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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Judges 5:15 - 5:15
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שָׂרַי, “my princes,” does not furnish any appropriate meaning, as neither Deborah nor Barak was of the tribe of Issachar, and it is not stated anywhere that the Issacharites gathered round Deborah as their leaders. The reading שָׂרֵי (stat. constr.), adopted by the old versions, must be taken as the correct one, and the introduction of the preposition בְּ does not preclude this (compare בַגִּלְבֹּעַ הָרֵי, 2Sa 1:21, and Ewald, §289, b.). עִם, which is used to denote an outward equality, as in 1Sa 17:42, and is substantially the same as the כֵּן which follows (“just as”), is construed without כְּ in the first clause, as in Psa 48:6. בָּעֵמֶק: into the valley of Jezreel, the plain of Kishon. בְּרַגְלָיו שֻׁלַּח, as in Job 18:8, to be sent off, i.e., incessantly impelled, through his feet; here it is applied to an irresistible force of enthusiasm for the battle. The nominative to שֻׁלַּח is Issachar and Barak.
15b At the brooks of Reuben were great resolutions of heart.
16 Why remainest thou between the hurdles,
To hear the piping of the flocks?
At the brooks of Reuben were great projects of heart.
17 Gilead rests on the other side of the Jordan;
And Dan ... why tarries he by ships?
Asher sits on the shore of the sea,
And by his bays he reposes.
18 Zebulun, a people that despises its soul even to death,
And Naphtali upon the heights of the field.
In this strophe Deborah first of all mentions the tribes which took no part in the conflict (Jdg 5:15-17), and then returns in Jdg 5:18 to the Zebulunites, who staked their life along with Naphtali for the deliverance of Israel from the yoke of the enemy. The enumeration of the tribes who remained at a distance from the conflict commences with Reuben (Jdg 5:15 and Jdg 5:16). In this tribe there did arise a lively sympathy with the national elevation. They held meetings, passed great resolutions, but it led to no practical result; and at length they preferred to remain quietly at home in their own comfortable pastoral life. The meaning brooks for פְּלַגֹּות is well established by Job 20:17, and there is no reason whatever for explaining the word as equivalent to פְּלֻגֹּות, מִפְלַגֹּות, divisions (2Ch 35:5, 2Ch 35:12; Ezr 6:18). The territory of Reuben, which was celebrated for its splendid pastures, must have abounded in brooks. The question, Why satest thou, or remainedst thou sitting between the hurdles? i.e., in the comfortable repose of a shepherd's life, is an utterance of amazement; and the irony is very apparent in the next clause, to hear the bleating of the flocks, i.e., the piping of the shepherds, instead of the blast of the war-trumpets.