4:1 The opening formula in 4:1 is identical to that in 3:12, the beginning of the Ehud narrative. This connection with the Ehud narrative is further strengthened by the reference to his death at the end of the verse and contributes to the well-crafted design of the whole book. The exact nature of the evil committed by Israel is not stated, but the book’s second introduction indicates idolatry: “They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth” (2:13).

4:2–3 Among the first three major judge cycles, the duration of foreign oppression increases from eight (3:8) to eighteen years (3:14) and now to twenty. Because Israel has sold out for the Canaanites, the Lord now sells his people into the hands of those nations whose gods after which they have whored, in order to provoke their repentance. This time the Lord gives them over to Jabin, king of Canaan, and Sisera, commander of his army. Jabin reigns from Hazor, while Sisera lives in Harosheth-hagoyim.15 Later the locations of Deborah and Barak are also included in the narrative, together serving to root these events in real space and time. These are not imaginary stories, myths, or legends but true accounts of the Lord and his people played out across the history of redemption.

As Israel’s evil is severe, so also is her oppression. With nine hundred chariots of iron Jabin and Sisera possess the military strength to dominate the region. It is this incredible strength that causes Israel to cry out to the Lord for help. The military advantage of iron chariots over Israel was first encountered in chapter 1: “The Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron” (1:19). The Lord is now ready to display his glory and power in the miraculous destruction of this army of iron chariots. This threat and these events recall God’s deliverance from the chariots of Pharaoh in Exodus 14–15, when Pharaoh “took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them” (Ex. 14:7).

4:4 As do a few other books in the OT, Judges highlights and portrays the significant role of women in Israel’s recorded history. In this book Achsah, Deborah, Jael, the woman who crushes the head of Abimelech, and the mother of Samson are portrayed positively, while Samson’s Timnite bride and Delilah are portrayed negatively. Deborah is both a prophetess and a judge. Unlike the other judges in the book, Deborah’s leadership is oracular and perhaps judicial, but not military. Her role as prophetess serves as yet another link to the events of the exodus, echoing the role of Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron (Ex. 15:20). In addition to Miriam and Deborah, Huldah (2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chron. 34:22), Noadiah (a negative example; Neh. 6:14), and the wife of Isaiah (Isa. 8:3) appear with the same title in the OT.

4:5 Deborah would sit under the palm of Deborah while “the people of Israel came up to her for [the] judgment.” The Israelites “come up” to Deborah not for legal advice but for the word of the Lord delivered through her as a prophetess. This specific judgment is the identification of Barak in the next verse as the one who will go up and lead the army of Israel. The language of this verse is reminiscent of 1:1, in which the people of Israel inquired of the Lord as to who should go up and lead in battle against the Canaanites. In Judges 1 the word of the Lord was that the tribe of Judah would go. Now here it is the individual Barak who will lead the people of God into battle, and that word is delivered by Deborah.

4:6–7 The selection of Barak is confirmed by the prophetic word recorded in these verses. Barak is from the tribe of Naphtali, and he serves as a judge in the tradition of Othniel and Ehud. His name appears alongside Gideon, Samson, and Jephthah in Hebrews 11:32 (cf. 1 Sam. 12:11).

The interrogative nature of the word of the Lord in Judges 4:6–7 is rhetorical—the “Has not” could also be translated “Indeed.” This way of speaking emphasizes the certainty of the word of the Lord; it is not a question regarding Barak’s knowledge of that word. This same literary device is employed again in verse 14.

The word of the Lord comes in two parts. First are the instructions for Barak in verse 6. He must “gather” (or “draw out”) to Mount Tabor ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun. The number of men here is identical to number of Moabite men killed by Ehud in the previous cycle (3:29). The second part of the word of the Lord begins in 4:7, as the Lord assures Barak of victory in battle. It is the Lord who will “draw out” Sisera and his army and give them over into the hand of Barak and his troops. From a human perspective, the odds are stacked against Israel. Sisera has his nine hundred iron chariots and his “troops” (or “multitude”). Barak has a prophetess and only ten thousand men from two of the lesser tribes of Israel. This setup is intentional: as with Israel’s victory at the Red Sea or Gideon’s victory to come, the Lord is teaching an important lesson. “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Ps. 20:7; cf. Isa. 31:1).

4:8–9 Barak’s request that Deborah go with him into battle should not to be understood as a lack of faith or as cowardice.16 Rather it is an expression of dependence on the word of the Lord entrusted to Deborah. Later it will be Deborah’s word as a prophetess that begins the battle with Sisera (Judges 4:14). The first part of her quick reply, “I will surely go with you,” affirms the positive nature of Barak’s request. The second part of Deborah’s reply is also prophetic in nature. It hints at the victory of Jael over Sisera that will occupy a major portion of the upcoming battle narrative. Barak is also to be commended for his willingness to lead in a battle that will not lead to his “glory” (or “fame”17). Barak’s request for Deborah to lead with him, along with his willingness to yield the fame of the battle to a woman, is an expression of humility and faith, not a lack of such faith. Barak is one of those “who through faith conquered kingdoms” (Heb. 11:33).

4:10 In Judges 4:3 the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. Now here Barak cries out (“called out”; same verb in Hebrew) to his fellow Israelites. This verse records his obedience to the word of the Lord in the summoning of ten thousand warriors from Zebulun and Naphtali. The text also restates that “Deborah went up with him,” continuing the theme of “going up” so prominent in the book’s first introduction (cf. comment on 1:1).

4:11 This verse briefly intrudes on the flow of the narrative (similar to 1:16), providing important background information regarding the Kenites that will set the scene for upcoming events. In 1:16 it was recorded that the Kenites, the family of Moses’ wife, settled with the tribe of Judah in “the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad.” Now we learn that one member of that clan, Heber, resettled near Kedesh, in the vicinity of the battle with Sisera. Heber is the husband of Jael, the woman who will achieve the fame and glory mentioned in 4:9 (cf. 5:24).

4:12–13 The battle scene is set. Barak has “gone up” on Mount Tabor, while Sisera is down at the Kishon River. Barak has the strategic high ground when Sisera “called out” (same verb as in vv. 3, 10) for his iron chariots and army. The location of the chariots by the Kishon will play a major role in the upcoming defeat of the Canaanites.

4:14 Deborah sets the battle in motion with the prophetic word that the day of the victory of the Lord is at hand (cf. Ps. 118:24; “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”). Her prophetic word includes two important parts. First, it is stated that the Lord “has given” (past tense) Sisera and his army into Barak’s hand; that is, the final outcome of the battle is certain. Second, the reason for this certainty is because the Lord himself “goes out” (past tense in Hb.) before Barak against Sisera and his iron-chariot army. As in Judges 4:6, the question here is rhetorical and so could also be translated as an emphatic statement of fact: “Indeed, the Lord has gone out before you!” The order of the march has the Lord in the lead, followed by Barak and then his ten thousand warriors. The Lord is a warrior who goes out to lead in battle on behalf of his people (Ex. 15:3). This single fact explains Israel’s victory.

4:15 In the presence of Barak and his army, the Lord “routed Sisera” and his iron chariots. The word translated “routed” means “to throw into confusion or panic.” This verb is used in Exodus 14:24 when the Lord “threw the Egyptian forces into a panic,” serving as another point of connection between the Lord’s deliverance of his people at the Red Sea and his deliverance here at the Kishon River. When the Lord reveals himself to the enemies of his people, they are overwhelmed and thrown into confusion and great panic (cf. Ex. 23:27; Deut. 2:15; Josh. 10:10; 1 Sam. 7:10; 2 Sam. 22:15; Pss. 18:14; 144:6). In the subsequent poetic account of the victory, further details of the battle are provided: the Lord has gone out in cosmic terrifying theophany (Judg. 5:4–5), and the waters of the Kishon have washed away the army and chariots of Sisera, again replaying the events of the exodus. The halting of the iron chariots in the torrential waters of the Kishon also explains why Sisera exits his chariot and flees on foot. In flooding waters, heavy iron chariots become a liability, and this allows Israel to prevail over a much more powerful military force.

4:16 The enemy having been routed by the Lord, Barak and his troops deal with the remains of Sisera’s forces by putting to death every last warrior. As with Ehud and the Moabites, the account again describes the complete defeat of the enemy: “Not a man was left” (cf. 3:29). The irony of Barak and his troops’ pursuing with swords Sisera and his chariots is clear. This would be like a cavalry regiment’s defeating armored tanks. Armored tanks defeat horses and chariots defeat swords—unless the Lord is leading in battle, which is the recurring point of the narrative.

4:17 In verse 16 Barak “pursued the chariots.” Now in verse 17 Sisera “fled away on foot.” Both verses begin with disjunctive clauses that mark an important contrast and turning point in the narrative. Here begins the account of Sisera’s shameful defeat. We are also introduced finally to Jael, the woman at whom the author of Judges has been hinting since chapter 1 via the enigmatic mention of the Kenites in 1:16 and again in 4:11. These references to the Kenites, along with Deborah’s prophetic statement that “the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (v. 9), highlight the significance of the events that follow. In fact, Jael’s execution of Sisera is the focus of the narrative, spanning seven verses filled with memorable details.

4:18 Jael takes the initiative. She goes out to meet Sisera, invites him into her tent, hides him under a rug, and speaks words of peace (“Do not be afraid”). Sisera accepts her invitation because of the peaceful relationship between Jabin and Heber indicated in the previous verse. Here, Sisera is characterized as a coward. The commander of an iron chariot army abandons his troops and hides under a rug in the tent of a woman.

4:19–20 Sisera makes two requests of Jael. First he asks her to give him something to drink. Then he asks her to lie to anyone who might come looking for him. Commentators have questioned why Jael gives Sisera milk instead of water. Is this generosity, trickery, or some other convention lost to us over time? Perhaps the author is subtly revealing that Jael does not comply with either of Sisera’s requests. She does not give him water to drink, and she actively goes out to Barak to disclose Sisera’s location. Jael will prevail over Sisera with her cunning and strength.

4:21–22 As with the death of Eglon in the previous account, the death of Sisera is described with careful detail. Jael’s weapons are the common tools of a tent-dwelling people, a hammer and a tent peg. Here the general of the Canaanite army is defeated by a woman in her tent, as the prophetic word of Deborah is fulfilled in real space and time. The Lord has indeed sold Sisera “into the hand of a woman” (4:9)! Later in Judges an unnamed woman will crush the head of Abimelech, a death characterized as shameful for warriors (9:53–54). The gruesome nature of these deaths points us back to Genesis 3:15, in which God promises that he will one day crush the head of the Serpent and achieve final victory for his people. Even the name Sisera sounds like the hissing of a serpent. With these events we are reminded of God’s enduring faithfulness to carry out his plan of redemption.

4:23–24 These verses bring the narrative account of this judge cycle to a near conclusion. The final statement of the narrative is delayed until after the song of victory: “And the land had rest for forty years” (Judg. 5:31b). We are reminded again that the Lord is the true hero of the story. Just as he sold Israel into the hand of Jabin in 4:2, so also the Lord has subdued Jabin before his people. As a just judge, the Lord allows his people to experience the curse of their sin. But as a merciful covenant King the Lord comes to the rescue of his people when they cry for help.

5:1 The mention of Deborah and Barak clearly links the song of victory in chapter 5 with the events recorded in chapter 4. The “that day” of this verse is tied to “this is the day” in 4:14. Additionally, the combination of the Lord’s great deliverance followed by a song of victory parallels Exodus 14–15. This link is designed to remind readers that the God who delivered his people from Egypt is the same God who delivers his people today, for he is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Furthermore, the songs of Exodus 15 and Judges 5 do not simply memorialize the Lord’s victory in battle; they also establish the theological significance of the events by identifying patterns of redemption.

5:2–3 The song begins with a call to worship: “Bless the Lord!” In recognition of God’s great deliverance in battle, credit is first given where credit is due. This same command appears again in verse 9 and with some frequency in the Psalms (e.g., Pss. 103:20–22; 134:1–2; 135:19–20). This call to worship invokes those who led in battle and those who volunteered to fight. This song is also designed to serve as a public and lasting testimony to God’s great deliverance, and so it is placed before kings and princes. The combination of the plural Hebrew verb translated “bless” and the first-person verbs translated “I will sing” and “I will make melody” establishes the communal nature of this song. In other words, the statement in Judges 5:1 that Deborah and Barak sang this song likely means that they led the community in worship. Some portions of the song are placed in the mouth of Deborah (vv. 6–11), while other are addressed to her (v. 12).

5:4–5 In 4:15–16 it was recorded that the Lord went out before the army of Israel and routed Sisera and his iron chariots. Now in this poetic account we learn that the Lord did so in the manner of a great storm theophany.18 The unsettling of the natural elements is likened to the storm theophany that settled on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19 (cf. Ex. 19:16–20; 20:18; Deut. 4:11). The Hebrew text rendered “even Sinai” in Judges 5:5 could also be rendered “this is Sinai” or “the One of Sinai,” strengthening the author’s connection of the events of Judges 4 to those of the exodus (cf. Ps. 68:8 for the same construction translated “the One of Sinai” in a similar context). It was this awesome display of God’s presence that threw the enemy into great panic and enabled Israel to prevail. Later the song provides additional details regarding the nature of the battle that highlight the cosmic power of God to fight from heaven for his people (Judg. 5:20–21).

5:6–8 These verses describe the social conditions in the days of Deborah that precipitated Israel’s crying out to the Lord for deliverance. The oppression of Jabin and Sisera paralyzed Israel’s infrastructure and prohibited the flourishing of travel and trade. The reason for this is clear: “When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates.” It was Israel’s idolatry, her abandonment of the Lord, that corrupted the land and allowed for this oppression to threaten the people’s lives. Israel was ill equipped to handle this threat. Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots, but Israel did not even have a shield or spear “among forty thousand in Israel.” This also explain why Shamgar fought with an oxgoad (3:31) and Ehud had to make himself a sword (3:16). This time the Lord came to the aid of Israel by raising up a mother for Israel who would deliver the word of the Lord and attend to the defeat of the enemy. The Lord always works in a way that highlights his ability to display his power through what seems to be human weakness (1 Cor. 1:27). The reference to Shamgar suggests that he may have been a contemporary of Deborah, while the reference to Jael highlights her important role in the victory (Judg. 4:17–21) and its retelling (5:24–27).

5:9–11 This next section of the song commends both the leaders and the villagers who volunteered to assemble and fight alongside of the Lord. Together they bless the Lord by recounting his “righteous triumphs” in battle. His great deeds are to be proclaimed throughout Israel by those who sit on donkeys and those who walk on the way (rich and poor), at the watering places and the city gates. Declarations of this type recall the important instruction of Deuteronomy 6:7: “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Israel committed idolatry in the days of Othniel because the people “forgot the Lord their God” (Judg. 3:7). The remedy to the idolatry of forgetting is the faithfulness of remembering the “wondrous things” (Ps. 119:18) the Lord has done for his people.

5:12 The community extols Deborah and Barak to continue in song as they lead away the captives. These cannot be the captives of the army, since no Canaanite warriors survived (Judg. 4:16). These must be the spoils of the Canaanite cities, subjugated in service to Israel. The mention of Deborah and Barak recalls 5:1 and serves to introduce a new section of the song.

5:13–18 In 4:6 the Lord commanded Barak through Deborah to assemble ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun. This section of the song expands on Barak’s call to arms and includes the responses of some of the other tribes. There is no contradiction between the narrative and poetic accounts. Rather, the second account expands and interprets the previous account from a different perspective, a common literary technique in the OT (e.g., the two accounts of day six of creation in Genesis 1–2). In this poetic account of the assembly of Israel’s army, warriors from Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, Naphtali, and Issachar are characterized as “faithful to Barak” (Judg. 5:15). By way of contrast, those from the tribes of Reuben, Gilead (a region spanning parts of Gad and Manasseh east of the Jordan), Dan, and Asher did not attend to Barak’s call to fight with the Lord against the Canaanites.

The important theme of tribal fidelity recalls the opening verses of the book, in which Judah and Simeon fought together with great success. It also recalls the occupation of the land recorded in Joshua, as the Transjordan tribes fought as one with their brothers in the possession of the land west of the Jordan. Accounts such as these stress the importance of the unity of the people of God, in both the OT and the NT. It was the tragic division of Israel into northern and southern kingdoms that marked the beginning of the exile of God’s people from the land.

This section of the song ends with a final reference to Zebulun and Naphtali, praising their willingness to risk their lives in battle—again taking us back to 4:6. The reason for the focus on these two tribes to the exclusion of the others is unknown. Perhaps they led in battle immediately behind the Lord and Barak, or perhaps their mustering of ten thousand men from two of the smaller tribes exemplified widespread faithfulness on their part. We do know, however, that these two tribes took up arms for the Lord in the spirit of the Levites in Exodus 32 (“Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me”; Ex. 32:26), and they are forever remembered for it.

5:19 This next section of the song, extending through verse 23, returns to the description of the battle. In verses 4–5 of this chapter the song describes the coming of the Lord as a great storm theophany, in the tradition of Sinai. Now in these verses the manner in which the Lord “routed” (4:15) the army of Sisera is poetically portrayed. This verse describes the army of the enemy as comprising the “kings of Canaan.” In chapter 4 only one king is named: Jabin. But here we are told of the broader forces employed by Jabin. In Joshua 11:10 the city of Hazor is described as something of a Canaanite capital city, “the head of all those kingdoms.” Since Jabin reigned from Hazor, we can assume that he rallied troops from his allies in opposition to Israel—a common practice. The inability of the enemy forces to overcome the people of God is poetically portrayed in their inability to take the spoils of war: “They got no spoils of silver.”

5:20 Attending the Lord in battle were his heavenly forces, here called “the stars” of heaven. In Deuteronomy 4:19 the sun, moon, and stars are described as the army or “host of heaven.” This also recalls the Lord’s mighty deliverance of his people in Joshua 10, in which he stopped the sun. A similar connection between the stars of heaven and God’s heavenly host is drawn in Job 38:7, which refers to a time in which “the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” The so-called gods of the Canaanites, like Baal, were thought to control the weather, and the peoples came to worship the sun, moon, and stars. In stark contrast, the Lord alone reigns from heaven, and he controls both the visible and invisible forces of those realms (cf. Ezek. 32:7; Jer. 31:35).

5:21–22 The army of Sisera assembled in the valley of the Kishon River. Israel stationed herself above, on Mount Tabor. As the great storm theophany moved out to defeat Sisera and his troops, the Lord caused the waters of the river to swell to such a degree that they rendered useless Sisera’s army of iron chariots and horses. What was once a military advantage became a liability. Thus Sisera had to flee on foot (Judg. 4:15). The defeat of the enemy with chariots in a great flood of water provides yet another connection with the events of Exodus 14.

5:23 This section of the song comes to an end with a curse. The angel of the Lord himself calls for Meroz and its inhabitants to be cursed “thoroughly.” This language is very strong, and it returns us to the theme of the previous section, which contrasted the tribes that did and did not participate with the Lord in battle. The city of Meroz appears only here in the OT; neither its location nor its inhabitants are known. Perhaps this is part of the curse.

5:24–27 The previous section of this song ended with a curse. By way of poetic contrast, this section begins with the blessing of Jael for her role in the defeat and death of Sisera. These events constituted a major portion of the narrative account in Joshua 4 and are rehearsed again here in further detail.19

The blessing of Jael in Judges 5:24 begins and ends with the same Hebrew word for “blessing” (inclusio). Her identification as the wife of Heber the Kenite occupies the central position in the blessing, with two prepositional phrases that begin with the same Hebrew preposition. The significance of Jael was anticipated by the previous references to the Kenites in the book (1:16; 4:11, 17 [2x]). This blessing highlights the fulfillment of the prophetic word of Deborah in 4:9: “The Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.”

The milk, tent, tent peg, and hammer of Jael all reappear in this poetic account. The focus, however, is on the death of Sisera in 5:26–27. In verse 26 the death blow is described four times, like the pounding of the hammer itself. She “struck,” “crushed,” “shattered,” and “pierced”! In verse 27 Sisera slips away into death. Three different verbs are used a total of seven times to portray his death in slow motion. The final description as “dead” could also be translated “destroyed,” capturing the gruesome image of the shattered skull of this army general on the floor of Jael’s tent.

5:28–30 The shock of Sisera’s death is portrayed in this next section through the eyes of his mother. She is depicted as waiting for the return of her son, wondering why he has been delayed (v. 28). The counsel of her wise comforters (v. 29) reckons that his delay has been caused by the extra time required to divide the spoils of war. Her language in verse 30 is crass at best. In addition to assuming he is collecting costly fabric, Sisera’s mother thinks her son has been delayed because he and his army have remained to violate the women of the land. The Hebrew text could be translated “a womb, two wombs for the head [a euphemism] of a man.” At the beginning of this song (v. 7) Deborah is described as the mother of Israel, raised up by the Lord to render judgment. Now at the end of the song Sisera’s mother has come under that judgment.

5:31b The narrative of the third judge cycle comes to an end with the conventional note of the land’s rest during the lifetime of the judge. This is the only account of a major judge that does not record the death of the judge. Deborah and Barak most certainly die. It is unknown, however, why that formulaic element has been omitted from this account.