26 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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, Judges 4:1; and that Deborah and Barak consulted together about their deliverance, Judges 4:4; and that Barak, encouraged by Deborah, gathered some forces and fought Sisera the captain...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Which was the fruit and effect of the long rest and peace they enjoyed; and which is often the case of a people favoured with peace, plenty, and prosperity, who are apt to abuse their mercies, and forget God, the author and giver of them; and the principal evil, though not...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
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, ver. 1. II. Israel oppressed by Jabin, ver. 2, 3. III. Israel judged by Deborah, ver. 4, 5. IV. Israel rescued out of the hands of Jabin. 1. Their deliverance is concerted between Deborah and Barak, ver....
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord sold them,.... Delivered them into a state of bondage and slavery, where they were like men sold for slaves, see Judges 3:8; into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; there was a city of this name, and a king of it of the same name, as here, in the times of Joshua, which city was taken and burnt by him, and its...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord,.... Because of their hard bondage, and begged deliverance from it, being brought to a sense of their sins, and humbled for them: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; the same with the αρματα τοδρεπανηφορα, chariots which carried scythes at the side of them, fastened to the orbs of the wheels...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth,.... Deborah was a name common to women with the eastern people, see Genesis 35:8; as Melissa, which is of the same signification with the Greeks, and both signify a "bee"; and to which Deborah answered in her industry, sagacity, and sweetness of temper to her friends, and sharpness to her enemies:...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah,.... Her dwelling house was under a palm tree, or rather she sat under one, in the open air, when the people came to her with their cases, and it was called from hence after her name; though some, as Abarbinel observes, think it was so called, because Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, was buried here, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedeshnaphtali,.... So called to distinguish it from other places of the same name, this being in the tribe of Naphtali, and a city of refuge, Joshua 20:7; of which tribe and place Barak was, but who he and his father Abinoam were we have no other account; it seems clear from hence that he...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I will draw unto thee,.... Which are the words of the Lord by Deborah, as are the preceding, signifying, that by the secret and powerful influence of his providence he would so order things, and the circumstances of them; and so powerfully operate on the mind and heart of the Canaanitish general as to engage him to come to the river Kishon,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And she said, I will surely go with thee, She made no hesitation about it, but agreed at once to go with him for his encouragement; perceiving some degree of weakness in him, and yet an hearty and sincere inclination to engage in the work proposed, and that this might be no hinderance, she readily assents to it: adding, notwithstanding the journey...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh,.... This he did either by the sound of a trumpet, as Ehud did, or by sending messengers to them to collect ten thousand men from among them, which they accordingly did, and came to him in Kedesh: and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet; they following him up to Mount Tabor cheerfully and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they showed Sisera,.... Either some of the Canaanites that dwelt near Tabor, or some spies that Sisera had out; though some think the Kenites told him, who were at peace with Jabin, Judges 4:17; yet whether out of good will or ill will cannot be said: however, so it was ordered by the providence of God, that by some means or another Sisera...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Sisera gathered together all his chariots,.... Or "therefore" he gathered them together, which might lie some in one place, and some in another, for the better quartering of the men that belonged to them: [even] nine hundred chariots of iron; and which, as before observed, are magnified by Josephus, and made to be three thousand; and all the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Deborah said unto Barak, up,.... Not go up higher for they were upon the top of a mountain; but rise, bestir thyself, prepare for battle, put the army in rank and file, and march and meet the enemy without delay: for this [is] the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand; by a spirit of prophecy she knew this was the precise...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord discomfited Sisera and all [his] chariots, and all [his] host,.... Frightened them, as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, or disturbed them with a noise and tumult, as the word signifies; with a noise in the heavens, which were in their ears, as Abarbinel observes, like the noise of a large army, as was the case of the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Howbeit, Sisera fled away on his feet,.... Got off, and made his escape to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; before spoken of, Judges 4:11; and he made to that, because he might think himself safer in a tent than in a town; and especially in the tent of a woman, where he might imagine no search would be made; for women of note, in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Jael went out to meet Sisera,.... Seeing him coming, and knowing him full well, she stepped forward towards him, to invite him into her tent: some think she was looking out, that if she saw Israelite in distress to take him in; and very probably had been some time at her tent door, to inquire the battle went, and which, no doubt, living so...