Judges 5:6

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Judges 5:6-11

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 (Jdg. 5:6): 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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 5:6

In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath ,.... Of whom see Judges 3:31 ; who succeeded Ehud as a judge, but lived not long, and did not much; at least wrought not a perfect deliverance of the children of Israel; but during his time till now, quite through the twenty years of Jabin's oppression, things were as they are after described: in the days of Jael ; the wife of Heber the Kenite, spoken of in the preceding chapter, Judges 4:17 , who appears to be a woman of masculine spirit,... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 5:6

The highways were unoccupied - The land was full of anarchy and confusion, being everywhere infested with banditti. No public road was safe; and in going from place to place, the people were obliged to use unfrequented paths. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Judges 5:6

Words dcscriptive of a state of weakness and fear, so that Israel could not frequent the highways. It is a graphic description of a country occupied by an enemy. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Judges 5:6

Judges 5:6 . In the days of Shamgar, &c. In this and the two following verses Deborah, to give the Israelites a just sense of their deliverance, and excite them to greater thankfulness, represents the miseries to which the Canaanites had reduced them by twenty years’ oppression; their public roads or high-ways were deserted for fear of robbers or violence; their villages depopulated; their cities blocked up, and their country overrun with the enemy’s soldiers; while themselves were... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Judges 5:1-31

Deliverance under Deborah (4:1-5:31)Hazor, chief city of the north, had been conquered and burnt by Joshua (Joshua 11:10-13). However, not all the people had been destroyed. Having rebuilt Hazor, they now took revenge on the northern tribes, especially Zebulun and Naphtali, and ruled them cruelly for twenty years (4:1-3). (To understand fully how God saved Israel at this time, we must read the historical outline in Chapter 4 together with the song of victory in Chapter 5.)Israel’s deliverer on... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Judges 5:6

Shamgar. Compare Judges 3:31 . the highways, &c. = the highways were closed. read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Judges 5:6

"In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied. And the travelers walked through byways. The rulers ceased in Israel, they ceased. Until that I Deborah arose, That I arose a mother in Israel.""In the days of Shamgar" (Judges 5:6). The mention of this character was for the purpose of showing that the same conditions existed in the days of Jael that had previously existed in the days of Shamgar. This is a far cry from saying that Jael and Shamgar were... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Judges 5:6-7

Judges 5:6-7. In the days of Shamgar— The prophetess in these verses gives us a description of the wretched state of Israel during the time of that captivity, from which she, by the assistance of God, delivered them. It is very easy, says the author of the Observations, (p. 216.) to turn out of the roads in the east, and go to a place by winding about over the lands, when that is thought safer. Dr. Shaw takes notice of this circumstance, observing, that in Barbary they found no hedges, mounds,... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Judges 5:6

6-8. The song proceeds in these verses to describe the sad condition of the country, the oppression of the people, and the origin of all the national distress in the people's apostasy from God. Idolatry was the cause of foreign invasion and internal inability to resist it. read more

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