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Jdg_4:12-24
[2 Jdg_4:17.—Dr. Cassel translates by the pluperfect: “had fled,” cf. below. But it seems better to retain the indefinite perfect. The narrative left Sisera for a moment, in order in Jdg_4:16 briefly to indicate the fate of the army, but now returns to him. Cf. 1Ki_20:30, and many similar instances.—Tr.]
[3 Jdg_4:18.— ùְׂîִéëָä . This word means a “covering;” but exactly what sort of covering is uncertain. Dr. Cassel translates here by Regentuch, raincloth, perhaps to indicate its close, impervious texture. Dr. Bachmann thinks it was “probably a rather large covering or mat of thick, soft material (perhaps skin or goat’s-hair), on which a person lay down and in which he at the same time wrapped himself up,—a sort of mattrass and coverlet in one. Similar articles still form part of the furniture of the Bedouin’s tent and the Fellah’s dwelling.” He derives the word from ùָׂîַêְ = ñָîַêְ , in its usual sense to support, to lean, specifically to recline at table. Accordingly the proper meaning of the word would be “supporting;” then, concretely, that which supports or serves to recline upon.—Tr.]
[4 Jdg_4:21.—Dr. Cassel: “and he—for weariness he had fallen fast asleep—died.” Keil: “Now he was fallen into a deep sleep, and was wearied (i.e. from weariness he had fallen fast asleep); and so he died.” Similarly Bachmann. The clause åַéָּòֵó – åְäåּà manifestly designed to set forth the circumstances which enabled Jael to approach Sisera unperceived; consequently, the “for” of the English version is perfectly proper, and formally not less correct than Dr. Cassel’s German, which was only designed to correct Luther’s version: “he however, fell asleep, swooned away, and died.” Dr. Wordsworth (p. 99) considers it a mistake to suppose that Jael “smote a nail into Sisera’s head while he was asleep.” He would render: “and he fell down astounded, and feinted away, and died.” The passage is a curiosity in interpretation.—Tr.]
Jdg_4:12. And they told Sisera. Jabin was in Hazor, Sisera in Harosheth Hagojim. Since the tidings from Tabor come to Sisera, he must have been near the scene of action; whilst Jabin appears to be at a distance from all the events narrated.
Jdg_4:13-14. And he called together, åַéַּåְòֵ÷ . æָòַ÷ means properly, to cry; here, as in Jdg_4:10, to assemble by crying, êçñýôôåéí : he mobilizes the troops quartered round about. Everything revolves about Sisera. He is the prominent, controlling personage; commander, probably, of the mercenaries, who on account of their mixed character, were also perhaps called Gojim. The chariots, which Sisera orders to be sent to the brook Kishon, must already have been in the plain, since otherwise they could not have been transported. Their head-quarters cannot have been anywhere else than at Beisân, where at the same time they commanded the best chariot and cavalry roads to the country beyond the Jordan. The plain of Jezreel to which he conducts them, is ground on which his army can properly unfold itself. He leads them to the southwest side of Tabor, where the mountain shows its greatest depression. It must have been his intention, in case Barak did not attack, to surround him on the mountain, and thus compel him to descend into the valley. But before the terrible chariot-force has well arranged itself, the Israelitish army, fired with divine enthusiasm by Deborah, and led by Barak, charges down on the flanks of the enemy, and breaks up their battle ranks. Everything is thrown into confusion—panic terrors ensue,—everything turns to flight. The great captain has lost his head; of all his strategic plans nothing remains; only presence of mind enough is left him to seek salvation from destruction by not fleeing in his chariot, nor with the others.
Jdg_4:15-24. And Jehovah confounded them Deborah had promised that God would go before them—as He went before Joshua, not visibly as an angel (as the Targum has it), but in the might of his Spirit, which He puts upon his heroes. It is by that quickening Spirit that, in their charge from the height, Barak becomes lightning, and Deborah a torch, by which the enemy is consumed. åַéָּäָí , “He confounded them,” as He confounded the host of the Egyptians (Exo_14:24). When confusion enters the ranks of the chariots, all is lost. They are then worse than useless. God did this, that Israel might conquer.
In the conflict. ìְôִéÎçֶøֶá . This is the only meaning which these words can have, if they properly belong here. In that case, however, the phraseology ìְôִéÎçֶøֶá .… åַéָּäָí is peculiar, and admits only of an artificial explanation. Bertheau’s idea, that God is represented as a champion hero with his sword, is altogether inadmissible. To me it seems likely that ìְôִéÎçֶøֶá did not originally stand here at all, but slipped in from Jdg_4:16, an error easily accounted for by the fact that the next word, ìִôִðֵé , begins with the same letters.
And Sisera lighted down off his chariot. Because on that he was likely to be recognized. The bulk of the army, on account of the chariots, can only flee along the plain, back to Harosheth, whence they advanced. Sisera takes to his feet, in order to escape by other roads. He foresees that Barak will pursue the army, and look for him there. Therefore he secretly flees in a northern direction towards Hazor; and gains thereby at all events the advantage that Barak seeks him in the other direction, towards Harosheth. During the tumult in which his proud army is shattered by the heroic deeds of Israel, he has succeeded in getting well on towards his destination, and thinks himself to have found a safe hiding-place with a friend. The language is designedly chosen to indicate this order of events first, Jdg_4:15, and Sisera fled; then, Jdg_4:16, Barak pursued; finally, Jdg_4:17, Sisera had fled.—Between Heber the Kenite and Jabin there was peace; the Kenite therefore had not shared the oppression under which Israel suffered. Consequently, Sisera could hope to find in his tent a little rest from the fatigue of his long-continued exertions. Securer still was the shelter of the woman’s tent. In that of Heber, he might have feared the violence of Barak: the tent of a woman no one enters with hostile purpose. He seems first to have made inquiries. She meets him with friendly mien, invites him urgently, and quiets his apprehensions: “fear not,” she says; she prepares him a couch that he nay rest himself, and covers him carefully with a close covering. The covering is called ùׂîִéëָä , a word which occurs only here. The derivations given in Bochart (Phaleg, 748) and in the recent lexicons (Gesenius, Fürst), throw no light on it. ùְׂîִéëָä is the Syriac and Chaldee îùëà hide, skin, leather; Arabic, îùê (cf. Freytag, Lex. Arab., iv., sub voce), cilicium, saccus. This is finally indicated by those Greek versions (followed also by Augustine; and cf. Rördam, p. 83) which translate it äÝῤῥéò ; for that means not only “hide,” but also “leathern covering,” and a female garment, according to the Etymol. Magnum, where we read of a ãõíὴ ìÝëáéíáí äÝῤῥéí ἠìöéåóìÝíç . Thus also the direction of certain Rabbins that this word is to be interpreted as îְùִׂéëְìָà (stragula), explains itself. The Targum also agrees with this; for it has âּåּðְëָà , êáõíÜêç , a covering rough on one side. Nor is anything else meant by the word âְּìåּôְ÷ְøָà (in Targum of Jon., Deu_24:13). It must be a close covering, fitted to conceal the soldier who lies under it.
Sisera is not incautious. He proceeds to ask for drink, pleading thirst. She gives him of her milk. It is an ancient, oriental practice, common to all Bedouins, Arabs, and the inhabitants of deserts in general, that whoever has eaten or drunk anything in the tent, is received into the peace of the house. The Arab’s mortal enemy slumbers securely in the tent of his adversary, if he have drunk with him. Hence, Saladin refuses to give drink to the bold Frank Knight, Reinald of Chatillon, because he wishes to kill him (Marin, Hist, of Saladin, ii. 19). Sisera thinks that he may now safely yield to sleep. Only he feels that he ought first to instruct Jael how to answer any pursuers that may come. How did he deceive himself! Sisera is made to know the demonlike violence [dämonische Gewalt] of a woman’s soul, which, when it breaks loose, knows no bounds True, Jabin is at peace with Heber. But Jael’s race and its history have from time immemorial intergrown with those of Israel. Israel’s freedom is her freedom; Israel’s glory, her glory. How many women have been dishonored and carried away as booty by Sisera (Jdg_5:30)! Shall she be idle, when the tyrant gives himself up into her hands? What, if she saves him? Will it not be treason on her part against the ancient covenant with Israel? Will he not, by virtue of his vigor and skill, collect fresh troops, and threaten Israel anew? Shall it be said, Jael saved the enemy of the people among whom she lived as among brothers, to their destruction? The conflict in which she finds herself is great; and none but a great and powerful soul could end it as she does. She will not allow him to escape—as he will do, if she refuse to harbor him; and yet, she can harbor him only to destroy,—and that not without doing violence to ancient popular custom. She makes her decision. She scorns the reward which Sisera’s safety might perhaps have brought her. She takes the nobler object into consideration—the freedom of a kindred nation,—and the older right preponderates. A ruthless warrior stands before her, the violator of a thousand laws of right, and all hesitation vanishes. She has no sword with which to hew the oppressor down, and seizes the terrible weapon of womanly cunning, before which no law can stand. Besides, it has been noticed, even in modern times, that in general the women of those regions care less about the rights of hospitality than the men. Burkhardt in his wanderings had personal experience of this (Ritter, xiv. 179).
Jael, through her terrible deed, far surpasses similar female characters of other times and nations. Concerning the Greek Aretophila, of Cyrene, Plutarch (On the Virtues of Women, n. 19) exclaims: “Her glorious deed raises her to the rank of the most ancient heroines!” What was her deed? By poison, lies, and perjury, she finally succeeded in overthrowing the tyrant who loved her, the husband who trusted her! But she would never have risen to such an undertaking, had he not slain her first husband. Still more horrible is the Chriemhild of the German Nibelungen. She invites those whom she wishes to murder, from a great distance; she not only violates the rights of hospitality, but her victims are her own relatives, countrymen, and friends. Jael has no by-ends, no personal wrong to avenge; the tyrant is a stranger to her, and not properly her enemy. But he is the oppressor of the freedom of the people of God, with whose life her own and that of her race have become identified. She does a demonlike deed,—but does it solely and purely in the service of general ideas.
It had not been necessary for her to kill him. Scarcely was her deed accomplished, before Barak, swift as lightning both in battle and in pursuit, appeared. But, since it was done, it served to manifest the faithfulness of the Kenite, and to increase the disgrace of Jabin. Barak had gained nothing by personally slaying the flying foe; only the honor of the hostile chieftain had been sub-served, if he had fallen by the sword of the hero. Filled with astonishment, Barak enters the tent of Jael—a noble subject for the painter’s pencil!—and before him lies the mighty Sisera, a dead man, nailed to the earth by a woman! A victory thus begun, could not but end magnificently. Continually more telling were the blows that fell on Jabin’s head, until his power was annihilated. No other Jabin reigned in Hazor. His name is thrice repeated in verses 23 and 24, in order to emphasize its importance.
But the danger of the judgment becomes ever greater, the tyranny of sin ever stronger and nearer. The king of Aram, whom Othniel smote, was distant; the king of Moab, beyond the Jordan; but the king of Hazor is in the midst of the land, possessed of unprecedented power. However, the greater the power of the enemy, the more manifest become the wonders of God’s compassion. The deliverer raised up against Moab, though left-handed, is a man; but against the master of nine hundred iron chariots, the battle is waged through a woman. Thus, 1. the heathen learn that victory comes not by horses or horsemen, but by the word of God; and, 2. Israel is humbled, not only by the judgment, but also by the mercy, of God.
There was no want of warlike men in Israel; but lances break like rushes, when the heart is not courageous. Israel, with all its strong men, is impotent so long as it lacks faith in its God. Barak is a valiant hero, but a woman must call him His name is “Lightning,” and his deeds are mighty; but the lightning is kindled by the fire-words of the prophetess. As Moses sings after the exodus, “The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name,” so Deborah’s word and song testify that God alone can save. To make this truth seen and believed by all, He lends his victory to a woman. Thus the vanity of men reveals itself, who ascribe to themselves that which belongs to God. Military readiness is of no avail, when readiness of spirit is not cherished. Not legions, but prophets, guard the kingdom of God. God only can conquer, and He suffers not men to prescribe the instruments of conquest.
Barak was a valiant hero, for he was obedient. He followed, but did not begin. Hence, also, though he gained the victory in the field, he nevertheless did not complete it. He took his impulse from a woman,—with Deborah, but not without her, he was willing to go where he went; a woman likewise finished the victory, when Jael slew the leader of the enemy. He waited for the spirit which Deborah breathed into him; not so did Jael wait for his sword to lay Sisera low. Hence, a woman’s name became connected both with the beginning and the end of the great achievement. Thus God grants results according to the measure of courage. As we believe, so we have. If Barak had believed like Deborah, he would have been as near to God as she was. But the Spirit of God needs no soldiers to conquer. He glorifies, through his word, the despised things of the world. Jesus selected as disciples, not athletes, but children of God who sought their Father. Put up thy sword, He said to Peter. When risen from the dead, it was to a woman that He first appeared.
Starke: Holy men love holy company, for therein they find a great blessing.—The same: We with our distrust often close God’s hands, so that but for our own actions, He would give us far more than He does; for God is more inclined to give, than we to receive.—The same: So are men’s hearts in the hands of God, that out of the timid He can make heroes, and out of heroes, cowards.—Gerlach: The holy faith that animates the deed of Jael, is of divine origin; the ways and methods, however, of rude and savage times continue in part until the time when all the promises of God in Christ shall be fulfilled.
Footnotes:
[Jdg_4:15— ìְôִéÎçֶøֶá . Standing in connection with åַéָּäָí , these words are of somewhat difficult interpretation. Dr. Cassel’s rejection of them will not commend itself to most critics; nor is the provisional translation he gives of them, “in the conflict,” exactly clear. The best view is probably that of Bachmann, that the expression denotes the great operative cause by which Jehovah confounded the enemy. Barak’s men, rushing down from the mountain, and falling suddenly on the hosts of Sisera, cutting down with remorseless sword all that stood in their way, threw the enemy into utter confusion; but the effect is rightly ascribed to Jehovah, from whose Spirit both the impulse and the strength to execute proceeded.—Tr.]
[Jdg_4:17.—Dr. Cassel translates by the pluperfect: “had fled,” cf. below. But it seems better to retain the indefinite perfect. The narrative left Sisera for a moment, in order in Jdg_4:16 briefly to indicate the fate of the army, but now returns to him. Cf. 1Ki_20:30, and many similar instances.—Tr.]
[Jdg_4:18.— ùְׂîִéëָä . This word means a “covering;” but exactly what sort of covering is uncertain. Dr. Cassel translates here by Regentuch, raincloth, perhaps to indicate its close, impervious texture. Dr. Bachmann thinks it was “probably a rather large covering or mat of thick, soft material (perhaps skin or goat’s-hair), on which a person lay down and in which he at the same time wrapped himself up,—a sort of mattrass and coverlet in one. Similar articles still form part of the furniture of the Bedouin’s tent and the Fellah’s dwelling.” He derives the word from ùָׂîַêְ = ñָîַêְ , in its usual sense to support, to lean, specifically to recline at table. Accordingly the proper meaning of the word would be “supporting;” then, concretely, that which supports or serves to recline upon.—Tr.]
[Jdg_4:21.—Dr. Cassel: “and he—for weariness he had fallen fast asleep—died.” Keil: “Now he was fallen into a deep sleep, and was wearied (i.e. from weariness he had fallen fast asleep); and so he died.” Similarly Bachmann. The clause åַéָּòֵó – åְäåּà manifestly designed to set forth the circumstances which enabled Jael to approach Sisera unperceived; consequently, the “for” of the English version is perfectly proper, and formally not less correct than Dr. Cassel’s German, which was only designed to correct Luther’s version: “he however, fell asleep, swooned away, and died.” Dr. Wordsworth (p. 99) considers it a mistake to suppose that Jael “smote a nail into Sisera’s head while he was asleep.” He would render: “and he fell down astounded, and feinted away, and died.” The passage is a curiosity in interpretation.—Tr.]
According to Ezekiel (Eze_27:10), Paras, Lud, and Phut, were in the army of the king of Tyre, as mercenaries. The same prophet (Eze_38:5), addressing Gog, implies that he had Paras, Cush, and Phut, in his service. It is certainly more reasonable to think of the Assyrian Cush (Cossæans) as connected with the army of Gog, than of the African. In place of Gog and Magog, an ancient interpretation already pats Cimmerians and Scythians. In like manner, Symmachus explains the king of Elam, who invaded Palestine, to be the king of the Scythians. The historical fact that people of Scythian manners served in the armies of the Phœnicians, may serve to render the existence of a Scythian colony at Beisân more probable at least, than it is on the basis of the traditions communicated by Pliny and others, which are only like similar stories current at Antioch and elsewhere.
[Stanley: “It must have been three days after the battle that he reached a spot, which seems to gather into itself, as in the last scene of an eventful drama, all the characters of the previous acts.”—Tr.]
[Dr. Wordsworth, treating the question, “What is the true character of Jael’s act?” argues that as it was commended by the Song of Deborah, and as that Song “is recited by the Holy Ghost as the utterance of one who spake by his own inspiration,” it follows that “Jael must have received a special commission from God to attempt and perform this act.” Much in the history, he says, “confirms this conclusion.” What he adduces, however, is not worth repeating. Dr. Bachmann enters into the discussion very fully. The salient points of his essay may, however, be stated in few words. He thinks it unquestionable that the language of Deborah, Jdg_4:9, “Jehovah shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman,” is a prediction of the chieftain’s destruction by Jael. This utterance of the prophetess cannot have been unknown to Jael. Hence, when the latter sees Sisera approach her tent for shelter, she at once obtains the clear and certain conviction that it is by her hands that he is to fall. She therefore acts under a divine commission. Her invitation to Sisera, her promise of protection, and her honorable entertainment of him, are not to be defended. But “although she transcended the proper limits in the means she employed, it is not to be denied that the operation of the Spirit of God influenced her deed, nor that she acted from the impulse of the obedience of faith. It is, moreover, only from this point of view that we obtain an explanation of the fact that Deborah in her judgment (Jdg_5:24 ff.) so entirely overlooked the human weakness that clung to Jael’s deed.” Compare the remarks of Dean Stanley, Hist. of the Jewish Church, i. 365–370.—Tr.]
It is powerfully treated in the Bibel in Bildern, published by Schnorr.