Judges 4:4

GOD RAISES UP DEBORAH AND BARAK (Judges 4:4-10)

"Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm-tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill-country of Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not Jehovah, the God of Israel, commanded, saying; Go and draw unto mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thy hand. And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go; but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go. And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding; the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honor; for Jehovah will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. And Barak called together Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and there went up ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him."

"Deborah, a prophetess, judged Israel at that time" (Judges 4:4). Deborah is clearly the inspired leader of the deliverance that came to Israel in this crisis. Her authority was already recognized in Israel. Note her power to summon Barak, and note his immediate response. Her ability as a prophetess in the truest sense of the word appears in her supernatural prediction that God would deliver Sisera into the hand of a woman, as well as details of where the battle would occur, and of its favorable outcome for Israel.

"Under the palm-tree ... in Ephraim" (Judges 4:5). It is astounding that Soggin would affirm `that, "Ephraim was Deborah's tribe,"[10] despite the clear indication in Judges 5:15 that, "Deborah's own tribe seems to have been Issachar."[11] Soggin apparently assumed that because Deborah's prophetic office was exercised in "the hill-country of Ephraim," that she necessarily belonged to that tribe. The same kind of deduction would have made Jonah a citizen of Nineveh!

"The palm of Deborah" (Judges 4:5). "This may be a confused memory of another Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, who was buried under an oak in the same district of Ephraim at Bethel (Genesis 35:8),"[12] No, the sacred author of Judges, whom we believe to have been Samuel, was not the man with the "confused memory"; it was the author of the Layman's Bible Commentary comment just cited! The tree under which that first Deborah was buried was an oak, and the tree under which this Deborah prophesied was a palm. Both the utility and the species of the trees were different. There is no confusion whatever regarding these in the text!

"And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment" (Judges 4:5). "The expression, `came up,' is applied here, as in Deuteronomy 17:8, to the place of justice, as a spiritual height, independently of the fact that the tree was in the hill-country."[13] As Barnes noted, "This verse shows that the `judges' exercised the as well as the military functions of rulers."[14] Go, and draw near unto mount Tabor (Judges 4:6). This mountain stands 1,843 feet above sea level."[15] It has a flat surface on top where a town was erected in N.T. times, and its steep sides provided a very secure position for the rallying of Barak's ten thousand men. It has a spectacular appearance overlooking the eastern part of the plain of Esdraelon, and that caused it to be mentioned along with Mount Hermon, despite that mountain's being five times as high as Tabor.

"The river Kishon" (Judges 4:7). In normal weather this river is merely a dried up wady, but in the instance of a rain, it becomes a roaring river. Of course, Sisera knew that, and, if it had been the rainy season, he would not have deployed his chariots in such a dangerous location. This indicates that it was certainly an unexpected and untimely rain that turned the battle into the advantage of the Israelites. It was through her gift of prophecy that Deborah knew this and set in motion the events that led to the great victory.

This river heads just west of the great ridge of mountains bordering the area of the Jordan River and flows northwest across the plain of Esdraelon (Jezreel) near the southern foot of Mount Tabor in the east and continuing northwestward to the north of Mount Carmel, where it empties into the Mediterranean near Haifa. "This plain of Esdraelon is one of the great battlefields of history."[16]

"Zebulun and Naphtali" (Judges 4:6,10). One of the difficulties cited by scholars is the fact that in this chapter only these two tribes are mentioned as participating in the battle, but in Judges 5 it appears that Ephraim, Benjamin, Machir, and Issachar also participated. "There were two phases of the campaign: (1) the first in which only Naphtali and Zebulun participated, and (2) the second in which all six of the tribes mentioned had a part."[17">Judges 4:11)">[17] In fact, Judges 4:24 speaks of a conflict that continued "more and more," indicating an extensive war culminating in the permanent removal of the Canaanites as a threat to Israel. The part of that war in which Zebulun and Naphtali were the sole participants was merely the opening campaign of it.

"I will deliver him into thy hand" (Judges 4:7). Note that Deborah's words here are not her own, but the words of the Lord, despite the fact of the customary "Thus saith the Lord" being omitted.

"If thou wilt go with me, then I will go" (Judges 4:9). Barak should not be criticized for his reluctance. He was in excellent company. Moses himself was, at first, unwilling to undertake the rescue of Israel from Egypt, and Gideon also considered himself to be the least worthy to undertake his Divine assignment. Barak recognized the great difficulty and danger of his call to deliver Israel, and he needed the assurance that the presence of Deborah would provide.

This verse is included here in order to explain why the residence of Heber and his wife Jael happened to be on Sisera's route of escape when he fled from the defeat at the river Kishon. The Kenites normally occupied the territory south of the land of Judah, but, perhaps, being discouraged by a recent invasion of the Philistines, they are revealed in this verse to have moved northward beyond the tribal lands of Naphtali. In their new home, they had evidently accommodated themselves to the supremacy of the Canaanites and were considered by Sisera to be his friends or allies. As it turned out, however, Jael was passionately devoted to Israel.