Judges 4:13

4:10-16. Siser's confidence was chiefly in his chariots. But if we have ground to hope that God goes before us, we may go on with courage and cheerfulness. Be not dismayed at the difficulties thou meetest with in resisting Satan, in serving God, or suffering for him; for is not the Lord gone before thee? Follow him then fully. Barak went down, though upon the plain the iron chariots would have advantage against him: he quitted the mountain in dependence on the Divine power; for in the Lord alone is the salvation of his people, Jer 3:23. He was not deceived in his confidence. When God goes before us in our spiritual conflicts, we must bestir ourselves; and when, by his grace, he gives us some success against the enemies of our souls, we must improve it by watchfulness and resolution.

And Sisera gathered together all his chariots,.... Or "therefore" he gathered them together, which might lie some in one place, and some in another, for the better quartering of the men that belonged to them: even nine hundred chariots of iron; and which, as before observed, are magnified by Josephus, and made to be three thousand: and all the people that were with him; his soldiers, Jabin's army, of which he was captain, and are called a multitude, Judges 4:7; and which, the above writer says (h), consisted of three hundred thousand foot, and ten thousand horse, besides the iron chariots: these he collected together, and brought with him: from Harosheth of the Gentiles; the place where he resided with his army, Judges 4:2, unto the river of Kishon; which was near Mount Tabor, the rendezvous of Barak and his men, see Judges 4:6. (h) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 5. sect. 1.)

Read, "Heber the Kenitc had severed himself from the Kenites which were of the children of Hobab," etc., "unto the oak (or terebinth tree) in Zaanaim" (or Bitzaanaim, which Conder identifies with Bessum, twelve miles southeast of Tabor, and near Kedesh on the Sea of Galilee). This migration of Heber the Kenite, with a portion of his tribe, from the south of Judah to the north of Naphtali, perhaps caused by Philistine oppression, had clearly taken place recently. It is mentioned here to account for the subsequent narrative, but possibly also because the news of the great muster of the Israelites at Kedesh had been carried to Sisera by some of the tribe Judges 4:12 , whose tents we are here informed were in the immediate neighborhood of Kedesh.

(13) All his chariots. —He saw at once that this very sudden revolt had assumed formidable proportions, and he would need all his forces to dislodge Barak from his strongly entrenched position on Tabor. Harosheth of the Gentiles.—This is simply the name of the town Harosheth-haggoîm. (See Judges 4:2.)

As soon as Sisera received tidings of the march of Barak to Mount Tabor, he brought together all his chariots and all his men of war from Harosheth of the Goyim into the brook-valley of the Kishon. Then Deborah said to Barak, "Up; for this is the day in which Jehovah hath given Sisera into thy hand. Yea (הלא, nonne, as an expression indicating lively assurance), the Lord goeth out before thee," sc., to the battle, to smite the foe; whereupon Barak went down from Tabor with his 10,000 men to attack the enemy, according to Judges 5:19 , at Taanach by the water of Megiddo.

The first proof of this was furnished by the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and their safe guidance into Canaan ("this place" is the land of Canaan). The second was to be found in the deliverance of the people out of the power of their foes, to whom the Lord had been obliged to give them up on account of their apostasy from Him, through the judges whom He had raised up for them, as often as they turned to Him with penitence and cried to Him for help. Of the hostile oppressions which overtook the Israelites during this period of the judges, the following are singled out in 1 Samuel 12:9 : (1) that by Sisera, the commander-in-chief of Hazor, i.e., that of the Canaanitish king Jabin of Hazor ( Judges 4:2 .); (2) that of the Philistines, by which we are to understand not so much the hostilities of that nation described in Judges 3:31 , as the forty years' oppression mentioned in Judges 10:2 and Judges 13:1 ; and (3) the Moabitish oppression under Eglon ( Judges 3:12 .). The first half of Judges 13:10 agrees almost word for word with Judges 10:10 , except that, according to Judges 10:6 , the Ashtaroth are added to the Baalim (see at 1 Samuel 7:4 and Judges 2:13 ). Of the judges whom God sent to the people as deliverers, the following are named, viz., Jerubbaal (see at Judges 6:32 ), i.e., Gideon ( Judges 6 ), and Bedan, and Jephthah (see Judges 11 ), and Samuel. There is no judge named Bedan mentioned either in the book of Judges or anywhere else.

The first proof of this was furnished by the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and their safe guidance into Canaan ("this place" is the land of Canaan). The second was to be found in the deliverance of the people out of the power of their foes, to whom the Lord had been obliged to give them up on account of their apostasy from Him, through the judges whom He had raised up for them, as often as they turned to Him with penitence and cried to Him for help. Of the hostile oppressions which overtook the Israelites during this period of the judges, the following are singled out in 1 Samuel 12:9 : (1) that by Sisera, the commander-in-chief of Hazor, i.e., that of the Canaanitish king Jabin of Hazor ( Judges 4:2 .); (2) that of the Philistines, by which we are to understand not so much the hostilities of that nation described in Judges 3:31 , as the forty years' oppression mentioned in Judges 10:2 and Judges 13:1 ; and (3) the Moabitish oppression under Eglon ( Judges 3:12 .). The first half of Judges 13:10 agrees almost word for word with Judges 10:10 , except that, according to Judges 10:6 , the Ashtaroth are added to the Baalim (see at 1 Samuel 7:4 and Judges 2:13 ). Of the judges whom God sent to the people as deliverers, the following are named, viz., Jerubbaal (see at Judges 6:32 ), i.e., Gideon ( Judges 6 ), and Bedan, and Jephthah (see Judges 11 ), and Samuel. There is no judge named Bedan mentioned either in the book of Judges or anywhere else.