Lange Commentary - Judges 5:2 - 5:5

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Lange Commentary - Judges 5:2 - 5:5


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Introduction

Jdg_5:2-5

2That in Israel wildly waved the hair

In the people’s self-devotion,—Praise God!

3Hear, O ye kings, give ear, O ye princes:

I for God, unto Him will I sing,

I will strike the strings unto God, the Lord of Israel!

4O God, at thy march from Seir,

At thy going forth from Edom’s fields,

The earth trembled, and the heavens dropped,

Yea, the clouds dropped down water.

5The mountains were dismayed before God,

Even this Sinai, before God, the Lord of Israel.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[1 Jdg_5:3.—Dr. Cassel: Ich für Gott; but the accents separate àָðֹëִé from ìַéäåָֹä , and there appears no good reason for disregarding them. The position and repetition of the subject àָðֹëִé serve to bring the person of the Singer prominently into view, and that not in her character as woman, but as prophetess, filled with the Spirit of God, and therefore entitled to challenge the attention of kings and princes. So Bachmann.—Tr.]

[2 Jdg_5:5.— æֶä ñִéðַé : literally, “this Sinai.” “Sinai is present to the poetic eye of Deborah” (Wordsworth). Dr. Cassel translates by the definite article, der Sinai.—Tr.]

EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL

Jdg_5:2. The above translation of Jdg_5:24 differs from all earlier renderings, which however also differ more or less from each other. The most interesting among them is that of those Greek versions which render “ ἐí ôῷ ἄñîáóèáé ἀñ÷çãüõò .” It has been followed by a multitude of esteemed expositors (Schnurrer, Rosenmüller, Ewald, Bertheau, Böttger, Kemink); and yet it betrays its Egyptian origin, since in connection with áִּôְøֹòַ ôְּøָòåֹú it thought only of the Egyptian Pharaoh or king, and expounded accordingly. A similar, more homiletical interpretation proceeds from the Targum. This was more naturally reminded of ôּåּøְòֲáåּú , ultio, vindicta; the Midrash, by speaking of the cessation of the sufferings, whose previous existence is implied in the necessity for vengeance, shows that it adopts the same interpretation. Teller also, perhaps unconsciously, arrived at the same explanation. The interpretation of Raschi, who takes ôֶּøַò as equivalent to ôֶּøֶõ , and of those who suppose it equivalent to ôֶּøֶè , may, like various others, be passed over in silence. The natural exposition, which is always at the same time the poetical, has on all sides been overlooked. ôֶּøַò is undoubtedly (as in Arabic) the hair of the head, and more particularly the long, waving nair, the coma, as appears from Eze_44:20. ôְּøָòåֹú is its plural form, and is used in Deu_32:42, where blood is spoken of as flowing down from the hairy head ( îֵøàֹùׁ ôַּøְòåֹú àåֹéֵá ). Hence the verb ôָּøַò , (cf. êïìᾷí , to cultivate the hair), signifies “to make loose,” to allow to “become wild,” as when the hair flies wild and loose about the neck; wherefore it is said of Aaron (Exo_32:25) that he had caused the people ôְּøָòֹä , “to grow wild,” and of the people that they “had grown wild” ( ôָּøֻòַ ). The circumstances under which the hair was allowed to grow, are well known. The person who makes a vow, who would be holy unto God, is directed (Num_6:5) to let his hair grow ( âַּãֵּì ôֶּøַò ). The instance of Samson, to which we shall come hereafter, is familiar. The present occasion for this observance arose áְּäִúְðַãֵּá òָí , when the people consecrated themselves, devoted themselves (se devovit), to God,—the people, namely, who gave heed to the voice of Deborah, and placed themselves in the position of one who called himself holy unto God. Israel, through disobedience, had fallen into servitude. Those who followed Barak, had faith in God; upon the strength of this faith they hazarded their lives. They devoted themselves wholly as a sacrifice to God. The verse therefore exhibits a profound apprehension of the essential nature of the national life. It sets forth the ground of the very possibility of the Song, and therefore stands at its head. Israel could be victorious only by repentance and return to obedience. The prophetess delineates, poetically and with forcible beauty, the people’s great act of self-devotion, when whole tribes give themselves to God,—their hair streaming, their hearts rejoicing,—and place their strength and trust in Him. They were the êÜñçêïìüùíôåò of a divine freedom. This interpretation also brings the parallelism out clearly: áִּôְøֹòַ stands in both causal and appositional correlation with áְּäִúְðַãֵּá . The preposition áְּ points out the condition of the people in which they conquered and sang. The Song is the people’s consecration hymn, and praises God for the prosperous and successful issue with which He has crowned their vows. “Praise ye God,” it exclaims, “for the long locks,”—i.e. for and in the people’s consecration. The result of every such consecration as God blesses, is his praise. And now, the nations must hear it! The object of Israel’s national pride, is its God. Hence, Israel’s song of triumph is a call upon surrounding kings to hear what God did for his people when they gave themselves up to Him.

Jdg_5:3. Hear, O ye kings and princes. Both are expressions for the “mighty ones” among the nations, cf. Psa_2:2. øֹæְðִéí are the great, the strong. Rosen manifestly answers to the Sanskrit vrisna (Benfey, i. 332), Old High German rîso, giant.—Deborah proposes not merely to sing, but adds, I will play ( àֲæַîֵּø ). As in the Psalms, singing and playing are joined together, one representing thought, the other sound. The action expressed by æִîֵּø , is performed on various instruments (cf. Psa_144:9, “ten-stringed lute”), chiefly on the cithern, a species of harp or lyre (Psa_98:5, etc.), but also with timbrels and citherns (Psa_149:3, cf. Psa_81:3). Miriam also accompanied her antiphonal song with timbrels (tympanis, Exo_15:20), Jephthah’s daughter used them as she came to meet her father (Jdg_11:34). Nor can they have failed as an accompaniment to the Song of our prophetess. Tympana (toph, timbrels) appear in antiquity as the special instrument of impassioned women (Creuzer, Symbolik, iii. 489). The derivation of the word æָîַø is not clear. Delitzsch is doubtless right in deciding (Psalter, i. 19) that it has nothing to do with the samar which signifies to “prune the vine.” That samar reminds one of the Greek óìßëç , a clasp and carving-knife. Simmer, to play (scil. mismor, øáëìüò ), distinguishes itself as an onomatopoetic word. The primitive Greek singer, whose contest with the muses in cithern-playing Homer already relates, was named Thamyris (Il. ii. 594).

Jdg_5:4-5. O God at thy march from Seir. An Israelitish song can praise God only by rehearsing the history of Israel. For the fact that God is in its history constitutes the sole foundation of Israel’s national existence and rights over against other nations. But this immanence of God in the history of the people, manifests itself most wonderfully in those events through which, as by steps, Israel became a nation. For not in Egypt, where Israel was a servant, was the nation born, nor through the exodus alone; the nationality of Israel is the child of the desert. There, through the self-revelation of God, Israel became a free people. The journey through the desert—of which Sinai was the central point,—by the giving of the law and the impartation of doctrine, by the wonderful provision of food and the gift of victory, and by the infliction of awful judgments, became one continuous act of divine revelation. Thus, Israel came forth from the desert a perfected nation. The prophetic insight of the Hebrew poets, at one clear glance, traces the desert-birth of the nation back to the manifest nearness of God as its cause. All that happened to the people came from God. “The Lord came from Sinai,” says the Song of Moses (Deu_33:2), “and rose up from Seir; He shined forth from Mount Paran.” The 114th psalm (Jdg_5:2) represents the exodus from Egypt as the beginning of Israel’s nationality: “Then Judah became his sanctuary.” Deborah takes Seir and Edom, whence Israel entered history as a nation, as representatives of the whole desert; which from her position was, even geographically, quite natural. The 68th Psalm, borrowing from this passage, at the same time explains it by substituting more general terms for Seir and Edom: “When thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness.” The wilderness was the theatre of the revelation of God. There He appeared to his people. Where is there another nation to whom this occurred? “Hear, ye kings,” cries the prophetess, what nation was ever raised up, instructed, and led, by the manifest presence of such a God?

The earth trembled. The superior grandeur of Scriptural over the noblest Hellenic conceptions, is scarcely anywhere more clearly apparent. The earthquake, with Hesiod and others, is symbolic of conflict between the powers above and those below, between Zeus and Typhon:—

“Great Olympus trembled beneath the immortal feet

Of the Ruler rising up, and hollow groaned the earth. …

The earth resounded, and the heavens around, and the floods of ocean.”

To the prophetic spirit of Deborah, also, and of the Psalms, the earthquake becomes a powerful symbol; but it is the symbol of the creature’s humility and awe on account of the sacred nearness of God. For Israel’s sake, God descended from on high; the creature knows its Lord, and trembles. The earth trembles, and “the heavens pour.” (In the desert peninsula of Sinai the latter is a wonder. Even at this day, the Bedouins cherish the superstition that Moses had in his possession the book which determines the fall of rain.) The heavens lose their brazen aridity; whatever is hard and unyielding, firm as rock and stone, becomes soft and liquid: the mountains stagger, the rocks flow down like water ( ðָæְìåּ ). The earthquake-belt that girdles the Mediterranean afforded numerous instances of such phenomena. Tremendous masses of rock have been shaken down from Mount Sinai by earthquakes (Ritter xiv. 601, etc.). Even this Sinai. That is, Sinai especially, Sinai before all others is the mountain that shook when God descended, according to the statement, Exo_19:18; “and the whole mount quaked greatly.” Thunders rolled and heavy clouds hung upon its summit (Exo_19:16). “The mountains saw thee,” says Habakkuk (Jdg_3:10), “and they trembled; the overflowing of the waters passed by.” “What ailed you, ye mountains, that ye trembled like lambs?” asks the Psalmist, Psa_114:6 : “Before the Lord the earth trembled, before the God of Jacob.”

These introductory ascriptions of praise to God, have no reference to the battle at the Kishon. They magnify the power and majesty of Israel’s God, as manifested in the nation’s earlier history. Such is the God of Israel, the nations are told. Such is He who has chosen Israel for his people. It was there in the desert that they became his; and for that reason the poet selects the scenes of the desert as the material of her praise. She speaks with great brevity: the 68th Psalm amplifies her conceptions. Very unfortunate is the conjecture (Böttger) that by Sinai Tabor is meant. It is altogether at variance with the spirit of the old covenant, which could never consent to make Sinai the representative of any less sacred mountain. Moreover, the battle was not on Tabor, but in the plain, near the Kishon. With Jdg_5:5 closes that part of the Song by which the “kings and princes” are informed that the God whom the elements fear, has become the Lord of Israel. With Jdg_5:6 the poetess first enters on the history of the state of affairs which existed in Israel previous to her great deed.

Footnotes:

[Jdg_5:3.—Dr. Cassel: Ich für Gott; but the accents separate àָðֹëִé from ìַéäåָֹä , and there appears no good reason for disregarding them. The position and repetition of the subject àָðֹëִé serve to bring the person of the Singer prominently into view, and that not in her character as woman, but as prophetess, filled with the Spirit of God, and therefore entitled to challenge the attention of kings and princes. So Bachmann.—Tr.]

[Jdg_5:5.— æֶä ñִéðַé : literally, “this Sinai.” “Sinai is present to the poetic eye of Deborah” (Wordsworth). Dr. Cassel translates by the definite article, der Sinai.—Tr.]



áִּôְøֹòַ ôְּøָòåֹú áְּéùׂøָàֵì

áְּäִúְðַãֵּá òָí áָּøְëåּ éִäåָֹä

That we must go back to the sense of this word, is also admitted by Keil; but he attaches a meaning to it which It never has. [Keil: ôְּøָòåֹú here means properly comati, hairy persons, i. e. those who are endowed with strength. The champions in battle are meant, who by their prowess and valor preceded the people.”—Tr.]

The verb ðָãַá occurs only in Exodus, Ezra, Chronicles, and here.

The Targum, though merely paraphrastic, in its spirt agrees entirely with this interpretation.

[“Long-haired,” cf. the Homeric êáñçêïìüùíôáò Á÷áéïὺò , “long-haired Greeks,” Il. ii. 11, etc. Among the later Greeks, long hair was the badge of freedom, and hence was not allowed to slaves. See Smith’s Dict. Antiquities, s. v. “Coma.”—Tr.]

[Dr. Bachmann adopts the view of Jdg_5:2 given by the LXX. according to the Alexandrine Codex: ἐí ôῷ ἄñîáóèáé ἀñ÷çãïὺò ἐí ̓ ÉóñáÞë , and translates, “that the leaders led,” etc. The idea of “leading” or “going before,” he says, may be readily derived from the radical meaning of ôָּøַò , to break forth,” sc. into prominence (hervorbrechen). His criticism on our author’s translation is as follows: “To say nothing of the fact that the partitive (?) áְּéִùׂøָàֵì excites surprise, standing as it does in parallelism with òָí , it may well be doubted whether the expression taken in this sense would ever have been intelligible, notwithstanding the alleged explanatory apposition of the second member of the verse; at all events, in the language of the law ôָּøַò denotes, not an act, but a condition (the consequence of the úַּòַø ìֹàÎéַòְáֹø , Num_6:5), such as at the beginning of the fulfillment of a vow of consecration—and to a beginning the reference would have to be here,—could have no existence.”—Tr.]

For áְּöֵàúְêָ îִùֵּׂòִéøִ , Psalms 68 substitutes ìִôְðֵé òַîֶּêָ , and for áְּöַòְêְּêָ îִùְּׂãֵä àֱãåֹí it has áְּöַòְãְּêָ áִéùִׁéîåֹï .

Hesiod, Theogon., v. 840, etc.

Cf. Jer_10:10; Joel iv (iii.) :16, etc.

“The mountains melt like wax,” cf. Psa_97:5.