Study Notes
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Overview:

• Praise to God
• Deborah’s song of praise
• Explains the history of what brought war to their gates
• A list of who fought for God and who did not
• Celebrating Jael and her bold defeat
• Peace and rest for 40 years

Verse 1 – 3

Verse 1: “Then sang Deborah…”
“Sang” means a celebration was taking place. Deborah was celebrating and praising God by leading prophetic worship. This type of attribution was common among Jewish traditions. In verse 2, Deborah commissions the others, the leaders and the ones who offered their lives (she will later list the tribes who aided on the war) to join her in her praise. Deborah was great at what she called to do, lead, rather in court, or to war, or to song, Deborah was a willing leader. She continues on to speak directly to the kings and princesses; she was letting them know, “you may sit at the head of our Earthly tables, but, there is one who reigns even above you, and I will praise Him.. join me.” She was boldly desiring for all kings and princesses to know and hear of the works of the Lord.

Verse 4 – 5

The song really begins here. The pre mentioned was more of a ‘get the crowd pumped up with her’ moment. 😄 She starts by reviewing all the Lord has done for Israel. Israel was keen at “forgetting the Lord,” a walk down memory lane is always a good way to start. She was bringing a sense of ‘remembering the goodness of God’ to the hearts of those who had turned their ear to her.

“…the earth trembled and the heavens also dropped, the clouds dropped water,”

The manifestation of God’s omnipresent power touched Earth with a storm.

A storm during the battle was not something that was bad for the footman, but remember the enemy had 900 chariots of iron. Rain and heavy chariots do not mix. When God brings rains of Heaven, the waters will always wash out the bad. This showed Israel that He was very much still reigned in power.

Verse 6 – 7

Deborah goes on to explain after the last judges people went back to their fleshy ways. Pre war, the means of public travel was hindered by robbers. A lot ceased, but the travelers who remained on their ways took private roads, roundabout ways, to remain as safe as possible. The enemy would go into these Israelite towns and villages, brake into houses destroying them. The villages became unoccupied because they were fleeing to safety. Until Deborah, the mother.
(Also, spiritually speaking, the Israelites did not travel the routes they were destined to, they took roundabout ways, they chose evil over holiness.)

Verse 8

“The Israelites chose new gods..”
Idolatry. They forgot the Lord. Followed other gods of those they were intermingled with. Some have said they even went out searching for other gods in nearby towns. 😩 With these gods the war entered their gates. There were 40,000 in Israel, but there were not 40,000 who dressed in battle gear. They were unarmed. They had no weapons and they were not prepared because they had laid themselves before the feet of other gods. They could not fight the battle because their warfare had been compromised.

Verse 9

Deborah’s heart went out to the ones who offered their lives to join the battle lines. To those who rallied the others and encouraged Israel to war.

Verse 10 – 11

The people of importance rode white donkeys. She is calling for even them to speak of the good things of the Lord. The common people needed to hear God’s goodness coming from leaders or men of importance.

Verse 12

• Awake: ur = to stir, to arouse, to wake, lift up
• Awake, awake Deborah = she stirs up her spirit.
• Arise Barak = command from the Lord through Deborah

Verse 13

• Remnant: those who remained after King Jabin, meaning many probably died, the survivors
• “ Lord made “me” have dominion over the mighty” – Me = Deborah carried Godly authority

Verse 14 – 15

In the next few verses Deborah is mentioning and praising loyal tribes who were on there team so to speak, her allies, the tribes on her side. “Ephraim whose root” = the foundation of where she herself did court (judges 4:5) Ephraim also had a mountain called the mount of Amalek, whose people had a strong mindset against the enemy, which was the root of the issue. Ephraim moved after Benjamin. Benjamin was a smaller tribe, but when they moved Ephraim followed after. Once other tribes saw these two joining in more would follow suit, Machir and then Zebulun sent men. Machir was known for there valor in the time of Moses, this obviously ran in their generations with them sending men for commanders and lawgivers. Zebulun sent in men who could “handle the pen of the writer:” clerks who sent orders or kept daily accounts, scribes: “they that draw with the scribe’s pen of record.” The tribe of Issachar joined in the service too, the princes were with Deborah and Barak, either to assist in the war or to give counsel since the men of the tribe had an understanding of the times and would know what to do.

Verse 16

The tribe of Reuben were more worried about their flock than to be at war on behalf of the lord. 👎🏼

Verse 17

Gilead = Gad + eastern 1/2 of Manasseh

Dan (bordered the Mediterranean sea) and Asher (on the shore of the Mediterranean) stayed laid up on the beach and with their ships. LOL, not really, but basically, they did choose to stay on the seacoast and not join the war. Zebulun was also a haven for ships, but they still came to the call of arms.

Verse 18

Most active in the war = Zebulun and Naphtali
They seemed to be exposed to the most danger, they were not afraid of death, they valued their lives not, and would have chose the path of death if the Lord so deemed fit.

Review:

Reuben, Gilead, Dan and Asher put there selfish concerns for safety over the oppression of their brothers.

Ephraim, Benjamin, Machir, Zebulun, Issachar, and Naphtali joined the fight.

The other 3 tribe were not mentioned, maybe due to geographical reasons.

Verse 19

Jabin was reinforced by other Canaanite troops.
Maybe they were offered money to not slay them, but took none, or maybe they came because they thought their would be a large ‘booty’ to obtain???

Verse 20 – 22

I like this verse. Here we are told that the Heaven and stars (angels are called stars) fought against Sierra. God aligned the Heavens to send rain on the chariots. The element of water joined in battle. Being pulled along by the hands of God himself and by mighty angels of war, sweeping many of Sisera’s army away on the River of Kishon.

Kishon = “brook” = in Hebrew means dry river bed. Maybe the Kishon was dry, God sends the rain and washes the enemy out. God goes before the 10,000 men and handles the 900 chariots of iron. This is also why Sisera left on foot in Chapter 4 when he headed to Jael’s tent.

Then = (presumingly would mean) immediately after, the hoofs beat loudly from fleeing.

Verse 23

• Curse = call judgement upon.
• The Angel of the Lord cursed them = judgment from the courts of Heaven.
• By refusing to assist in the war, they were not only refusing help to Deborah, but they said No to God.

Verse 24

Double blessing in this verse.

• Deborah’s name means bee (bees make honey). Jael gave Sisera milk.
  • Canaan = land of milk and honey. 😮

• Verse 23 Meroz cursed for not helping publicly.
• Verse 24 Jael blessed for helping privately.

Verse 25

She gave him milk instead of water. Even in todays times we see people drink a glass of milk before bed. Did Jael give him milk to help him fall asleep???

Curds = artificially soured milk which was produced by shaking milk in the skin bottle in which it was stored, and fermenting it with the stale milk adhering to the skin from previous use.

Verse 26

• Tent peg in left hand
  • Hammer in right hand
• KJV: ”she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temple.” smote off: machaq = to crush

Verse 27

This verse is to show the fall of a leader.

Verse 28 – 30

• Deborah = mother
• And this verse has Sisera’s mother
  • These two woman are direct opposites.
• Sisera’s mother was expecting her son to win as always. She sits anxious awaiting the spoils of his victory. She even imagined he was with a maiden or two (pleasing themselves with the woman of Israel) how many times had this played out before?? The spoils of war were generally brought to the general or the chief men, and divided among rank.
• BUT, Sisera had never gone to war against the Lord: the enemy will lose every time.

Verse 31

• A lot of God’s enemies perished when Sisera did. Not a man in his army was left per chapter 4.
• ”But let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might.” = let God’s true friends be as bright as the glourious midday sun