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from service of praise and blessed ministry (Rev. iv. 8, vii. 15, xxii. 3). Meantime they have to serve their own generation by the will of God (Acts xiii. 36). They serve now amidst abounding adversaries and manifold temptations (see 2 Cor. vi. 4-10); but God perfects strength out of their weakness. He can make a ploughman, as Shamgar with his ox-goad, and fishermen, as the apostles, to achieve great exploits for the deliverance of His church from the Philistine-like enemy. As Camillus and Curius went from the plough to save Rome from the Gauls; so the faithful minister, ordained and unordained alike, is called from, and in his secular vocation, to war a good warfare. He may have no special power or weapons of his own for the good fight, but in the strength of the Lord, and with the whole armour of God, he can and will prevail: for "God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty" (1 Cor. i. 27). Then how glorious will be the final triumph, when after having gotten the victory of faith we shall sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. Be this blessed hope our encouragement now; and may the sure promise cheer us in our present conflict: "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Rev. ii. 10, xv. 3).

CHAPTER IV.

ISRAEL'S DELIVERANCE BY DEBORAH AND BARAK.

(1) And the children of Israel again did evil [see note ch. iii. 12], in the sight of the Lord [JEHOVAH], when Ehud was dead [implying that Ehud whilst living restrained them from idolatry (illustrating ch. ii. 18, 19). The judge's office, therefore, was not only to deliver them from the oppressor, but also to keep them from that apostasy which was sure, in God's retributive righteousness, to bring them again under the rod]. (2) And the Lord [JEHOVAH] sold them [even as they sold themselves to work evil in the sight of the Lord (1 Kings xxi. 20; note ch. ii. 14)] into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor [Jabin, meaning "the discerning," was a hereditary title of the Canaanite dynasty, as 'Pharaoh' in Egypt, and Abimelech among the Philistines of Gerar, and Hadad in Syria and Edom. Joshua had conquered a Jabin more than a century earlier, and destroyed his capital Hazor with fire, lest there should be so strong a fortress in his rear. But the Canaanites had rebuilt it, when suffered by Israel to remain, contrary to Jehovah's command: and the dynasty of Jabin, during Israel's oppression by Moab and the Philistines, regained the throne, and from Hazor, as the centre of government, oppressed Israel. Hazor was situated north of the waters of Merom, now Lake Huleh, in Naphtali: "head of all those kingdoms," i.e., chief city of Northern Palestine (Josh. xi. 1, 10, 11, xii. 19, xix. 36). Now Tel Khuraibeh (Robinson), rather Tel-Hara, an ancient fortress, with wall, ruins, and pottery: see Quart. Statem. Palest. Explor.]; the captain of whose host (was) Sisera [long remembered as a name

of terror and of triumph (1 Sam. xii. 9; Ps. lxxxiii. 9). Yet from him descended the great Rabbi Akiba (Bartolocci, iv. 272), standard-bearer to Barcoceba in the Jewish war of independence. His name occurs among the Nethinim, or servants of the temple, who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Ezra ii. 53; and in Neh. vii. 54, 55, associated with Harsha, apparently connected with Harosheth], which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles [so called from the mixed races that inhabited it in "Galilee of the nations" (Isa. ix. 1). The name means workmanship, carving. Donaldson conjectured (Prælect. Philolog.), that this being a timber district, rich in cedars and firs, Jabin employed the Israelites in hewing wood at Harosheth for transport to Zidon, and that these wood-cutters armed with axes formed the soldiers of Barak's army. Harosheth was west of the Lake Merom, from which the Jordan issues in one stream. But Lieut. Conder places Harosheth at Harathiyeh, a tel or mound north of Kishon, which separates it from Mount Carmel, and in the south-east corner of the plain of Akka]. (3) And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD [Jehovah (see ch. iii. 9)]; for he had nine hundred chariots of iron [ch. i. 19; Josh. xvii. 16]; and twenty years he mightly [tyrannically, 'sharply,' as the same word is translated in ch. viii. 1; pina] oppressed [rn the same word as in Exod. iii. 9], the children of Israel. (4) And Deborah, a prophetess [Heb. 'a woman, a prophetess:' a female in authority was so rare a thing, that the reason is subjoined—she was a prophetess (see verses 6, 9, 14, ch. v.), like Miriam (Exod. xv. 20); Huldah (2 Kings xxii. 14)], the wife of Lapidoth, she judged [Heb. judging, implying that she permanently judged: not merely delivering them from the foe, but judging in civil causes], Israel at that time [Deborah means a bee,' a personal, or an official name, applied to poets, seers, and priestesses. The symbol of a monarch in Egypt-a honey bee to her friends, and a stinging bee to the enemy]. (5) And she dwelt [rather sat in judgment (see Ps. ix. 4; Judg. v. 10)] under the palmtree of Deborah, between Ramah [now Er-Ram in Benjamin] and Bethel [now Beitin, Josh. vii. 2] in Mount Ephraim, and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment [the place of

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justice was regarded as on a spiritual elevation, to which the people came up' (Deut. xvii. 8). The supreme judge had to decide such questions as the lower courts could not decide. The Deborah-palm,' instead of the ordinary place of justice, the gate (Ruth iv. 1, 2), was suitable to the unsettled times in which she judged; see note xx. 33]. (6) And she sent [implying her authority] and called Barak [meaning 'lightning' like the Boanerges of the New Testament (Mark ii. 17), the Prince Barca (compare Matt. xxviii. 3; see note vers. 8, 9)], the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-Naphtali [Josh. xix. 37, xii. 22: a Levitical city of refuge assigned to the Gershonite Levites (xx. 7). Now Kades, on a high ridge jutting out from the hills at the western edge of the lake Huleh, the marshy basin through which Jordan passes into the sea of Merom, from which Kades lies north-west four miles distant], and said unto him, Hath not the LORD [JEHOVAH] God of Israel commanded [James v. 10: Deborah, 'the prophetess,' speaks in the name of Jehovah of Israel,' who was now about to interpose for His people against their oppressor, as formerly in Egypt], (saying), Go and draw [, proceed in a long-drawn train (xx. 27; Exod. xii. 21); the captain and warriors drawing after him] toward Mount Tabor [rising from the plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel, where Sisera's chariots would be gathered. The mountain being on the border of Zebulun, and near Issachar, would be a convenient centre to which the Israelites could muster from the north and south. Moreover, from it as from a vantage ground, they could rush down upon the Canaanites, now Jebel et Tur, a large flat-topped limestone mountain, with truncated cone, north-east of the plain of Jezreel, standing alone. On its top are the remains of ancient fortifications. The top is an oblong almost a mile in circumference], and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali, and of the children of Zebulun [i.e., gather them first, then proceed to Mount Tabor, and from that height descend upon the enemy encamped in the valley of Kishon. Kishon means bent like a bow: a torrent (nachal) perennial for eight miles; fed from sources along the whole plain of Jezreel. Now Nah'r Mukatha,

flowing north-west beneath the height Harothiyeh (Harosheth) into the bay of Acca and the Mediterranean. It is called 'that ancient river,' or torrent of the olden time, as being the scene of former battles (v. 21). The upper Kishon swells into a muddy torrent in the sudden rain storms of winter]. And I will draw [the same Hebrew as that for 'draw' in ver. 6. The people "willingly offered themselves" (ver. 3), being 'drawn' by Barak who belonged to Naphtali, a tribe prophetically famed for ability to "give goodly words" (Gen. xlix. 21). But God it was who really drew them. So spiritually (Song Sol. i. 4; John vi. 44, xii. 32)] unto thee, to the river [Nachal, 'a torrent,'] Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots, and his multitude [God by His secret providence drew Sisera to the very spot about to be fatal to him. Sisera and his forces thought they were fulfilling their own counsel; "but they knew not the thought of the Lord, neither understood they His counsel"; for He was "gathering them as the sheaves into the floor," that "the daughter of Zion" might "arise and thresh" (Mic. iv. 12, 13): type of His gathering Antichrist and his forces to their place of doom (Rev. xvi. 14, 16, xix. 19, 20; Ps. lxxxiii. 9, 10). God draws His people to their salvation (ver. 6; Josh. vi. 44): the ungodly to their destruction (1 Kings xxii. 19-23). Barak's 'ten thousand' were but a little band against Sisera's 'multitude.' But their fewness magnified the power of God (2 Chron. xiv. 11; Judg. vii. 2, 7); and I will deliver him into thine hand. (8) And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go; but if thou wilt not go with me, (then) I will not go [his faith was sincere, but weak, like the strength of a child that cannot stand alone. He leant upon a woman (Deborah) for the confirmation of his faith; therefore, though he should conquer, yet the glory of completing the victory by slaying the leader of the enemy should be not his, but that of a woman (Jael) (ver. 9, 17, &c.). God's command and promise ought to have been enough for him (ver. 6, 7). He is ranked between Gideon and Samson in the list of examples of faith in Heb. xi. 32-34]. (9) And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey [Heb. 'the way.' The

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