From heaven was the fight; The stars from their courses fought with Sisera.
The song of Deborah and Barak looks back on a battle Israel's soldiers fought at the Kishon. Yet here the singers lift their eyes off the battlefield and describe a war fought from the sky, which raises the question: who really won the day?
The part of the song that describes the fighting never praises the fighters. One writer sees this as a mark of faithfulness:
In verses 19-22 we see another mark of faithfulness. They do not boast in themselves, or even think of themselves. They give the credit for the victory to God alone, and declare that it came from heaven.
The song then measures the defeat against the enemy's own strength:
Next comes the battle itself and the defeat of the enemy. Heaven and earth join together against the oppressors of God's people. Above, the stars in their courses fought against them. Below, the Kishon swept them away with its stream. The mighty ones showed what they were by the stamping of their frightened horses. Such is the strength of those who are with God: the mightier the foes, the greater the defeat.
Sisera's army could beat anything on the ground. The verse says he met something else. One writer connects this with the men who once demanded to know by what authority Jesus acted:
When the kings of Canaan fought, they found that the heavens fought against them, and the stars. This points to a spiritual authority higher than anything on earth — an authority Canaan was not ready to meet. It was earthbound men who challenged the authority of the Lord Jesus as He acted for God on earth... In the same way, heaven's authority defeated Sisera and his armies. Without this, Barak and his men could not have gained the victory.
Why call the stars fighters at all? One answer looks past this one battle:
Scripture shows that there is a mighty heavenly host, and rulers and powers in the unseen world. God is the God of them all. He is also God of all the forces of nature, which He has often used to punish His enemies. "From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera."
Another writer reads this as a pattern rather than a one-off:
In the days of Joshua the Lord threw down great stones from heaven on the enemy. In Deborah's time the very stars in their courses fought against Sisera. So it will be in the day to come. His thunderbolts will cause terrible destruction among the enemies of His people (Joshua 10:11; Judges 5:20).
The men who went into that valley on the strength of God's word were not left to manage alone:
Barak and his willing helpers would have been no match for the armies of Jabin. But they went out relying on the word of the Lord... God does not watch the battles of His people as an outsider with no interest in them. At the right moment He steps in with His heavenly resources and wins the victory for His own... And what was true of Israel is true of ourselves: we have never called in vain for the help of the Lord.
Samuel Ridout asks who it is that heaven fights alongside:
Where are those who are willing to lay down their lives for fellow believers, who have only one motive — the glory of Christ in the deliverance of His people? Such men are linked with heaven. In the bold imagery of the song, the stars in their courses fight with them, while on earth the river carries away the slain.
The song names Megiddo two verses earlier. One writer explains what that old battlefield pictures:
This is where the most powerful Gentile oppressors were overthrown, when God rose up to deliver His people... It is easy to see what a striking picture this gives of the great battle still to come. Then Christ will come down from heaven to deliver His people, destroy His enemies, and set up His glorious rule... The name Armageddon probably refers less to the place than to the character of their overthrow, pictured in the great battle "by the waters of Megiddo."
- Heaven fights. The song credits the win to a battle fought from above. The stars fought, and the fighters claimed no glory for themselves.
- Heaven outranks. Sisera's army could face any force on earth. It could not face an authority above the earth — the same authority that silenced the men who questioned Jesus.
- Heaven commands. God rules the unseen host and the forces of nature. He has often turned creation itself against His enemies.
- Heaven engages. He does not watch His people struggle from a distance. He steps in at the right moment with His own resources. No cry for His help has ever gone unanswered.
- Heaven returns. Writers read Megiddo as a preview of a final battle, when Christ descends to deliver His people and set up His rule.
The torrent of Kishon swept them away, That ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. My soul, thou hast trodden down strength!
The song of Deborah and Barak turns from the clash of kings to the ground they fought on. It credits the victory to a stream. What did a seasonal brook have to do with the fall of a powerful army? And why does the singer speak to her own soul?
Kishon was only a brook. Its flooding is what the song describes.
A brook that rises in the mountains of Esdraelon. It runs north-west to the Mediterranean, close to Mount Carmel. It was the scene of the victory of Deborah and Barak over the army of Sisera. The song pictures the river as "sweeping away" the enemy, which well describes the rushing torrent. When there is much water it is in places quite impassable.
God had named the place before the battle.
God had said He would influence Sisera to come to Kishon (ch. 4:7). It may be that the torrent literally swept many of his army away, perhaps because Israel's army had trapped them.
The name of the stream carries its own commentary.
The scene of the conflict is at the river Kishon, where, at a later day, Elijah killed the false prophets (1 Kings 18:40). Its name comes from a root meaning to bend, and people usually translate it as "winding." Other words come from the same root and are closely tied to it: "a bow" and "to lay a snare." So the name suggests a weapon of war, and the ambush that the schemer himself falls into. Kishon seems to be the place of his own choice for the battle. Into the pit which he had dug for others, he falls himself. Yet all had been foreseen and provided by God.
The verse before this one puts the stars in the fight. This verse puts the water in it.
Next we have the actual conflict and overthrow of the enemy. Heaven and earth unite against the oppressors of the people of God. The stars in their courses fought against them from above. The Kishon swept them away with its stream from below. The mighty ones showed themselves such by the stamping of their frightened horses. Such is the strength of those that are with God: the mightier the foes, the mightier only is the overthrow.
Israel's swords started the rout. The flood finished it.
Divine power was at work unseen for Deborah and Barak. But there was more: "The torrent Kishon swept them away." God stepped in and used the forces of nature to complete the defeat of Jabin's powerful army. … All the mighty power of the enemy is trodden beneath the feet of God's servant who trusts in Him. As for us, we should have no fear of our enemies. God has given us His armour so we can stand against every attack. And "the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Rom. 16:20).
The closing line of the verse is addressed inward. The ESV reads it as a call to march on with might. Older translations read it as you have trodden down strength, and the writer quoted below works from that wording. Read that way, it is not a boast.
The honour had passed into the hand of a woman, for Israel was out of order. Wrongdoing had come in with a disturbing force. The remedy, if it was to come at all, had to come from God's own hand. And so it was. So in her magnificent song she sings — "O my soul, you have trodden down strength." It is a confession that the source of her strength and victory was all in God. In the power of the Spirit, and in that alone, she had fought the battle of the Lord and won.
Commentators see the battlefield itself pointing forward.
Judges 5:19-22 describes the great battle. It is a great battle mainly because of what it pictures. It was fought at Megiddo, and it pictures the time of slaughter in store for the nations. They will gather at Armageddon, just before the Lord Jesus sets up His kingdom on earth.
- Drawn — God had already said He would bring Sisera to Kishon; the enemy marched to a place chosen for him.
- Snared — the name comes from a root meaning to bend, linked to words for a bow and a trap. The ground Sisera chose became his own pit.
- Surrounded — the stars fought above and the stream swept below. Heaven and earth closed on the oppressors together.
- Swept — God used the forces of nature to finish what the swords began. So His servants need not fear their foes.
- Sung — Deborah tells her own soul that all the strength was God's. The whole battle previews the gathering of the nations at Armageddon.
Then did the horse-hoofs clatter with the coursings, The coursings of their steeds.
Deborah's song moves from the clash of kings at Megiddo to one sound: hooves hammering the ground as Sisera's horses run. The song turns Canaan's war horses into proof of collapse, and asks what human strength is worth when God enters a battle.
Commentators read verses 19 to 22 as a preview of a far larger battle still ahead.
Judges 5:19 to 22 describes the great battle. It is a great battle mainly because of what it pictures. It was fought at Megiddo, and it stands for the time of slaughter waiting for the nations. They will be gathered together at Armageddon, just before the Lord Jesus sets up His kingdom on earth. On that great day there will be not only the kings of Canaan, but "the kings from the rising of the sun," and "the kings of the whole habitable world" (Rev. 16:12, 14).
A second writer turns from the kings to the fight itself.
Next we have the actual conflict and overthrow of the enemy. Heaven and earth unite against the oppressors of the people of God. The stars from their courses fought against them above; the Kishon swept them away with its stream below. The mighty ones showed how mighty they were by the stamping of their frightened horses. Such is the strength of those who are with God: the mightier the enemies, the mightier their overthrow.
Horses meant war, and God had already told His people where not to place their trust. The lines below come from an older translation.
In the days our book speaks of, and in the East, the horse was used mainly for war. God warned His people not to put their trust in this powerful weapon: "The horse is a vain thing for safety." "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God" (Ps. 20:7). It is He who "has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea" (Ex. 15:1). The Lord is exalted far above all His creatures. Deliverance must come, not from horses, but from the Lord on high.
The next writer ties the hooves to the torrent of Kishon in the line before, quoting both verses from an older translation.
God does not watch the conflicts of His people from a distance. At the right moment He steps in with His heavenly resources to win the victory for His own. Here He used the forces of nature to complete the rout of King Jabin's powerful army. Deborah, as the instrument of God, can say, "My soul, you have trodden down strength!" as she recalls how "the horse-hoofs clatter with the coursings, the coursing of their steeds." All the mighty power of the enemy is trodden under the feet of God's servant who trusts in Him. We should have no fear of our enemies. God has given us His armour so that we can stand against every attack, and "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Rom. 16:20).
Notice who the singers refuse to talk about.
Then in verses 19-22, we have another characteristic of faithfulness. They do not boast in themselves or even think of themselves. They give the victory to God alone, and proclaim its heavenly character.
Another writer looks at how the whole campaign ended:
To crown the defeat, the great Sisera, the hero of so many victories, fell before a woman and a tent peg! The very weakness and smallness of the means used made it clear that all the honour and glory was God's.
- Boast. The horse stood for military strength. God warned His people not to trust it.
- Panic. The mighty ones showed how mighty they were by the stamping of their frightened horses. The hooves are the sound of flight, not of attack.
- Overthrow. Heaven and earth close in. The stars fight from above, the Kishon sweeps from below, and the mightier the foe, the greater the fall.
- Glory. Verses 19-22 give the victory to God alone. The means He used were so weak that no one else could claim the honour.
- Ahead. The battle at Megiddo pictures the nations gathered at Armageddon. God promises believers the same trodden-down strength now: "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet."
Curse Meroz, saith the Angel of Jehovah; Curse, curse the inhabitants thereof; For they came not to the help of Jehovah, To the help of Jehovah among the mighty.
Deborah's song curses one small town. Meroz never fought against Israel. It stayed home while the battle raged. The angel of the LORD speaks the curse, and it raises a hard question: why is doing nothing treated as taking a side?
Meroz sat close enough to strike at Sisera, the enemy commander Israel had just beaten. What it did with that position is the only thing Scripture tells us about it.
Meroz appears to have been a town in an especially good position to help destroy Sisera's army. But Meroz seems to have deliberately refused to come "to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty." So it brought on itself the curse of the angel of the LORD. In refusing to help Deborah and Barak, Meroz had refused to help the LORD. This is the only mention of Meroz in Scripture. It was clearly a large town with a wonderful opportunity to serve the LORD. The opportunity was lost. The curse settled that it would be forgotten for ever, except in connection with its curse.
Other tribes also stayed away, yet no curse falls on them. Commentators trace the difference to where Meroz stood.
Meroz had done nothing, and yet they were bitterly cursed. They are cursed because they had done nothing — nothing! — while their brothers were locked in a death-struggle on the high places of the field to save the testimony of God from destruction. Meroz stood at the centre of a war fought for God's work, and its own survival was at stake. There was some excuse for the inaction of Gilead and the others — though they are rebuked — because they were not locally involved. But there was none at all for Meroz. It was in the thick of the responsibility. Yet with mean and selfish cowardice it left the labour and the danger to others, while it was happy to enjoy the results.
The same writer contrasts how onlookers judge such neutrality with how Deborah judged it:
In a great crisis, some people stay neutral. Shallow-minded people admire them for their good sense and fairness. But Deborah knew them through and through. She saw that their good sense is cowardice and their fairness is heartless indifference. So she curses them.
One writer gives two reasons for the curse, and finds the second in the town's name.
Why is Meroz singled out like this? I have no doubt it was for two reasons. First, because their location placed them where their help would have been effective. But then, as always, the failure suggests something else as its cause. Meroz means "built of cedars," or, as we might say, dwellers in cedar palaces. You could say it represents the luxury of spiritual self-pleasing, in contrast to the lowliness of serving the Lord.
The charge is not that Meroz failed to help Barak. It is that Meroz failed to help the LORD.
Notice the remarkable words used about the people of Meroz. They "did not come to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty." Think of it: we are not called to help one another, but to help the Lord. Of course He does not need our help for Himself. He can, and one day will, overthrow all His enemies and ours with the sword that comes out of His mouth. But our Lord identifies Himself with His poor brothers who suffer or sit in prison. He treats help given to them as help done to Himself. So it is here.
One writer carries the curse beyond Israel's battle. It falls on anyone who bears the name of Christ but has no heart for Him.
In these troubled times some people do not take sides with Christ. They link themselves with His name and with God's people, yet their hearts are indifferent to Him. Let them be cursed. "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed" (1 Corinthians 16:22).
The warning has a positive twin. Small service counts, because the Lord hands out work by size of heart, not size of gift.
It is a great thing to be free, fresh and simple in heart. Then you are ready in the Lord's hand to do just what He gives you to do. Everyone has his own little place for God... The Lord gives each of us an opportunity in our little corner to serve Him and His people sweetly and simply. This is open to everyone.
- Position — Meroz sat where its help would have counted most. Distant tribes were only rebuked; Meroz was cursed.
- Comfort — its name means "built of cedars." Ease and self-pleasing kept its people at home.
- Neutrality — standing aside looks like good sense to onlookers. Deborah calls it cowardice and cold indifference.
- Identification — the charge is refusing to help the LORD. He counts help given to His afflicted people as given to Himself.
- Opportunity — Meroz lost its one chance and is remembered only for the curse. Everyone else still has a little corner in which to serve.
Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, Blessed above women in the tent!
Deborah's song has just cursed the town of Meroz for staying home. Now it turns and crowns a woman who was not even an Israelite — so why does the song's highest praise go to an outsider?
The song sets Jael directly opposite the town that failed. One writer marks the reversal: the town with a plain duty did nothing, while the woman with every excuse acted:
In contrast with the curse upon Meroz, we have next the blessing upon Jael, where the iron warrior lies in utter collapse at the feet of a woman. Meroz had failed in the plain path of duty. But Jael, who might have been excused, forgets her womanhood and her foreign birth. She forgets the ordinary claims of hospitality and the pity given to someone in distress, and strikes for the Lord and for His people.
The verse blesses her among women who live in tents. One writer sets that tent against the cedar palaces of Meroz:
Put side by side the mighty cedar temple palaces of Meroz, and the lowly tent of Jael. A cedar palace and a curtain! Oh, how many of God's people have brought a curse upon themselves for having a cedar palace which stole their heart away from Christ. On the other hand, the tent of a pilgrim and its pin — those are things that can serve in victory... it is a blessed truth that those who are Jaels, who take their place on God's side and His work — their name will not be missing from that song of triumph on the day of the Lord's celebration, in glory.
Jael was not an Israelite, yet the song gives her the highest praise. One writer notes she is not the first stranger God has honoured:
Next, in Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, we see the stranger again made illustrious. It was by her hand, in a very special way, that God subdued the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.
The verse names her as the wife of Heber. Heber had made his own peace with Israel's enemy, which makes her choice sharper:
Heber's act does not seem to have been one of faith. He kept apart from the people in their low estate, to free himself from the responsibility of Israel's sad condition. What is more, he was at peace with the open enemy of his people, and he had arranged things so that Jabin would not trouble him. But a weak woman lived under Heber's tent. She refused safety at such a price, and would not own any alliance with the enemy of her nation. Israel had undivided possession of her heart.
So what is the song blessing? Not her love for a country — one writer names the reason:
Like Meroz, she had a golden opportunity that would never come her way again. She seized it with both hands — literally: one hand holding the tent peg, the other swinging the hammer. It was not a natural action for a woman, but it was an act of faith. Faith controlled the feelings of nature and showed her what to do to help deliver God's people. It was not merely an act of patriotism: it was an act of faith... The claims of God must come before the feelings of nature or the claims of men.
Readers stumble at a blessing on a killing that broke the claims of hospitality. One writer answers from the story around it:
People have shown great indignation at this act of Jael, and even Christians have blamed her severely. But it was foretold that the LORD would "sell Sisera into the hand of a woman," and right after the deed we read, "So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel." ... The song makes clear that Sisera was an enemy not only of God's people, but of the Lord Himself. So God empowered Jael to take his life... Where an act carries out God's righteous judgement, it rises far above what would be right under the ordinary rules of hospitality or war. Of course in some cases the thing done may be according to the will of God, but not the way in which it is done.
- Curse answered. The song sets the blessing on Jael against the curse on Meroz. Meroz had a plain duty and refused it; Jael had every excuse and acted.
- Tent over palace. Meroz had cedar palaces; Jael had a curtain and a tent peg. A cedar palace can steal the heart from Christ; a pilgrim's tent and its peg serve in victory.
- Stranger honoured. Jael was a stranger to Israel, yet God subdued Canaan's king by her hand.
- Undivided heart. Her husband bought safety by keeping peace with Israel's enemy; she refused safety at that price.
- Faith, not feeling. Her act came from faith, not patriotism or natural feeling — and the song of triumph keeps her name.
He asked water, she gave milk; In the nobles' bowl she brought forth cream.
Deborah's song pauses at a tent door, where a beaten general asked for water and Jael handed him milk in a nobleman's bowl. Commentators read that small detail as the measure of Jael's heart, and as a pattern for treating a thirsty enemy.
Older translations say Jael brought "butter in a lordly dish." The ESV calls it curds in a noble's bowl. It was not the butter we spread on bread today.
This was curdled milk. Genesis 18:8; Deuteronomy 32:14. Jael brought Sisera "butter" to drink, Judges 5:25... Curdled milk is a common drink in the East, and mixed with honey it tastes very good.
He asked for water. She brought out the best thing she had, and served it in a way that honoured his rank.
When the enemy of the people of God comes to her, this woman shows grace. She brings out the best thing she has in her tent to honour Sisera's rank. She hands him the drink in a bowl fit for a nobleman. Is this not the very opposite of contempt? Should we not act this way towards the enemies of God, giving them more than they ask for their thirst and their food? God's witnesses go on with grace beyond the worst enemies of Christ.
Two lines later, the hands that carried the bowl take up a hammer. One writer follows a single thread through both scenes.
When Sisera asked for water, she gave him milk, a picture of giving the simple, elementary truth of God even to an enemy (v. 25). But Sisera pictures one who does not respond to the truth, and grace refused results in judgment. The tent peg also stands for the truth of God, which supports the believer's pilgrim character, because it keeps the tent in place... She illustrates the faith that is willing to use the truth, whether in grace or in judging for God.
Her husband Heber chose safety. Jael refused it.
He was at peace with the open enemy of his people... But a weak woman lived in Heber's tent. She refused safety at that price, and she would not accept an alliance with the enemy of her nation. Israel had undivided possession of her heart... Jael hides him. He asks for a drink of water, and she gives him something better, milk. She does not treat him at first as an enemy, but with pity. Yet when the enemy of her people stands in front of her, she becomes pitiless. The only weapons she had were the tools of a woman who keeps the tent.
One writer turns Jael's order — listen first, act after — into a rule for meeting people who argue against God.
A man comes to you with all his arguments. You do not agree with them, but you listen to him. That is how you catch him in his own cleverness. I will gladly welcome a man who denies God, if I can put an end to his unbelief. If I can get the nail of pilgrim truth through his head, then I am willing, dear friends, to sit and hear him argue his unbelief.
Not every writer reads the song's praise as approval of all Jael did. One warns against a further step, while still crediting her faith.
We must be careful not to treat these deeds as carrying God's approval, above all the detail of what Jael did. It was an act of courage and of faith. Faith moved her, and that faith led her to kill Sisera, the enemy of Israel.
Jael had no sword. One writer names what she did have, and what God did through it.
Sisera, thirsty and worn out, looked for shelter in Jael's tent. She killed him by driving a tent peg through his head with a hammer. This shows how God can strengthen a feeble instrument to work out His deliverance.
- Asked — He asked for water. Curdled milk was an ordinary Eastern drink, and it is what she poured out for him.
- Given — She gave more than the request and served it in her finest bowl. That is the opposite of contempt, and the pattern for how God's witnesses treat His worst enemies.
- Refused — The milk pictures the simple truth of God offered even to an enemy. Sisera pictures the man who will not respond. Grace refused ends in judgment.
- Undivided — Her kindness was not compromise. Her heart already belonged to God's people. So she could show pity first and strike after.
- Feeble — A tent, a bowl, a peg and a hammer were all she had. God delivers through instruments that look useless. Commentators differ over how much of the deed itself God approved.
She put her hand to the tent-pin, And her right hand to the workmen's hammer; And she smote Sisera, she struck through his head, Shattered and pierced through his temples.
Deborah's song slows down and lingers on one moment. A woman's two hands, one on a tent peg, the other on a workman's hammer. Israel's oppressor lies dead on the floor of her tent. Two questions follow. Why did God choose so small a weapon? And why does a song celebrate a killing?
The tools named here are not military. They belong to the woman who pitches and strikes a tent, and the tent is where she wins.
The instrument she used for Israel's deliverance was even more worthless than Shamgar's. The only weapons she had were the tools of a woman who keeps the tent. With them she deals the fatal blow to the head of the enemy. Jael, like Deborah and every woman of faith, does not go at all beyond her sphere. She carries out her work of vengeance inside her dwelling, with the weapons the tent supplied her, and gains the victory there. She handles the weapons of her narrow sphere with as much skill as a man could have shown, for if her hand had trembled in the least, everything would have been lost.
A celebrated commander died under a wooden spike. Commentators read that contrast as deliberate.
To crown the defeat, the great Sisera, the hero of so many victories, fell before a woman and a tent peg! Barak had been told beforehand that this enterprise would not be for his honour. He took it up reluctantly and timidly, and so it turned out. The very weakness and insignificance of the means employed made it clear that all the honour and glory was God's.
Samuel Ridout explains why Barak's share of the victory was cut short:
Therefore the full victory will not be his, but Sisera will fall by the hands of Jael, a feeble woman. How our blessed God would check, with a holy jealousy, all usurpation of His place even by the instrument He may please to use.
Many readers find the killing shocking. Leslie Grant weighs two things: her motive, and the fact that this was wartime.
If her action had come from selfish motives, this would have been murder. But Sisera was an oppressor of the people of God, and it was a time of war. So the Lord approved of her killing this enemy of God.
A second objection goes wider. Should the Spirit of God write a song that rejoices over an enemy's ruin? William Kelly answers:
The root of the difficulty seems to be this: people are apt to judge from their own circumstances. Suppose we think God's Spirit is bound to say nothing but what suits a Christian. Then I grant you, we could not have the song of Deborah. But then we could not have had the Old Testament as it is. The Spirit of God did work, but He worked according to the state of the people of God at that time.
Jael did not strike out of temper. She struck because of where her heart was fixed.
The heart of Jael was wholly with the God of Israel, with the Israel of God. When it became a question of truth, and of treating the enemy as an enemy, she showed the greatest energy. This woman is, at this moment, in the narrow sphere of the house, the real leader of the armies of the Lord. She is in the front rank, honoured by God to gain the victory, for she has an undivided heart for His people.
J T Mawson hears an older promise in this wound. He starts from the dead commander's name.
Sisera was the great leader, and his name means "he that binds with chains", and we are well aware that the great captive-maker is Satan himself. In the end he was destroyed by something very weak in itself. His head was bruised, even to death, by a woman and a tent peg. And Jesus, the woman's Seed, has bruised the serpent's head. Men despised Him, because He was meek and lowly; His death was weakness and folly in their eyes.
Ridout makes the tent peg itself the secret of Jael's power, and then turns it on the reader.
The only weapon she has is feeble enough, but it says: here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. It was the tent peg that killed the mighty man. The one who has a tent peg is the one who is separate from the world, a true stranger and pilgrim. Take that pilgrim life of yours and lay hold of it with your hands — the practical life. Take up the hammer of God's word — it is a hammer in your right hand. Take hold of peg and hammer, and put to death the principles that are eating the very life out of your soul.
- Small hand. Jael fights with a tent-keeper's tools and wins inside her own tent, without leaving her sphere.
- Small weapon. A wooden peg fells a commander of iron chariots, so that the honour can belong to nobody but God.
- Guarded glory. Barak heard in advance that the campaign would not bring him honour. God keeps the crown from the instrument He uses.
- Whole heart. She struck when truth was at stake, because her heart was undivided for God's people.
- Crushed head. The pierced skull points ahead. The woman's Seed has bruised the serpent's head, and men saw only weakness in His death.
Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down Between her feet he bowed, he fell; Where he bowed, there he fell, overcome.
Deborah's song slows down here and tells one moment three times over: the enemy commander goes down at the feet of a woman in a tent. Commentators read the scene as God's own account of how He overturns great power. They differ, though, over the way Jael did it.
God had said beforehand that He would hand Sisera over to a woman. He did not use Heber, Jael's husband, but Jael herself.
It is not Heber, however, but his wife Jael who is used by God. She has faith that identifies her with the people of God, and makes their enemies her own... Let us just notice the lesson repeated all through the book. The way of power is through weakness. God will only use the instrument that is weak enough to give itself up into His hands.
Before the peg came the milk. One writer asks what that kindness should teach us.
Now Jael is honoured; the one with a little strength is blessed. "He asked for water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl." When the enemy of the people of God comes to her, this woman shows grace. She brings out the best thing she has in her tent, in recognition of Sisera's rank. Is this not the very opposite of contempt? Is this not how we should act towards the enemies of God? We should give them more than they ask for their thirst and their nourishment.
Another writer reads the same scene as a picture of grace offered and refused.
When Sisera asked for water, she gave him milk, a picture of giving the simple, elementary truth of God even to an enemy (v. 25). But Sisera pictures one who does not respond to the truth, and grace refused results in judgment... She illustrates the faith that is willing to use the truth, whether in grace or in judging for God.
A tent peg killed Sisera, not a sword — the gear of a temporary home. One writer turns that into a challenge to the reader.
Jael takes the witness of her pilgrim life — she is a pilgrim and a stranger — and kills him. The only weapon she has is feeble enough, but it says, "here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come." It was the tent peg that killed the mighty... Take that pilgrim standing of yours. Take hold of it with your hands — the practical life. Take hold of the hammer of God's word; it is a hammer in your right hand. Now apply it to that argument of yours that would tamper with God's truth.
She showed him hospitality and then killed him. Writers differ on whether the song's praise covers the way she did it. One answers that she was carrying out God's judgment, which puts her act in a different class.
People have shown great indignation at this act of Jael, and even Christians have condemned her. But it was foretold that the LORD would "sell Sisera into the hand of a woman"... And Deborah, in her song of praise, declared Jael to be "most blessed of women." This song shows that Sisera was an enemy not only of God's people but of the Lord Himself. She prophetically says, "So may all your enemies perish, O LORD!"... So God empowered Jael to take his life. Sometimes an act is clearly the carrying out of God's righteous judgment. Such an act rises far above what would be right under the ordinary rules of hospitality or of war.
Another draws a line between the service and the way it was done.
Jael did a great service to Israel, no doubt... But praise for her action does not have to mean approval of the way she carried it out. It was wholly treacherous... If she had taken a more straightforward course, trusting God, she would have succeeded just as well.
The song repeats the collapse until it ends in one word: dead. One writer sees in this one man's ruin a far greater one.
Sisera was the great leader, and his name means "he who binds with chains," and we are well aware that the great captive-maker is Satan himself. In the end something very weak destroyed him. A woman and a tent peg bruised his head, even to death. And Jesus, the woman's Seed, has bruised the serpent's head.
- Weakness chosen. God passes over the strong. He uses the instrument weak enough to leave itself in His hands.
- Weakness supplied. The weapon is a tent peg and a hammer: the tools of someone who lives as a stranger, not a soldier's sword.
- Weakness offering grace. Milk in a noble's bowl came before the peg — more than the enemy asked, given while he was still an enemy.
- Weakness judging. Grace refused ends in judgment; the same faith that pours the milk drives the peg.
- Weakness winning. The captive-maker falls at a woman's feet — an early picture of the woman's Seed bruising the serpent's head.
Them other of Sisera looketh out at the window, And crieth through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the trampings of his chariots?
Deborah's song ends far from the battlefield, inside an enemy palace. Sisera led the army Israel had just destroyed, and his mother stands at her window, watching the road for him. We already know what she does not. Her son is dead, and the delay that puzzles her means judgment has already fallen.
She is looking through a lattice. One reference work explains what that was:
The window of the East was made of trellis work. It let in air and light, yet screened the room from view. Judges 5:28; 2 Kings 1:2; Song of Songs 2:9.
She is not afraid he has lost. She is impatient for a victory she takes for granted.
The mother of Sisera looked through the window and wondered anxiously why he took so long to come home (v.28). Sisera and his armies were used to winning their battles with no difficulty. Her wise friends, and she herself, thought the answer was that Sisera and his men were taking time to gather and divide the spoil taken from Israel — girls and garments, and so on. What a shock it would be to these women to find that both Sisera and his armies were not only defeated, but destroyed!
The women around her supply explanations, and every one of them is wrong. One writer sees here how human cleverness explains away the delay of God's judgment:
She has her wise ladies around her, this mother of Sisera, the leader of intellectual denial of God's truth. They can give wise reasons why the chariot-wheels of the supposed conqueror are late. In a day that is coming fast, the wise of the earth will be ready in the same way, with plenty of reasons why the victorious march of man's mind is late. But for man, in the pride of his rebellion, there is no triumph, no spoils, no embroidered garment to dress the flesh. When they say "peace and safety," sudden destruction will fall on them, and they will not escape.
There is no pity in the way Deborah paints this scene. The same writer names the tone of it:
Last of all comes a piece of solemn irony in the description of Sisera's mother. It reminds us of that awful word, "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision." The derision of the Lord! What an awful thought!
Another writer sums up what the scene does to her pride:
(Verses 28, 30) Another scene takes place in the palace of Sisera's mother, whose pride is humbled to the very dust.
Deborah sings about two women. One writer notices which two she picks out:
Note in passing that, despite the high position God gave her, Deborah keeps her character as a mother in Israel. She shows remarkable understanding of what belongs to her own sphere as a woman. She celebrates what honours Jael, the woman of faith, and she announces what brings down judgment on the haughty woman.
One writer turns the same question toward the return of Christ. He starts with what a real hope does to a life:
A man's life is always shaped by his real hopes. If a man is heir to an estate, his life is shaped by the hope of inheriting it. If we knew more of the power of the Spirit as "the guarantee of our inheritance," we would stop arguing about the time or manner of our Master's arrival. As "prisoners of hope," we would be looking out eagerly from our prison windows, saying, "Why is His chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels of His chariot?"
The window scene is not the last word. One writer reads the song's ending as a picture of how things finish for both sides:
So all the enemies of the Lord will perish, while for those who love Him there is glory and rest in store.
- Watching. She stands behind a lattice, seeing out while hidden from view, asking why her son's chariot is late.
- Assuming. Past victories trained her to expect another. She hears the delay as spoil being counted, not as defeat.
- Explaining. Her wise companions give confident reasons for the delay, just as human wisdom explains away the delay of judgment.
- Reversing. The irony is deliberate. A palace's pride sinks to the dust, and Scripture calls this the laughter of the One who sits in the heavens.
- Waiting rightly. Ask the same question about Christ's return, and it becomes the cry of hope. The song closes with ruin for God's enemies and glory for those who love Him.
The wise amongst her ladies answer [her], Yea, she returneth answer to herself,
Deborah's song ends far from the battlefield. It moves to a palace, where Sisera's mother waits at a window and her noblewomen explain why her son is late. The verse turns on one quiet detail. She gives herself the answer she wants to hear, and it is wrong.
The song shifts to the enemy's side. Deborah thinks of the women of Canaan waiting at home.
Deborah also thinks of how the women of Canaan would be affected at this time. The mother of Sisera looked through the window and wondered anxiously why he took so long to come home (v.28). Sisera and his armies usually won their battles with no difficulty. Her wise friends, and she herself, thought they knew the answer. Sisera and his men were taking time to gather and divide the spoil taken from Israel — girls and garments, and so on. What a shock it would be to these women to find that both Sisera and his armies were not only defeated, but destroyed!
The verse says her wisest ladies answer her, and then adds that she answers herself. One writer notes that she does not take her ladies' explanation. She repeats it to herself. He then looks at the prize she expected.
Her "wise ladies" offer to explain the cause of the delay. She does not listen to them. She repeats to herself, "Have they not found and divided the spoil? ... two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil?" Here we have a hint about the use in Old Testament times of these coloured garments. They were worn as marks of distinction, "for the neck as spoil," Sisera's mother says. He should wear this coloured prize as a mark of honour fitting such a mighty conqueror as he, she thought.
Deborah does not just report this scene. She sings it. One writer hears a sharper note in her song.
Last we have a piece of solemn irony in the description of the mother of Sisera. It reminds us of that awful word, "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision." The derision of the Lord! What an awful thought!
Another writer sums up the change in one line:
Another scene is taking place in the palace of Sisera's mother, whose pride is humbled to the very dust.
The verse calls these women wise. Ridout takes that word and reads it into our own day.
This mother of Sisera has her wise ladies about her. She is the leader of intellectual denial of God's truth. And they can give wise reasons why the chariot-wheels of the supposed conqueror are so slow. So too, in a day that is coming fast, the wise of the earth will be ready. They will have plenty of reasons for the delay of the victorious march of man's mind. For man, in the pride of his rebellion, there is no triumph, no spoils, no embroidered garment to adorn the flesh. "While people are saying, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them... and they will not escape."
The palace has it backwards. The victory and the spoil went to the other side.
The enemy of God's people, and all connected with him, are utterly confounded. Instead of the expected victory with lavish spoils, there is defeat and destruction. The palm of triumph and the rejoicing belong to God's people. The mourning belongs to those who thought to keep them in chains and to plunder them.
Deborah's song ends by looking ahead. One writer marks the limit of what Deborah could see:
The mother of Sisera waits for the return of her victorious son. She expects nothing but good, and her wise ladies are with her. It is a remarkable irony. So all the enemies of the Lord will perish, while for those who love Him there is glory and rest in store. Deborah could only express a longing: that the enemies might perish, and that those who love Him might be like the sun in its might and splendour. It was her prayer. Through the full light of prophecy we know more. We know how the enemies of God will perish, and that the glory will belong to those who love Him.
- Question — A mother waits at a window and asks why her son is late. His armies always won with ease, so his delay worries her.
- Answer — Her wisest ladies reply, but she answers herself. She repeats the comforting explanation instead of taking it from them.
- Spoil — She pictures the plunder shared out: captured girls, and embroidered garments that mark out a great conqueror.
- Irony — The song does not weep with her. It sets her confident reasoning against the God who holds His enemies in derision. Her pride falls to the dust.
- Reversal — The expected victory and its lavish spoils turn into defeat and destruction. The triumph belongs to God's people. The mourning belongs to those who planned to plunder them.
Have they not found, divided the booty, A damsel, two damsels, to each? A booty of dyed stuffs for Sisera, A booty of dyed stuffs of embroidery, Dyed stuff of double embroidery for the neck of a spoiler?
The song of Deborah ends inside an enemy palace. Sisera's mother waits at the window and calms her fear with a picture of her son dividing the loot — captured women and embroidered cloth. The reader already knows he is dead.
These are not Deborah's own words. They belong to a woman waiting at home, and her companions give her the answer she wants to hear.
The mother of Sisera looked through the window in anxious wonder at why he took so long to come home. Sisera and his armies were used to winning their battles with no difficulty. Her wise friends, and she herself, thought the answer was this: Sisera and his men were taking time to gather and divide the spoil taken from Israel — girls, garments and the rest. What a shock it would be to these women to find that both Sisera and his armies were not only defeated, but destroyed!
Two phrases need unpacking. "Have they not sped?" simply means have they not succeeded — the older word comes from a root meaning to hasten or prosper, as one reference work notes on this verse. The dyed and embroidered cloth is explained by the last clause of the verse itself.
Here we have a hint as to the use in Old Testament times of these garments of many colours. They were worn as marks of distinction, "fit for the necks of those who take the spoil," Sisera's mother says. He should wear this "prey of many colours" as a distinctive honour becoming such a mighty conqueror as he, she thought.
The casual arithmetic over captured girls is not incidental detail; it tells you what kind of army this was, and what Israel had been living under.
The sins of Israel had brought them once more into the bondage of the Canaanites. The Canaanites treated them with unusual harshness. Their earlier conquerors, the Philistines, had ruled them more mildly and wisely. The highways, Deborah says, were deserted. The people cowered and crept along the side roads to hide from the brutal Sisera and his troops.
The song never corrects Sisera's mother. It lets her keep talking, and the reader hears how hollow her hope is.
Last we have a piece of solemn irony in the description of the mother of Sisera. It reminds us of that awful word, "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision." The derision of the Lord! What an awful thought!
The women around Sisera's mother have an explanation ready for the missing chariots. Ridout hears an echo of it in our own day.
This mother of Sisera has her wise ladies about her. She leads the intellectual denial of God's truth, and they can give wise reasons why the chariot wheels of the supposed conqueror are so slow. In a day that is coming fast, the wise of earth will be ready in the same way. They will have plenty of reasons why the victorious march of man's mind is delayed. Ah, for man, in the pride of his rebellion, there is no triumph, no spoils, no embroidered garment to adorn the flesh. When they say "peace and safety," sudden destruction will fall, and they will not escape.
Gaebelein looks past the palace window to the end of the story.
Verses 24-31 are a vivid description of what took place. We see the mother of Sisera waiting for the return of her victorious son. She expects nothing but good and her wise ladies are with her. It is a remarkable irony. So all the enemies of the Lord will perish, while for those who love Him there is glory and rest in store.
Commentators differ here. Some read the whole song as prophecy. Another writer warns that recording a song is not the same as approving every line of it.
The Holy Spirit records that Deborah and Barak sang these things, but in no way puts His sanction on all that they say. Take the very natural, but rather savage, way they praise every detail of Jael's heroic treachery. They also rejoice over the horror they expect from Sisera's mother. She watches for him to come home while he lies dead in Jael's tent, with a tent peg nailing his head to the floor.
- Expectation. A mother at a window expects loot; her wise companions confirm it. The delay she is explaining away is the silence of a destroyed army.
- Exposure. The women counted out and the embroidered cloth show the character of Sisera's rule — the same brutality that had emptied Israel's highways.
- Emptiness. The many-coloured garments were marks of honour for a conqueror. For proud rebellion there is no triumph, no spoils, no garment to adorn it.
- Echo. The confident reasons of the "wise ladies" are still the world's reasons. When people say peace and safety, sudden destruction falls and no one escapes.
- End. So all the enemies of the Lord perish — and for those who love Him, glory and rest are in store.
So let all thine enemies perish, Jehovah! But let them that love him be as the rising of the sun in its might. And the land had rest forty years.
Deborah's song ends with a prayer, not a battle report. It sets two futures side by side: the Lord's enemies perish, and those who love Him rise like the sun.
Commentators call this song the high point of the book of Judges. This verse is where it lands.
In the victory and song of Deborah and Barak we reach the highest point in the book of Judges. It reaches on, as a picture, to the full victory for Israel and for the earth which will bring in the glories of the millennium.
Deborah's words are a longing, not a report of something finished.
Thus all the enemies of the Lord will perish, while for those who love Him there is glory and rest in store. Deborah could only express a longing that the enemies might perish, and that those who love Him might be as the sun in might and splendour. It was her prayer. We know more, through the full light of prophecy, how the enemies of God will perish and the glory will be for those who love Him.
She does not pray against her own opponents. She has handed the quarrel over to God.
The enemy of God's people, and everyone connected with him, are completely confounded. Instead of the expected victory with lavish spoils, there is defeat and destruction. But Deborah credits it all to the Lord. To her, the enemy of Israel was the enemy of the Lord, so she can say, "So let all Your enemies perish, Lord!"
One writer puts this line on the lips of a future generation. When judgment falls on Satan's two chief agents, Deborah's words are the ones that fit.
There is no struggle with almighty power. Christ "takes" these two wicked instruments of Satan and at once executes judgment, casting them alive into hell… The godly remnant of that day will hear of the mighty deliverance their expected Messiah has worked for them. Then they may well cry out in the language of Deborah and Barak: "So let all Your enemies perish, O Lord: but let those who love Him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might."
Older translations read "those who love Him" where the ESV has "your friends"; the writers quoted here follow the older wording. The brightness promised to them belongs first to Christ Himself.
Here we have one more recovered blessing that marks the awakening: Deborah declares her hope. She looks on to that glorious day. The Lord will have executed judgment, and then He will make the saints in Israel shine out like the sun itself. They will be like Him whose face was, in the eyes of the prophet, "like the sun shining in full strength." (Revelation 1:16, compare Matthew 13:43)
This love comes from God's work in them. The forty years of rest also point to a longer rest to come.
As for God's people, at the end the law will be written on their hearts. They will "love Him," and because of this they will "be as the rising of the sun in its might." They will take their character from Him who will "rise as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings" (Malachi 4:2). After Deborah's victory, "the land had rest for forty years." But when the Lord comes and secures the mighty victory for His people, the land will have rest for the long millennial day.
The same chapter curses Meroz for staying out of the fight (Judges 5:23). Read together with verse 31, the promised morning becomes a reason to get involved now.
Are any who profess Christianity indifferent to this conflict? Let them hear the solemn words: "Curse Meroz, said the angel of the Lord… because they did not come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty," Judges 5:23. Why did Reuben stay by the sheepfolds while the great conflict raged? Why do Christians today, loving ease and comfort, stay in the safety of the sheepfolds? God's glorious gospel goes out, and all the power and cunning of Satan opposes it… May the Lord give us grace, so that we may forget ourselves and go out to the conflict… until the morning dawns. Then all His enemies will perish, and those who love Him will be as the sun when he goes out in his might.
- Prayer, not report. Deborah's closing words are a longing for a day she could not yet see. Later Scripture fills in what she could only ask for.
- God's quarrel. She treats Israel's enemy as the Lord's enemy, and leaves their ruin to Him.
- A love God gives. God writes His law on their hearts, and that produces the love the verse describes.
- Borrowed brightness. Their brightness is not their own. They take their character from the Sun of Righteousness.
- Rest that outlasts forty years. Deborah's victory bought forty years of quiet. The victory this song points to brings rest for the whole millennial day. Until that morning dawns, the call is to be in the conflict, not by the sheepfolds.