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Jdg_5:6-10
It may be premised that in introducing this description, Deborah speaks of a judge called Jael, not named in the history itself. Shamgar is supposed to have died in the same year in which he performed that great exploit, for which alone he is remembered. The brevity of the Scripture notice of him, without any reference to the time of his rule, confirms the intimation of Josephus to that effect. Jael probably occurred in the interval between Shamgar’s death and the commencement of the northern tyranny—and it is impossible to speculate safely upon the circumstances which have left the mere existence of his government to be gathered from two words in an ancient poem.
The poetess says, that in the days of Shamgar and of Jael, and, by implication, in the years that followed, “The ways lay desert, and travelers went by winding by-paths.” Note: The quotations, when not from the authorized version, are from the admirable translation of Dr. E. Robinson, in the American Biblical Repository for 1821—to the notes accompanying which we also owe obligation. This is a very striking and natural circumstance. The people were so much subjected to violence and insult upon the common and frequented roads—smitten, plundered, stripped, and perhaps often slain—that they gradually abandoned the high-roads altogether, and stole from place to place by obscure and unfrequented routes. The same idea is expressed in a much later age by the prophet Isaiah—”The highways are desolate, the traveler ceaseth.” This indeed heightens the picture; for only, as here, do people travel by unfrequented paths, when constrained to leave their own towns, but traveling itself becomes greatly diminished and almost ceases, people leaving their homes as little as possible, and only on occasions of the extremest urgency. We have ourselves known in the East, in unsettled times, persons afraid to stir, for months together, beyond their towns and villages, and for still longer periods, traveling wholly abandoned, or undertaken only in large and well-armed bodies. In point of fact, this was the general state of Palestine even until our oven time, before a somewhat more orderly state of things was established in Syria by Mohammed Ali, when traveling became comparatively safe. The danger in this case is from the Arab tribes who occupy the open country, who greatly endangered, by their aggressions upon travelers, the communications between different parts of the land.
Another circumstance is, that “the villages ceased.” Note: Here we adopt the common version, not being satisfied with the reasons Dr. Robinson advances for translating, “the leaders ceased.” Villages are the characteristics of a settled country. In unsettled countries the people are collected in walled towns, at wide distances from each other, the intervening space unrelieved by villages. In times of trouble, the rural population, subject as they are to continual annoyance and plundering, against which they have no defence, gradually withdraw into the nearest towns with their movables, leaving the villages deserted, and abandoning all cultivation but such as can be carried on within reach of the towns. Thus, therefore, not only the villages, but the peasantry ceased, as a necessary consequence, in countries thus troubled. Hence Luther was indirectly right, though not so directly, in translating the word by “peasants” (bauren).
But there was not safety, even in towns, for “war was then in the gates;” which doubtless has reference to the hostile incursions in which the cities of Israel were surprised and plundered by their watchful and daring foes. We may find a specimen of this in a later age, in the case of Ziklag, which, in the brief absence of David, was surprised, fired, the women and children carried away captive—no doubt to be sold for slaves—and all the property taken for spoil by the Amalekites. The deprivation of peaceful life and regular government is still farther indicated in this by the fact, that the gates were the places where the magistrates administered justice, and where the public business of the community was transacted. But the continual incursions of the enemy deprived the magistrate of his dignity, and the people of the benefit of government. There being no peace to him that went out or him that came in, the stated administration of justice must have been grievously interrupted in these times.
We are next told, that “a shield or spear was not found among forty thousand in Israel.” The shield and spear were the principal weapons of ancient warfare, and here stand for weapons of all kinds. The inference is, that they had been disarmed by their enemies, and sometimes masters—an obvious policy, much used in ancient times, and which we had yesterday occasion to notice. A round number, forty thousand, is used for an indefinite one, to express that the people were altogether without arms. This destitution of arms may account for the small number which eventually came forward to strike for the deliverance of Israel, and the general reluctance to appear in the field which the song of Deborah indicates. Some have thought that the passage only declares the reluctance of the Israelites to take arms by this poetical form of expression; and point to the fact, that the ten thousand who actually took the field, must have had arms. To this it may be answered, that no search for arms is ever so effectual, but that some are concealed, and appear in the hands of their owners when occasion for their use is found. Besides, we do not know with what weapons Barak’s warriors fought. Shamgar’s husbandmen had defeated the Philistines with ox-goads.
In the sequel there is a beautiful apostrophe to certain classes of the people—from the highest to the lowest—calling upon them to exult in their deliverance from danger. The verse in the common version is—”Speak ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment and walk by the way.” Robinson’s is—
“Ye who ride upon white asses,
Ye who recline upon splendid carpets,
And ye who walk the streets,
Prepare a song.”
We had occasion, not long ago, Note: Nineteenth Week, Saturday. to remark on the use of asses for riding, and on the distinction of riding on white asses. At the present day, when in the East, no man of the least note moves a few yards from his own door but on the back of some animal; and where horses are in very general use, men of grave judicial functions, or religious character, affect to ride on asses and mules, as if appearing on horseback scarcely befitted their character. When, however, no animals were mounted but asses by any, the riding of these animals could not have been indicative of condition or character. The distinction of judicial dignity, therefore, lay in the riding on white asses. Asses of this color being scarce, are valuable; and hence to possess one is still a mark of easy circumstances.
White asses are very uncommon in Europe, and rare in Syria and Egypt; but they are not absolutely so scarce as some report. In Arabia, and the towns on its frontiers, they are often seen. In Baghdad, for instance, one of the things that must strike a stranger, is the number of white asses. There is thus quite a fashion for asses of this color; and we can scarcely meet a person of respectability, man or woman, who is not mounted on one of these valued quadrupeds, except perhaps one of the more warlike classes, who despise anything under the grade of an Arab steed. Most persons belonging to the learned and sacred professions prefer the meeker animal, and so do all the ladies; so that the number in use is very great. These asses are, we believe, of a peculiar breed, and fetch very high prices—from forty to fifty pounds sterling (a very important sum there) being no unusual price for one of large size, good blood, and fine paces. They are richly caparisoned, and they all have their nostrils slit, which is believed to make them longer winded. As to the “judges” riding these asses, the term may signify nobles, princes, magnates—the first class of the people, and not merely magistrates, as distinct from these. We read further on, that thirty sons of Jair, who judged (or ruled) Israel, and the seventy sons and nephews of Abdon who also judged Israel, “rode upon asses’ colts” (Jdg_10:4; Jdg_12:14), which seems to be mentioned as a circumstance proper to their rank. Then, the first class of the people had, during the oppression, been prevented from riding about, as in former times, upon their white asses; but now that the oppression is over, they might ride forth in honor and safety, amid the salutations of those who pass them on the way.
The next class are “those who sit in judgment,”—which, if the previous clause be understood of judges merely, would be a mere description of the same class by another phrase—but not so, if that be understood of the chiefs and nobles, and this of the magistrates. We take this to be the case; for to sit is the proper characteristic of this class, as to ride is of the other. The phrase is, however, one hard to be understood. Robinson takes it, as we see, to mean, “those who sit on splendid carpets;” and there is reason and authority for this interpretation. The word, however, should be taken for anything extended out to sit upon, whether a carpet or not; and if the Hebrews, like the modern orientals, sat upon the ground, or on low divans or couches, these were doubtless carpets, or something serving the same purpose. Those who so sit are the opulent, the persons in good circumstances, but not in high authority; and therefore here particularly distinguished, on the one hand, from the nobles who ride, and on the other, from the poor who walk. From the general sense of the word, even thus understood, it supplies no evidence for the antiquity of carpets, properly so called, but only of something spread out to sit upon. Then opulent persons could not, amid such troubles—with their lives and property in jeopardy every hour, enjoy the ease which their condition in life allowed; but when the time of oppression was passed, they could recline securely, without starting in alarm at every sound, expecting to learn that the destroyer was at the gates.
Even the poor people walking the way are called upon to rejoice that their dangers are also ended. If “the way” means the roads beyond the town, it is explained by what has been already stated in regard to the insecurity of the roads. If of the streets, it implies the presence of their enemies in the very towns; and there were many in which the Israelites and Canaanites lived together. The latter, formerly tributaries, would now gain the upper hand in these towns; and to appear, even in the streets, would be unsafe. The disposition of the orientals to inflict wanton and cruel wrong in such cases, upon those they pass in the streets, must be witnessed to be understood. We have known cases of poor and inoffensive persons wantonly maimed and wounded in passing the streets; and of even females being assaulted, and the ornaments of their ears and noses violently rent from them. By the indication of their various classes, the sacred poetess describes the condition of the whole nation, and calls upon it as a whole to rejoice in its deliverance.