Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Judges 5:11 - 5:11

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Judges 5:11 - 5:11


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The whole nation had good reason to make this reflection, as the warriors, having returned home, were now relating the mighty acts of the Lord among the women who were watering their flocks, and the people had returned to their towns once more. This is in all probability the idea of the obscure verse before us, which has been interpreted in such very different ways. The first clause, which has no verb, and cannot constitute a sentence by itself, must be connected with the following clause, and taken as an anakolouthon, as יְתַנּוּ שָׁם does not form a direct continuation of the clause commencing with מִקֹּול. After the words “from the voice of the archers,” we should expect the continuation “there is heard,” or “there sounds forth the praise of the acts of the Lord.” Instead of that, the construction that was commenced is relinquished at יְתַנּוּ שָׁם, and a different turn is given to the thought. This not only seems to offer the simplest explanation, but the only possible solution of the difficulty. For the explanation that מִן is to be taken as signifying “away from,” as in Num 15:24, etc., in the sense of “far from the voice of the archers, among the watering women,” does not suit the following word שָׁם, “there,” at all. It would be necessary to attribute to מִן the meaning “no more disquieted by,” a meaning which the preposition could not possibly have in this clause. מְחַצְצִים are not sharers in the booty, for חָצַץ simply means to cut, to cut in pieces, to divide, and is never applied to the sharing of booty, for which חִלֵּק is the word used (vid., Jdg 5:30; Psa 68:13; Isa 9:2). מְחַצֵּץ is to be regarded, as the Rabbins maintain, as a denom. from חֵץ, to hold an arrow, signifying therefore the shooter of an arrow. It was probably a natural thing for Deborah, who dwelt in Benjamin, to mention the archers as representatives of warriors generally, since this was the principal weapon employed by the Benjaminites (see 1Ch 8:40; 1Ch 12:2; 2Ch 14:7; 2Ch 17:17). The tarrying of the warriors among the drawers of water, where the flocks and herds were being watered, points to the time of peace, when the warriors were again occupied with their civil and domestic affairs. יְתַנּוּ is a simple aorist. תִּנָּה, lit. to repeat, then to relate, or praise. “The righteousness of Jehovah,” i.e., the marvellous acts of the Lord in and upon Israel for the accomplishing of His purposes of salvation, in which the righteousness of His work upon earth was manifested (cf. 1Sa 12:7; Mic 6:5). פִּרְזֹונֹו צִדְקֹות has been rendered by modern expositors, either “the righteous acts of His guidance or of His decision” (Ewald and Bertheau), or “the righteous acts of His commanders,” or “the benefits towards His princes (leaders) in Israel” (Ros. and others). But neither of these can be sustained. We must take פְּרָזֹון here in just the same sense as in Jdg 5:7; the country covered with open towns and villages, together with their inhabitants, whom Jehovah had delivered from the hostile oppression that had rested upon them, by means of the victory obtained over Sisera. After that victory the people of the Lord went down again to their gates, from the mountains and hiding-places in which they had taken refuge from their foes (Jdg 5:6, Jdg 5:7), returning again to the plains of the land, and the towns that were now delivered from the foe.