CHAPTER 5

(1316 B.C.)

SONG OF TRIUMPH

¹Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying (victory precedes singing, while defeat precedes weeping),

²Praise you the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves (the people willingly offered themselves to be used of the Lord, and the Lord willingly avenged Israel).

³Hear, O you kings; give ear, O you princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel (the kings and princes were those of the enemy; they found out as to Who exactly was the God of Israel).

⁴LORD, when You went out of Seir, when You marched out of the field of Edom, the Earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.

⁵The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel (the mighty Power of God formerly manifested toward Israel is now recalled).

⁶In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways (Israel was so beaten down by the enemy that they were afraid to even walk on the roads; because of sin, the people of God had been reduced to this low state).

⁷The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel (until the Lord at this time raised up Deborah, Israel was leaderless).

⁸They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel? (Israel was guilty of idolatry, which had reduced the people to being defenseless; the only defense against Satan is the Cross of Christ; anything else leaves the Believer defenseless [I Cor. 1:17-18].)

⁹My heart is toward the governors of Israel, who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the LORD (the leaders in Israel were to bless the LORD, because of the great victory that had been won).

¹⁰Speak, you who ride on white asses, you who sit in judgment, and walk by the way (they were not only to bless the Lord, they were also to speak the Blessings; and what they were to speak is set out in the next Verse).

¹¹They who are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous Acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates (the idea is this: the water wells were where gossip was exchanged and news proclaimed; instead of the Syrians talking at these wells about their great victory over Israel, which would have been the case had they won, instead, Israel would boast; however, they were to boast about the righteous Acts of the LORD, and not the achievements of individuals).

¹²Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead your captivity captive, you son of Abinoam (Deborah seems to go back to the time the Lord moved upon her with the Divine Call).

¹³Then He (the Lord) made him who remains have dominion over the nobles among the people: the LORD made me have dominion over the mighty (the Lord gave her victory over Sisera and the king of Canaan).

¹⁴Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after you, Benjamin, among your people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they who handle the pen of the writer. (The Holy Spirit through Deborah delineates those who helped in the battle, and those who didnt. The Tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, and Issachar helped bring about the victory.)

¹⁵And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley. For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart (Reuben was divided, and division always stops the great thoughts of heart).

¹⁶Why abode you among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart (God gives the Vision, and brings about provision; however, Satan then comes in, attempting to bring about division; this is what happened to Reuben, and the Holy Spirit is quick to say so).

¹⁷Gilead abode beyond Jordan (probably pertains to the Tribe of Dan, which portion was on the east side of Jordan; they seemed to think that the conflict did not include them, simply because of their location): and why did Dan remain in ships? (The celebrated harbor of Joppa was in the Tribe of Dan; they did not want to interrupt their business, so the Tribe of Dan neglected to help.) Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches (the Tribe of Asher bordered the Mediterranean Sea; with them it was business as usual, as well!).

¹⁸Zebulun and Naphtali were a people who jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field (the Holy Spirit speaks very highly of these two Tribes, as is obvious here).

¹⁹The (heathen) kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money (these kings had thought to plunder Israel; instead they would all die).

²⁰They fought from heaven (according to Josephus, a great storm arose in the face of the Canaanites, which led to their utter defeat); the stars in their courses fought against Sisera (whatever the phrase means, the Lord used the elements against the enemies of Israel).

²¹The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, you have trodden down strength (this river is normally a very narrow stream; however, the storm evidently caused the river to flood, which played havoc with the chariots, etc.).

²²Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones (the flooding river caused this).

²³Curse you Meroz, said the Angel of the LORD, curse you bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty. (The inhabitants of the city of Meroz could easily have been of great help and great service in this battle, but evidently refused to do so. The Holy Spirit tells us here that a curse was placed on them by the Angel of the LORD, in other words, the Lord Almighty!

When the Holy Spirit begins to do a certain thing, and Believers take a neutral position, they lose the manifestation and the experience of the Power of God. But if, like these people of Meroz, they are so placed that they can help, but refuse to do so, then they bring death upon their souls.)

²⁴Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent (as stated, the only other woman spoken of in this fashion by the Holy Spirit was Mary the Mother of our Lord).

²⁵He (Sisera) asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish (this made him feel that she was overwhelmed by his supposed greatness).

²⁶She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmens hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.

²⁷At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead (to be killed in battle by a woman presented, at that time, the height of disgrace).

²⁸The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots? (Meaning that he wasnt coming home!)

²⁹Her wise ladies answered her, yes, she returned answer to herself (their answer could not have been more wrong),

³⁰Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them who take the spoil? (The comfort these ladies tried to give to the mother of Sisera would turn to ashes in their mouths.)

³¹So let all your enemies perish, O LORD: but let them who love Him be as the Sun when he goes forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years. (Each such victory was a foretaste of the final victory over sin and death, which took place at the Cross, and of the glory of the redeemed Church.)