might learn that work of heaven to praise God.
I. God is praised by a song, which is,
1. A very natural expression of rejoicing. Is any merry? Let him
sing; and holy joy is the very soul and root of praise and
thanksgiving. God is pleased to reckon himself glorified by our joy in
him, and in his wondrous works. His servants’ joy is his delight, and
their sons are melody to him.
2. A very proper expedient for spreading the knowledge and
perpetuating the remembrance of great events. Neighbours would learn
this song one of another and children of their parents; and by that
means those who had not books, or could not read, yet would be made
acquainted with these works of God; and one generation would
thus praise God’s works to another, and declare his mighty
acts,
Ps. cxlv. 4,
&c.
II. Deborah herself penned this song, as appears by
v. 7:
Till I Deborah arose. And the first words should be rendered,
Then she sang, even Deborah.
1. She used her gifts as a prophetess in composing the song, and the
strain throughout is very fine and lofty, the images are lively, the
expressions elegant, and an admirable mixture there is in it of
sweetness and majesty. No poetry is comparable to the sacred poetry.
And,
2. We may supposed she used her power as a princess, in obliging the
conquering army of Israel to learn and sing this son. She expects not
that they should, by their poems, celebrate her praises and magnify
here, but requires that in this poem they should join with her in
celebrating God’s praises and magnifying him. She had been the first
wheel in the action, and now is so in the thanksgiving.
III. It was sung on that day, not the very day that the fight was, but
on that occasion, and soon after, as soon as a thanksgiving day could
conveniently be appointed. When we have received mercy from God, we
ought to be speedy in our returns of praise, while the impressions of
the mercy are fresh. It is rent to be paid at the day.
1. She begins with a general Hallelujah: Praise (or
bless, for that is the word) you the Lord,
v. 2.
The design of the song is to give glory to God; this therefore is put
first, to explain and direct all that follows, like the first petition
of the Lord’s prayer, Hallowed be thy name. Two things God is
here praised for:–
(1.) The vengeance he took on Israel’s enemies, for the avenging of
Israel upon their proud and cruel oppressors, recompensing into their
bosoms all the injuries they had done to his people. The Lord is
known as a righteous God, and the God to whom vengeance belongs
by the judgments which he executeth.
(2.) The grace he gave to Israel’s friends, when the people
willingly offered themselves to serve in this war. God is to have
the glory of all the good offices that are at any time done us; and the
more willingly they are done the more is to be observed of that grace
which gives both to will and to do. For these two things she resolves
to leave this song upon record, to the honour of the everlasting God
(v. 3):
I, even I, will sing unto the Lord, Jehovah, that God of
incontestable sovereignty and irresistible power, even to the Lord
God of Israel, who governs all for the good of the church.
2. She calls to the great ones of the world, that sit at the upper end
of its table, to attend to her song, and take notice of the subject of
it: Hear, O you kings! give ear, O you princes!
(1.) She would have them know that as great and as high as they were
there was one above them with whom it is folly to contend, and to whom
it was their interest to submit, that horses and chariots are vain
things for safety.
(2.) She would have them to join with her in praising the God of
Israel, and no longer to praise their counterfeit deities, as
Belshazzar did.
He praised the gods of gold and silver. She bespeaks them as the
psalmist
Be wise now therefore, O you kings! serve the Lord with fear.
(3.) She would have them take warning by Sisera’s fate, and not dare to
offer any injury to the people of God, whose cause, sooner or later,
God will plead with jealousy.
3. She looks back upon God’s former appearances, and compares this with
them, the more to magnify the glorious author of this great salvation.
What God is doing should bring to our mind what he has done; for he is
the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever
(v. 4):
Lord, when thou wentest our of Seir. This may be understood
either,
(1.) Of the appearances of God’s power and justice against the enemies
of Israel to subdue and conquer them; and so
&c., is parallel to it,
where the destruction of the church’s enemies is thus described. When
God had led his people Israel from the country of Edom he brought down
under their feet Sihon and Og, striking them and their armies with such
terror and amazement that they seemed apprehensive heaven and earth
were coming together. Their hearts melted, as if all the world had been
melting round about them. Or it notes the glorious displays of the
divine majesty; and the surprising effects of the divine power, enough
to make the earth tremble, the heavens drop like snow before the sun,
and the mountains to melt. Compare
God’s counsels are so far from being hindered by any creature that,
when the time of their accomplishment comes, that which seemed to stand
in their way will not only yield before them, but be made to serve
them. See
Or,
(2.) It is meant of the appearances of God’s glory and majesty to
Israel, when he gave them his law at Mount Sinai. It was then literally
true, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, &c. Compare
Deut. xxxiii. 2; Ps. lxviii. 7, 8.
Let all the kings and princes know that this is the God whom Deborah
praises, and not such mean and impotent deities as they paid their
homage to. The Chaldee paraphrase applies it to the giving of the law,
but has a strange descant on those words, the mountains melted.
Tabor, Hermon, and Carmel, contended among themselves: one said, Let
the divine majesty dwell upon me; the other said, Let it dwell upon me;
but God made it to dwell upon Mount Sinai, the meanest and least of all
the mountains. I suppose it means the least valuable, because
barren and rocky.
6 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael,
the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through
byways.
7 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in
Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in
Israel.
8 They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a
shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
9 My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered
themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the LORD.
10 Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment,
and walk by the way.
11 They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the
places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous
acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the
inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of
the LORD go down to the gates.
Here,
I. Deborah describes the distressed state of Israel under the tyranny
of Jabin, that the greatness of their trouble might make their
salvation appear the more illustrious and the more gracious
(v. 6):
From the days of Shamgar, who did some thing towards the
deliverance of Israel from the Philistines, to the days of Jael, the
present day, in which Jael has so signalized herself, the country has
been in a manner desolate.
1. No trade. For want of soldiers to protect men of business in their
business from the incursions of the enemy, and for want of magistrates
to restrain and punish thieves and robbers among them (men of broken
fortunes and desperate spirits, that, having no employment, took to rob
on the highroad), all commerce ceased, and the highways were
unoccupied; no caravans of merchants, as formerly.
2. No travelling. Whereas in times when there was some order and
government the travellers might be safe in the open roads, and the
robbers were forced to lurk in the by-ways, no, on the contrary, the
robbers insulted on the open roads without check, and the honest
travellers were obliged to sculk and walk through by-ways, in continual
frights.
3. No tillage. The fields must needs be laid waste and unoccupied
when the inhabitants of the villages, the country farmers, ceased from
their employment, quitted their houses which were continually alarmed
and plundered by the banditti, and were obliged to take shelter for
themselves and their families in walled and fenced cities.
4. No administration of justice. There was war in the gates where
their courts were kept,
v. 8.
So that it was not till this salvation was wrought that the people
of the Lord durst go down to the gates,
v. 11.
The continual incursions of the enemy deprived the magistrates of the
dignity, and the people of the benefit, of their government.
5. No peace to him that went out nor to him that came in. The gates
through which they passed and repassed were infested by the enemy; nay,
the places of drawing water were alarmed by the archers–a mighty
achievement to terrify the drawers of water.
6. Neither arms nor spirit to help themselves with, not a shield
nor spear seen among forty thousand,
v. 8.
Either they were disarmed by their oppressors, or they themselves
neglected the art of war; so that, though they had spears and shields,
they were not to be seen, but were thrown by and suffered to rust, they
having neither skill nor will to use them.
II. She shows in one word what it was that brought all this misery upon
them: They chose new gods,
v. 8.
It was their idolatry that provoked God to give them up thus into the
hands of their enemies. The Lord their God was one Lord, but this would
not content them: they must have more, many more, still more. Their God
was the Ancient of days, still the same, and therefore they grew weary
of him, and must have new gods, which they were as fond of as children
of new clothes, names newly invented, heroes newly canonized. Their
fathers, when put to their choice, chose the Lord for their God
but they would not abide by that choice, they must have gods of their
own choosing.
III. She takes notice of God’s great goodness to Israel in raising up
such as should redress these grievances. Herself first
(v. 7):
Till that I Deborah arose, to restrain and punish those who
disturbed the public peace, and protect men in their business, and then
the face of things was changed for the better quickly; those beasts of
prey retired upon the breaking forth of this joyful light, and man
went forth again to his work and labour,
Ps. civ. 22, 23.
Thus she became a mother in Israel, a nursing mother, such was the
affection she bore to her people, and such the care and pains she took
for the public welfare. Under her there were other governors of Israel
(v. 9),
who, like her, had done their part as governors to reform the people,
and then, like her, offered themselves willingly to serve in the war,
not insisting upon the exemption which their dignity and office
entitled them to, when the had so fair an opportunity of appearing in
their country’s cause; and no doubt the example of the governors
influenced the people in like manner willingly to offer
themselves,
v. 2.
Of these governors she says, My heart is towards them, that is,
“I truly love and honour them; they have won my heart for ever; I shall
never forget them.” Note, Those are worthy of double honour that recede
voluntarily from the demands of their honour to serve God and his
church.
IV. She calls upon those who had a particular share in the advantages
of this great salvation to offer up particular thanks to God for it,
Let every man speak as he found of the goodness of God in this happy
change of the posture of public affairs.
1. You that ride on white asses, that is, the nobility and
gentry. Horses were little used in that county; they had, it is
probable, a much better breed of asses than we have; but persons of
quality, it seems, were distinguished by the colour of the asses they
rode on; the white being more rare were therefore more valued. Notice
is taken of Abdon’s sons and grandsons riding on ass-colts, as
indicating them to be men of distinction,
Let such as are by this salvation restored, not only to their liberty
as other Israelites, but to their dignity, speak God’s praises.
2. Let those that sit in judgment be sensible of it, and
thankful for it as a very great mercy, that they may sit safely there,
that the sword of justice is not struck out of their hand by the sword
of war.
3. Let those that walk by the way, and meet with none there to
make them afraid, speak to themselves in pious meditations, and to
their fellow-travellers in religious discourses, of the goodness of God
in ridding the roads of those banditti that had so long infested them.
4. Let those that draw in peace, and have not their wells taken from
them, or stopped up, nor are in danger of being caught by the enemy
when they go forth to draw, there, where they find themselves so much
more safe and easy than they have been, there let them rehearse the
acts of the Lord, not Deborah’s acts, nor Barak’s, but the Lord’s,
taking notice of his hand making peace in their borders, and creating a
defence upon all the glory. This is the Lord’s doing. Observe in
these acts of his,
(1.) Justice executed on his daring enemies. They are the righteous
acts of the Lord. See him pleading a righteous cause, and sitting in
the throne judging aright, and give him glory as the Judge of all the
earth.
(2.) Kindness shown to his trembling people, the inhabitants of the
villages, who lay most open to the enemy, had suffered most, and
were most in danger,
It is the glory of God to protect those that are most exposed, and to
help the weakest. Let us all take notice of the share we in particular
have in the public peace and tranquility, the inhabitants of the
villages especially, and give God the praise of it.
12 Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise,
Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.
13 Then he made him that remaineth have dominion over the
nobles among the people: the LORD made me have dominion over the
mighty.
14 Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek;
after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down
governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the
writer.
15 And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even
Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley.
For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart.
16 Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings
of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great
searchings of heart.
17 Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships?
Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.
18 Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their
lives unto the death in the high places of the field.
19 The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan
in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.
20 They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought
against Sisera.
21 The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the
river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.
22 Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of the
pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.
23 Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse ye
bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the
help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.
Here,
I. Deborah stirs up herself and Barak to celebrate this victory in the
most solemn manner, to the glory of God and the honour of Israel, for
the encouragement of their friends and the greater confusion of their
enemies,
1. Deborah, as a prophetess, must do it by a song, to compose and sing
which she excites herself: Awake, awake, and again, awake,
awake, which intimates the sense she had of the excellency and
difficulty of the work; it needed and well deserved the utmost
liveliness and vigour of soul in the performance of it; all the powers
and faculties of the soul in their closest intensity and application
ought to be employed in it. Thus too she expresses the sense she had of
her own infirmity, and aptness to flag and remit in her zeal in this
work. Note, Praising God is work that we should awake to, and awake
ourselves to,
2. Barak, as a general, must do it by a triumph: Lead thy captivity
captive. Though the army of Sisera was cut off in the field, and no
quarter given, yet we may suppose in the prosecution of the victory,
when the war was carried into the enemy’s country, many not found in
arms were seized and made prisoners of war. These she would have led in
chains after Barak, when he made his public entry into his own city, to
grace his triumphs; not as if it should be any pleasure to him to
trample upon his fellow-creatures, but thus he must give glory to God,
and serve that great purpose of his government which is to look upon
those that are proud and to abase them.
II. She gives good reason for this praise and triumph,
This glorious victory had made the remnant of Israel, and Deborah in
particular, look very great, a circumstance which they owed entirely to
God.
1. The Israelites had become few and inconsiderable, and yet to them
God gave dominion over nobles. Many of them were cut off by the enemy,
many died of grief, and perhaps some had removed their families and
effects into foreign parts; yet those few that remained, by divine
assistance, with one brave and generous effort, not only shook off the
yoke of oppression from their own neck, but got power over their
oppressors. As long as any of God’s Israel remain (and a remnant God
will have in the worst of times) there is hope, be it ever so small a
remnant, for God can make him that remains, though it should be but one
single person, triumph over the most proud and potent.
2. Deborah was herself of the weaker sex, and the sex that from the
fall had been sentenced to subjection, and yet the Lord that is himself
higher than the highest authorized her to rule over the mighty men of
Israel, who willingly submitted to her direction, and enabled her to
triumph over the mighty men of Canaan, who fell before the army she
commanded; so wonderfully did he advance the low estate of his
handmaid. “The Lord made me, a woman, to have dominion over mighty
men.” A despised stone is made head of the corner. This is
indeed the Lord’s doing, and marvellous in our eyes.
III. She makes particular remarks on the several parties concerned in
this great action, taking notice who fought against them, who fought
for them, and who stood neuter.
1. Who fought against them. The power of the enemy must be taken notice
of, that the victory may appear the more glorious. Jabin and Sisera had
been mentioned in the history, but here it appears further,
(1.) That Amalek was in league with Jabin, and sent him in assistance,
or endeavoured to do it. Ephraim is here said to act against Amalek
(v. 14),
probably intercepting and cutting off some forces of the Amalekites
that were upon their march to join Sisera. Amalek had helped Moab to
oppress Israel
and now had helped Jabin; they were inveterate enemies to God’s
people–their hand had always been against the throne of the Lord
and therefore they were the more dangerous.
(2.) That others of the kings of Canaan, who had somewhat recovered
themselves since their defeat by Joshua, joined with Jabin, and
strengthened his army with their forces, having the same implacable
enmity to Israel that he had, and those kingdoms, when they were in
their strength, having been subject to that of Hazor,
These kings came and fought,
v. 19.
Israel had no king; their enemies had many, whose power and influence,
especially acting in confederacy, made them very formidable; and yet
Israel, having the Lord for their King, was too hard for them all. It
is said of these kings that they took no gain of money, they
were not mercenary troops hired into the service of Jabin (such often
fail in an extremity), but they were volunteers and hearty in the cause
against Israel: they desired not the riches of silver, so the
Chaldee, but only the satisfaction of helping to ruin Israel. Acting
upon this principle, they were the more formidable, and would be the
more cruel.
2. Who fought for them. The several tribes that assisted in this great
exploit are here spoken of with honour; for, though God is chiefly to
be glorified, instruments must have their due praise, for the
encouragement of others: but, after all, it was heaven that turned the
scale.
(1.) Ephraim and Benjamin, those tribes among whom Deborah herself
lived, bestirred themselves, and did bravely, by her influence upon
them; for her palm-tree was in the tribe of Ephraim, and very near to
that of Benjamin
(v. 14):
Out of Ephraim was there a root, and life in the root, against
Amalek. There was in Ephraim a mountain called the mount of
Amalek, mentioned,
which, some think, is here meant, and some read it, there was a root
in Amalek, that is, in that mountain, a strong resolution in the
minds of that people to make head against the oppressors, which was the
root of the matter. Herein Benjamin had set them a good example among
his people. “Ephraim moved after thee, Benjamin;” though
Benjamin was the junior tribe, and much inferior, especially at this
time, to Ephraim, both in number and wealth, yet when they led Ephraim
followed in appearing for the common cause. If we be not so bold as to
lead, yet we must not be so proud and sullen as not to follow even our
inferiors in a good work. Ephraim was a at a distance from the place of
action, and therefore could not send forth many of its boughs to the
service; but Deborah, who was one of them, knew there was a root of
them, that they were hearty well-wishers to the cause. Dr. Lightfoot
gives quite another sense of this. Joshua, of Ephraim, had been a root
of such victories against Amalek
(Exod. xvii.),
and Ehud of Benjamin lately against Amalek and Moab.
(2.) The ice being broken by Ephraim and Benjamin, Machir (the
half-tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan) and Zebulun sent in men that were
very serviceable to this great design. When an army is to be raised,
especially under such disadvantages as Barak now experienced from the
long disuse of arms and the dispiritedness of the people, it is of
great consequence to be furnished,
[1.] With men of courage for officers, and such the family of Machir
furnished them with, for thence came down governors. The
children of Machir were particularly famous for their valour in Moses’
time
and it seems it continued in their family, the more because they were
seated in the frontiers.
[2.] With men of learning and ingenuity for secretaries of war, and
with such they were supplied out of Zebulun: thence came men that
handle the pen of the writer, clerks that issued out orders, wrote
circular letters, drew commissions, mustered their men, and kept their
accounts. Thus must every man, according as he has received the
gift, minister the same, for the public good
the eyes see, and the ears hear, for the whole body. I know it is
generally understood of the forwardness even of the scholars of this
tribe, who studied the law and expounded it, to take up arms in this
cause, though they were better skilled in books than in the art of war.
So Sir Richard Blackmore paraphrases it:–
The scribes of Zebulun and learned men,
To wield the sword, laid down the pen.
(3.) Issachar did good service too; though he saw that rest was
good, and therefore bowed his shoulder to bear, which is the
character of that tribe
yet they disdained to bear the yoke of Jabin’s tribute, and now
preferred the generous toils of war to a servile rest. Though it should
seem there were not many common soldiers enlisted out of that tribe,
yet the princes of Issachar were with Deborah and Barak
(v. 15),
probably, as a great council of war to advise upon emergencies. And, it
should seem, these princes of Issachar did in person accompany Barak
into the field of battle. Did he go on foot? They footed it with him,
not consulting their honour or ease. Did he go into the valley, the
place of most danger? They exposed themselves with him, and were still
at his right hand to advise him: for the men of Issachar were men that
had understanding of the times,
1 Chron. xii. 32.
(4.) Zebulun and Naphtali were the most bold and active of all the
tribes, not only out of a particular affection to Barak their
countryman, but because, they lying nearest to Jabin, the yoke of
oppression lay heavier on their necks than on those of any other tribe.
Better die in honour than live in bondage; and therefore, in a pious
zeal for God and their country, they jeoparded their lives unto the
death in the high places of the field,
v. 18.
With what heroic bravery did they charge and push on even upon the
chariots of iron, despising danger, and setting death itself at
defiance in so good a cause!
(5.) The stars from heaven appeared, or acted at least, on Israel’s
side
(v. 20):
The stars in their courses, according to the order and direction
of him who is the great Lord of their hosts, fought against
Sisera, by their malignant influences, or by causing the storms of
hail and thunder which contributed so much to the rout of Sisera’s
army. The Chaldee reads it, from heaven, from the place where the
stars go forth, war was waged against Sisera, that is, the power of
the God of heaven was engaged against him, making use of the
ministration of the angels of heaven. Some way or other, the heavenly
bodies (not arrested, as when the sun stood still at Joshua’s word, but
going on in their courses) fought against Sisera. Those whom God is an
enemy to the whole creation is at war with. Perhaps the flashes of
lightning by which the stars fought was that which frightened the
horses, so as that they pranced till their very hoofs were broken
(v. 22),
and probably overturned the chariots of iron which they drew or turned
them back upon their owners.
(6.) The river of Kishon fought against their enemies. It swept away
multitudes of those that hoped to make their escape through it,
Ordinarily, it was but a shallow river, and, being in their own
country, we may suppose they well knew its fords and safest passages,
and yet now, probably by the great rain that fell, it was so swollen,
and the stream so deep and strong, that those who attempted to pass it
were drowned, being feeble and faint, and unable to make their way
through it. And then were the horse-hoofs broken by means of the
plungings. So it is in the margin,
The river of Kishon is called that ancient river because
described or celebrated by ancient historians or poets, or rather
because it was designed of old, in the counsel of God, to serve his
purposes against Sisera at this time, and did so, as if it had been
made on purpose; thus the water of the old pool God is said to
have fashioned long ago for that use to which it was put,
(7.) Deborah’s own soul fought against them; she speaks of it with a
holy exultation
(v. 21):
O, my soul, thou hast trodden down strength. She did it by
exciting others to do it, and assisting them, which she did with all
her heart. Also by her prayers; as Moses conquered Amalek by lifting up
his hand, so Deborah vanquished Sisera by lifting up her heart. And
when the soul is employed in holy exercises, and heart-work is made of
them, through the grace of God the strength of our spiritual enemies
will be trodden down and will fall before us.
3. In this great engagement she observes who stood neuter, and
did not side with Israel as might have been expected. It is strange to
find how many, even of those who were called Israelites, basely
deserted this glorious cause and declined to appear. No mention is made
of Judah nor Simeon among the tribes concerned, because they, lying so
very remote from the scene of action, had not an opportunity to appear,
and therefore it was not expected from them; but for those that lay
near, and yet would not venture, indelible marks of disgrace are here
put upon them, as they deserved.
(1.) Reuben basely declined the service,
Justly had he long ago been deprived of the privileges of the
birth-right, and still does his dying father’s doom stick by him:
unstable as water, he shall not excel. Two things hindered them
from engaging:–
[1.] Their divisions. This jarring string she twice strikes upon to
their shame: For the divisions of Reuben (or in these divisions)
there were great thoughts, impressions, and searchings of
heart. Not only for their division from Canaan by the river Jordan,
which needed not to have hindered them had they been hearty in the
cause, for Gilead abode beyond Jordan, and yet from Machir of Gilead
came down governors; but it means either that they were divided among
themselves, could not agree who should go or who should lead, each
striving to gain the posts of honour and shun those of danger, some
unhappy contests in their tribe kept them from uniting together, and
with their brethren, for the common good, or that they were divided in
their opinion of this war from the rest of the tribes, thought the
attempt either not justifiable or not practicable, and therefore blamed
those that engaged in it and did themselves decline it. This occasioned
great searchings of heart among the rest, especially when the had
reason to suspect that, whatever Reuben pretended, his sitting still
now proceeded from a cooling of his affections to his brethren and an
alienation of mind from them, which occasioned them many sad thoughts.
It grieves us to see our mother’s children angry with us for doing our
duty and looking strange upon us when we most need their friendship and
assistance.
[2.] Their business in the world: Reuben abode among the
sheepfolds, a warmer and safer place than the camp, pretending they
could not conveniently leave the sheep they tended; he loved to hear
the bleatings of the flocks, or, as some read it, the
whistlings of the flocks, the music which the shepherds made
with their oaten reeds or pipes, and the pastorals which they sung;
these Reuben preferred before the martial drum and trumpet. Thus many
are kept from doing their duty by the fear of trouble, the love of
ease, and an inordinate affection to their worldly business and
advantage. Narrow selfish spirits care not what becomes of the
interests of God’s church, so they can but get, keep, and save money.
All seek their own,
Phil. ii. 21.
(2.) Dan and Asher did the same,
These two lay on the sea-coast, and,
[1.] Dan pretended he could not leave his ships but they would be
exposed, and therefore I pray thee have me excused. Those of
that tribe perhaps pleaded that their sea-trade disfitted them for
land-service and diverted them from it; but Zebulun also was a haven
for ships, a sea-faring tribe, and yet was forward and active in this
expedition. There is no excuse we make to shift off duty but what some
or other have broken through and set aside, whose courage and
resolution will rise up against us and shame us.
[2.] Asher pretended he must stay at home to repair the breaches which
the sea had in some places made upon his land, and to fortify his works
against the encroachments of it, or he abode in his creeks, or small
havens, where his trading vessels lay to attend them. A little thing
will serve those for a pretence to stay at home who have no mind to
engage in the most necessary services because there are difficulty and
danger in them.
(3.) But above all Meroz is condemned, and a curse pronounced upon the
inhabitants of it, Because they came not to the help of the
Lord,
v. 23.
Probably this was some city that lay near the scene of action, and
therefore the inhabitants had a fair opportunity of showing their
obedience to God and their concern for Israel, and of doing a good
service to the common cause; but they basely declined it, for fear of
Jabin’s iron chariots, being willing to sleep in a whole skin. The Lord
needed not their help; he made it to appear he could do his work
without them; but no thanks to them: for aught they knew the attempt
might have miscarried for want of their hand, and therefore they are
cursed for not coming to the help of the Lord, when it was in
effect proclaimed, Who is on the Lord’s side? The cause between
God and the mighty (the principalities and powers of the kingdom of
darkness) will not admit of neutrality. God looks upon those as against
him that are not with him. This curse is pronounced by the angel of
the Lord, our Lord Jesus, the captain of the Lord’s host (and
those whom he curses are cursed indeed), and further than we
have warrant and authority from him we may not curse. He that will
richly reward all his good soldiers will certainly and severely punish
all cowards and deserters. This city of Meroz seems to have been at
this time a considerable place, since something great was expected from
it; but probably, after the angel of the Lord had pronounced this curse
upon it, it dwindled, and, like the fig-tree which Christ cursed,
withered away, so that we never read of it after this in scripture.
24 Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite
be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
25 He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth
butter in a lordly dish.
26 She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the
workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote
off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his
temples.
27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he
bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
28 The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried
through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why
tarry the wheels of his chariots?
29 Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to
herself,
30 Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to
every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours,
a prey of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of
needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that
take the spoil?
31 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. And
the land had rest forty years.
Deborah here concludes this triumphant song,
I. With the praises of Jael, her sister-heroine, whose valiant act had
completed and crowned the victory. She had mentioned her before
(v. 6)
as one that would have served her country if it had been in her power;
now she applauds her as one that did serve it admirably well when it
was in her power. Her poetry is finest and most florid here in the
latter end of the song. How honourably does she speak of Jael
(v. 24),
who preferred her peace with the God of Israel before her peace with
the king of Canaan, and though not a native of Israel (for aught that
appears) yet heartily espoused the cause of Israel in this critical
conjuncture, jeoparded her life as truly as if she had been in the high
places of the field, and bravely fought for those whom she saw God
fought for! Blessed shall she be above women in the tent. Note,
Those whose lot is cast in the tent, in a very low and narrow sphere of
activity, if they serve God in that according to their capacity, shall
in no wise lose their reward. Jael in the tent wins as rich a blessing
as Barak in the field. Nothing is more confounding, grievous, and
shameful, than disappointment, and Deborah here does most elegantly
describe two great disappointments, the shame of which was typical of
sinners’ everlasting shame.
1. Sisera found a fatal enemy where he expected a firm and faithful
friend.
(1.) Jael showed him the kindness of a friend, and perhaps at that time
intended no other than kindness, until God, by an immediate impulse
upon her mind (which impulses then were to be regarded, and carried so
much of their own evidence with them that they might be relied upon,
but cannot now be pretended to), directed her to do otherwise,
He asked only for fair water to quench his thirst, but she, not only to
show her housewifery and good housekeeping, but to express her respect
to him, gave him milk and brought forth butter, that is
(say some interpreters), milk which had the butter taken from it; we
call it butter-milk. No (say others), it was milk that had the butter
still in it; we call it cream. Whichsoever it was, it was probably the
best her house afforded; and, to set it off, she brought it in a
lordly dish, such as she called so, the finest she had, and better
than she ordinarily used at her own table. This confirmed Sisera’s
opinion of her friendship, and made him sleep the faster and the more
secure. But,
(2.) She proved his mortal enemy, gave him his death’s stroke: it is
curiously described,
[1.] How great does Jael look, hammering Sisera, as it is in the
margin, mauling that proud man who had been so long the terror of the
mighty, and sending him down slain to the pit with his iniquities
upon his bones!
Ezek. xxxii. 27.
She seems to have gone about it with no more terror nor concern than if
she had been going to nail one of the boards or bars of her tent, so
confident was she of divine aid and protection. We read it she
smote off his head, probably with his own sword, which, now that
his head was nailed through, she durst take from his side, but not
before, for fear of waking him. But because there was no occasion for
cutting off his head, nor was it mentioned in the history, many think
it should be read, she struck through his head. That head which
had been proudly lifted up against God and Israel, and in which had
been forged bloody designs for the destruction of God’s people, Jael
finds a soft place in, and into that with a good will strikes her nail.
[2.] How mean does Sisera look, fallen at Jael’s feet!
At the feet of this female executioner he bowed, he fell; all his
struggles for life availed not; she followed her blow until he fell
down dead. There lies extended the deserted carcase of that proud man,
not on the bed of honour, not in the high places of the field, not
having any glorious wound to show from a glittering sword, or a bow of
steel, but in the corner of a tent, at the feet of a woman, with a
disgraceful wound by a sorry nail struck through his head. Thus is
shame the fate of proud men. And this is a very lively representation
of the ruin of those sinners whose prosperity slays them; it flatters
and caresses them with milk and butter in a lordly dish, as if it would
make them easy and happy, but it nails their heads and hearts too to
the ground in earthly-mindedness, and pierces them through with many
sorrows; its flatteries are fatal, and sink them at last into
destruction and perdition,
2. Sisera’s mother had the tidings brought her of her son’s fall and
ruin when she was big with expectation of his glorious and triumphant
return,
where we have,
(1.) Her fond desire to see her son come back in triumph: Why is his
chariot so long in coming? She speaks this, not so much out of a
concern for his safety, or any jealousy of his having miscarried (she
had no fear of that, so confident was she of his success), but out of a
longing for his glory, which with a feminine weakness she was
passionately impatient to see, chiding the lingering chariot, and
expostulating concerning the delays of it, little thinking that her
unhappy son had been, before this, forced to quit that chariot which
they were so proud of, and which she thought came so slowly. The
chariots of his glory had now become the shame of his house,
Isa. xxii. 18.
Let us take heed of indulging such desires as these towards any
temporal good thing, particularly towards that which cherishes
vain-glory, for this was what she here doted on. Eagerness and
impatience in our desires do us a great deal of prejudice, and make it
intolerable to us to be crossed. But towards the second coming of Jesus
Christ, and the glories of that day, we should thus stand affected
(Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly), for here we cannot be
disappointed.
(2.) Her foolish hope and confidence that he would come at last in so
much the greater pomp. Her wise ladies answered her, and thought they
gave a very good account of the delay; yea, she (in her wisdom,
says the Chaldee) tauntingly made answer to herself, “Have they not
sped? No doubt they have, and that which delays them is that they
are dividing the prey, which is so much that it is a work of
time to make a distribution of it.” In the spoil they pleased
themselves with the thought of, observe,
[1.] How impudently, and to the reproach and scandal of their sex,
these ladies boast of the multitude of damsels which the soldiers would
have the abusing of.
[2.] How childishly they pleased themselves with the hope of seeing
Sisera himself in a gaudy mantle of divers colours; how
charmingly would it look! of divers colours of needle-work,
plundered out of the wardrobe of some Israelitish lady; it is repeated
again, as that which pleased their fancy above any thing, of divers
colours of needle-work on both sides, and therefore very rich; such
pieces of embroidery they hoped Sisera would have to present his mother
and the ladies with. Thus apt are we to deceive ourselves with great
expectations and confident hopes of honour, and pleasure, and wealth in
this world, by which we prepare for ourselves the shame and grief of a
disappointment. And thus does God often bring ruin on his enemies when
they are most elevated.
II. She concludes all with a prayer to God,
1. For the destruction of all his foes: “So, so shamefully, so
miserably, let all thy enemies perish, O Lord; let all that hope
to triumph in Israel’s ruin be thus disappointed and triumphed over.
Do to them all as unto Sisera,”
Though our enemies are to be prayed for, God’s enemies, as such, are to
be prayed against; and, when we see some of God’s enemies remarkably
humbled and brought down, this is an encouragement to us to pray for
the downfall of all the rest. Deborah was a prophetess, and this prayer
was a prediction that in due time all God’s enemies shall perish,
None ever hardened his heart against God and prospered.
2. For the exaltation and comfort of all his friends. “But let those
that love him, and heartily wish well to his kingdom among men, be
as the sun when he goeth forth in his strength; let them shine
so bright, appear so glorious in the eye of the world, cast such benign
influences, be as much out of the reach of their enemies, who curse the
rising sun because it scorches them; let them rejoice as a strong
man to run a race,
Ps. xix. 5.
Let them, as burning and shining lights in their places, dispel the
mists of darkness, and shine with more and more lustre and power
unto the perfect day.”
Such shall be the honour, and such the joy, of all that love God in
sincerity, and for ever they shall shine as the sun in the firmament
of our Father.
The victory here celebrated with this song was of such happy
consequence to Israel that for the best part of one age they enjoyed
the peace which it opened the way to: The land had rest forty
years, that is, so long it was from this victory to the raising up
of Gideon. And well would it have been if, when the churches and the
tribes had rest, they had been edified, and had walked in the fear
of the Lord.
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