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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Judges 4:4 - 4:4
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At that time the Israelites were judged by Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, who dwelt under the Deborah-palm between Ramah (er Râm: see at Jos 18:25) and Bethel (Beitin: see at Jos 7:2) in the tribe of Benjamin, upon the mountains of Ephraim. Deborah is called נְמִיאָה אִשָּׁה on account of her prophetic gift, like Miriam in Exo 15:20, and Hulda the wife of Shallum in 2Ki 22:14. This gift qualified her to judge the nation (the participle שֹׁפְטָה expresses the permanence of the act of judging), i.e., first of all to settle such disputes among the people themselves as the lower courts were unable to decide, and which ought therefore, according to Deu 17:8, to be referred to the supreme judge of the whole nation. The palm where she sat in judgment (cf. Psa 9:5) was called after her the Deborah-palm. The Israelites went up to her there to obtain justice. The expression “came up” is applied here, as in Deu 17:8, to the place of justice, as a spiritual height, independently of the fact that the place referred to here really stood upon an eminence.