EXPOSITION. vers. 6 and 12. Translate the verse. Ther, CHAPTER IV. went up ten thousand men at his feet, i. e. Ver. 2.-Sold them. See eh. ii. 14, note. following him. J'abin king of Razor. The exact site of Ver. 11.-Translate, Now Heber the Ken- Hazor has not bcdn identified with certainty, ite Juul, severed Mnnself from the Kenites, but it is conjectured by Robinson, with viz., from the sons of Hobab, &c. The great probability, to have stood on the Tell Kenites, as we read in eh. i. 16, had now called Khuraibeh, overlooking the settled in the wilderness of Judah, south of waters of Mcrom (now called Lake Hfilch), Arad, in the time cf Joshua. Heber, with where are remains of a sepulchre, Cyclopean a portion of the tribe, had migrated later to walls, and other buildings. In Josh. xi. Napbtali, probably at the time when the 1-14 we read of the total destruction by Philistines were pressing hard upon Judah, fire of Razor, and of the slaughter of J abin, in the days of Shamgar and Jae! (eh. iii. 31 the king thereof, with all the inhabitants of and v. 5). the city, and of the slaughter of all the Ver. 13.-Unto the river (or brook) of confederate kings, and the capture of their Kishon, now the Nahr Mukil.tta. In the cities ; Hazor, however, "the head of all plain of Esdraelon, through which the those kingdoms," being the only one which Kisbon flowed into the :Mediterranean, there was "burnt with fire." It is a little sur- would be room for all bis chariots to come prising, therefore, to read here of another into action. Jabin reigning in Hazor, with confederate Ver. 14.-And Deborah, &c. Observe kings under him (eh. v. 19), having, like how throughout Deborah takes the lead as bis predecessor, a vast number of chariots the inspired prophetess. (cf. eh. iv. 3, 13 with Josh. xi. 4, 9), and Ver. 15. - The Lord discomfited, &c. attacking Israel at the head of a great force Deborah bad announced that the Lord was (cf. eh. iv. 7, 13, 16 with Josh. xi. 4). It gone out before the host of Barak, and so is impossible not to suspect that these are the victory was not man's, but the Lord's, two accounts of the same event. If, how- "Not by might nor by power, but by my ever, the two events are distinct, we must Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." "The suppose that the Canaanite kingdoms had Lord is a man of war, the Lord of hosts :i3 been revived under a descendant of the his name." Sisera lighted down off his former king, that Hazor bad been rebuilt, cha.riot, &c., and- and that Jabin was the hereditary name of Ver. 16. - Barak pursued o.fter the its king. Gentiles, or nations, or Goim, as cha.riots. Barak, supposing Sisera still to Josh. xii. 23, and Gen. xiv. 1. Whether be with the chariots, pursued after them, Goim was the proper name of a particular and seems to have overtaken them, as they people, or denoted a collection of different were embarrassed in the rotten, boggy ground tribes, their seat was in Galilee, called in which had been suddenly overflowed by the Isa. ix. 1 ; Matt. iv. 15, Galilee, of the swollen waters of K.ishon. Many were swept nations, or Gentiles, in Hebrew Goim. away by the flood and drowned, the rest put Ver. 5.-The pa.Im tree of Deborah. The to the sword while their horses were flounder- tree, which was probably still standing in ing in the bog (eh. v. 21, 22). But Sisem the writer's time, was known as " the palm had meanwhile escaped on foot unnoticed, tree of Deborah," just as a certain oak tree and fled to the tents of the friendly Kenites. in the forest of Hoxne, in Suffolk, was known Ver. 18.-With a mo.ntle. Rather, "with for many hundred years as King Edmund's the coverlet," such o.s was always at hand in oak. the nomad tent. Ver. 6. - Kedeah-naphtali, i. e. Kedesh Ver. 19.-A little water. Faint and i.n the tribe of N aphtali (Josh. xix. 37), as thirsty as he was, he did not ask for strong distinguished from Kedesh in the south of drink, but only water. Judah (Josh. xv. 23), and others. It still Ver. 21.-Then Jael, &c. Siser:i., having keeps the name of Kades, and lies four miles taken every precaution, had lain him down north-west of Lake Hfileh. There are to rest ; not, like David, ti11Sting to the Lord numerous ancient remains. Hath not the to make him dwell in safety, but confiding Lord, &c. She speaks as "a prophetess," in Jael's friendship and his own crnfty announcing God's commands, not her own directions. But no sooner had be :thllen opinions ; decluing God's promises, not into a deep sleep, than the crafty aud merely her own hopes or wishes. courageous woman, into whose hands Sisera Ver. 10.-Co.lled, or rather gathered to. was to be sold, took a tent pin and the heavy gether, as tho same word is reudored in ver. hammer with which they drove the piu 13. Went up, viz., to Mount Tabor, as in iuto the ground, and with a desperate blow 40 THE BOOK OF JUDGES. [CR. IV, 1-22,
forced it througl1 l1is temples, and pinned and dud. It is impossible for us to view him to the ground, Without a struggle, he Jael's act in the same light as her contempo• swooned nnd died. Instead of aud fastened raries did, on account of its treachery nnd it iuto the gronnd, it is better to translate, cruelty; but we can admire her faith Ill the thaJ, it (the pin) came IWIDn to the ground. God of Israel, her love for the people of It is the same word as is translated light,ed God, and her marvellous courage and strength Josh. =· 18. In the last clause put the of mind in carrying out her purpose, o.nd fnll-stop after asl,eep, and read, So he swooned make allowance for the age in which she lived.