Judges 5:16

Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks?.... This tribe abounded with flocks and herds, and therefore chose the country on the other side Jordan, as suitable for

Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds?

Why wast thou so unworthy and cowardly, so void of all zeal for God, and compassion towards thy brethren, and care for the recovery of thy own liberties and privileges, that thou wouldst not engage thyself in so just, so necessary, and so noble a cause, but didst prefer the care of thy sheep, and thy own present case and safety, before this generous undertaking? Reuben thought neutrality their wisest course, being very rich in cattle, . They were loth to run the hazard of so great a loss, by taking up arms against so potent an enemy as Jabin was; and the bleatings of their sheep were so loud in their ears, that they could not hear the call of Deborah and Barak to this expedition.

Judges 5:16 Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben [there were] great searchings of heart.Ver. 16. Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds?] Minding only thine own wealth and ease. Of the Portuguese it is said, that they are ready to obey any, so they may be rich. The Spaniards, while their lords, were wont to say of them, that they were Pocos y locos, few and foolish. These Reubenites were neither few, but a numerous tribe, nor fools, in their own opinion at least, but of deep reach for their own private ends. Howbeit here they are sharply reproved for their selfishness and baseness of spirit: for that they were toti in se, like the snail, still within doors at home, dressing up their own cabins when the whole ship was in danger of being cast away. For the divisions of Reuben.] See on Judges 5:15. There were great searchings of heart.] Much musing what should be the matter that Reuben was so insensible.

(16) Sheepfolds.—Literally, hurdles (mishpethaim), the dual form being due to some method of their construction. Hence the Vulgate renders, inter duos terminos.The bleatings of the flocks.—Rather, the sounds of shepherds’ flutes or pastoral pipings (“Shepherds delighting in syrinx-pipes,” Hom., Il. xviii. 525). There is a contrast between these peaceful flutings and the battle-horns to which they ought to have been listening. It is as though Deborah would say to Reuben— “Sound, sound the clarion, shrill the fife; To all the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name.” For the divisions.—It should be, as before, “By the streams of Reuben.” Searchings of heart.—Reuben sent magnanimous debates and promises, but they only ended in sloth and vacillation. They decided to go, and—stayed at home.

16. among the sheepfolds] Genesis 49:14, cf. Psalms 68:13; the meaning is uncertain; it ought to be ‘fire-places’ or ‘ash-heaps,’ according to the etymology of the Hebr. word. the pipings for the flocks] The root is used of whistling, hissing, in order to call together, Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 7:18; Zechariah 10:8; cf. pastoria sibila of Ovid, Met. xiii. 785 (Moore); it does not mean ‘to play on the flute.’ The last line of this verse is incorrectly repeated from Judges 5:15 b. Reuben was settled E. of the Jordan, N. of Moab, and probably became to a great extent merged in the native population; see the prayer in Deuteronomy 33:6. Already the tribe was losing political importance; it preferred an isolated, agricultural life to taking part in the national movement. Gilead] is usually the country occupied by the Israelites on the E. of the Jordan, from the Yarmuk (Sherξ‘at el-Menβḍ ?ire) in the N. to the valley of Heshbon (Wadi Ḥ ?esbβn) in the S. Reuben inhabited the lower part, and East-Manasseh, probably at a later period, obtained possession of the upper. Here Gilead is not a country but a tribe, and, we may suppose, stands for Gad. Dan, why did he remain in ships?] An obscure line. The reference is not to the southern settlements of Dan (Joshua 19:40 ff.), but to the northern (ch. Judges 18:27 ff.): the migration described in the latter passage must have taken place before the time of this Ode; see on Judges 1:34. Laish (Tell el-Ḳ ?βdξ, near Bβniβs), however, is far inland; Dan nowhere reached the sea-coast. Hence remain in ships is taken to mean ‘sojourns near the sea-faring people.’ The verb strictly = ‘to dwell as a protected alien,’ and might imply that Dan lived in dependence upon a powerful neighbour; but to take ships as = ‘shipping people,’ i.e. the Phoenicians, is to strain the language. Sojourns in ships might perhaps mean that the Danites had to work the Phoenician galleys, and so were not at liberty to take up the cause of their Israelite brethren (so Budde Comment., and E. Meyer). Asher] occupied the Hinterland of the Phoenician coast, and perhaps was not sufficiently independent of the Phoenicians to join the Israelite muster. by his creeks] The word occurs only here; but light is thrown upon it by Arabic, which uses nouns from the same root in the sense of a gap by which boats ascend the mouth of a river; so render landing-places. In Genesis 49:13 the expressions ‘dwells by the sea shore,’ ‘the shore of ships’ are found in connexion with Zebulun, and may be borrowed from here. Lagrange, on the contrary, thinks that they are inserted here from Genesis 49, and that Dan and Asher are foreign to the original text; he retains creeks in the sense of gorges for Gilead. This is one way of overcoming the difficulties.

Great searchings - (thoughts, Judges 5:15) of heart Deborah means to say that at first the Reubenites made magnanimous resolutions to help their brethren against Jabin. But they stayed at home, and let the opportunity slip.

16. Double sheepfolds — The word is in the dual number, and designates the enclosures made of hurdles, left open at the top, and usually separated by a hurdle into two parts for the two different