Judges 4

2. Hazor. i.e., Canaanite king of Hazor (Josh. xi. 1-10), which city had been rebuilt, and had regained its former power.

3 twenty years. This oppression was both longer and heavier than either of the former—the repetition of the sin aggravating the offence, and increasing the chastisement.

4 a prophetess. See note on Exod. xv. 20.

6 toward mount Tabor. From vers. 6, 10, 14, taken together, it appears that Barak was first to collect his warriors on the heights of Kedesh, and then to march (perhaps for the most part in single file, so as to be less observed) along the hills to Mount Tabor, at the foot of which, in the plain of Jezreel, or Megiddo, the battle was fought.

Naphtali . . . Zebulun. These two tribes (see ch. v. 14-23) had been the principal sufferers under the oppression of Jabin; and Barak himself was of the tribe of Naphtali.

11 plain. Should be “oak,” or “terebinth.” See Gen. xii. 6.

15 discomfited. The Heb. word means utterly routed. Ch. v. 20, 21 make it highly probable that a sudden storm during the battle deluged the plain, making part of it a morass, which impeded the movements of the chariots, and filling the Kishon, which in such a case soon becomes an irresistible torrent.

fied away on his feet. A more secret, and, in a hilly country, a more speedy way of flight than in a chariot.

19 a (the) bottle. A skin or leather bag.

20 thou shalt say, No. Jael had brought Sisera into the inner part of the tent, into which no one would think of intruding, as it was appropriated to the women. Sisera gives Jael a lesson in falsehood: he was doomed to be repaid by treachery. Neither is defensible.

21 a nail of the tent. “A tent-pin,” R.V. One of the long sharp spikes used to fasten the tent-cords to the ground.