14

Song of Deborah and Barak.

20. They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

21. The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.

22. Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.

23. Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.

24. Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

25. He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.

26. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.

27. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down : at her feet he bowed, he fell where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

:

28. The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots ?

29. Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,

30. Have they not sped? have they not divided

was swollen into a torrent, which 'swept them away.' The plain was flooded and became a marsh, in which the horses floundered, and the war chariots were useless. Thus 'the stars in their courses' (that is, the elements) 'fought against Sisera.' The Canaanitish princes 'took no gain,' or booty, but had to fight for their lives.

23. Meroz was somewhere in the heart of the oppressed district. Its inhabitants probably could have cut off the enemy's retreat.

24-27. The blessing on Jael is placed in immediate contrast with the curse on the people of Meroz. We must remember here, as in the case of the wars of extermination, the very different ideas of that age (see foot-note, Part I, p. 217). Sisera, like the people of the cities which were destroyed, was slain as the enemy of the Lord. Jael was the champion of good against evil, of true against false worship. And God, as it has been said, 'allows largely for ignorance, where He finds sincerity.' 'Smote off' should rather be 'smote through his head' (R.V.).

28-31. The poem ends with a touching picture of the mother of Sisera watching for his victorious return; and a prayer for the continued destruction of the enemies of God, and the triumph of His true servants. With the latter we may compare Ps. lxviii. 1, 2: 'Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered . . . like as wax melteth at the fire, so let the ungodly perish at the presence of God 8.'

battle, as Bede relates, the river, swollen by rains, 'swept away many more in their flight than the sword had destroyed while fighting' (Bright, Early English Church History, pp. 183, 184).

A still closer parallel is found in the story, told by Plutarch, of the victory gained by Timoleon, a Greek general of Syracuse, over the Carthaginian forces under Hasdrubal and Hamilcar (B.C. 399). The battle was fought on the banks of a river in Sicily. A terrible storm of lightning, rain, and hail threw the large force of the Carthaginians into disorder. The swollen river overflowed its banks. and numbers of them were slain or drowned.

The figure of the sun, which concludes the poem, is used again in Dan xii. 3: And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.' Also by our Lord in Matt. xiii. 43: 'Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.'

16

The Call of Gideon.

the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?

31. So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.

3. HISTORY TO THE DELIVERANCE UNDER

GIDEON.

JUDGES Vi. I—vii. 18.

The next oppression is that of the Midianites1, who are joined in their invasion by the Amalekites. It lasts for seven years. They overrun the country like 'grasshoppers' or locusts, and the people are obliged to hide in 'dens and caves and strongholds 2.'

A prophet is sent to reproach the Israelites for their idolatry, which is the cause of all this suffering. Then an angel appears to the destined deliverer, Gideon, the son of Joash, living at Ophrah in western Manasseh. When told that he is to save Israel, he cannot understand that such a mission is for one so humble; and asks for some 'sign' that he is chosen of God for this work. The sign is given by the angel touching with his rod the offering of flesh and cakes which Gideon has brought, on which they are consumed by fire. The strange visitor disappears, but a voice reassures Gideon, in his terror at having seen an angel of

This deliverance is referred to in Ps. lxxxiii. 9, 10, ‘Do thou to them as unto the Madianites, unto Sisera, and unto Jabin at the brook of Kison; who perished at Endor, and became as the dung of the earth.'

Barak is also mentioned, with Gideon, Samson, and Jephthah, in Heb. xi. 32 h.

h Samuel also speaks of God 'selling' the Israelites 'into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor' (1 Sam. xii. 9). He speaks of Jerubbaal (or Gideon), Bedan, Jephthah, and himself as great deliverers (1 Sam. xii. 11). As no Bedan is mentioned among the judges, it is commonly supposed that this means Barak (see pp. 104, 105).

3. HISTORY TO THE DELIVERANCE UNDER

GIDEON.

JUDGES Vi. 1—vii. 18.

1 The Midianites proper dwelt to the south of Palestine. They were the descendants of Abraham by his last wife, Keturah (Gen. xxv. 2; 1 Chron. i. 32). The name probably includes here their allies on the east of Jordan.

We read

2 The limestone hills of Palestine are full of caves. again of the people thus hiding from the Philistines in the time of Saul (1 Sam. xiii. 6). David too hid in the cave of Adullam, where the distressed and discontented joined him (1 Sam. xxii. 1). In Heb. xi. 38 those heroes and martyrs, of whom the world was not worthy,' are described as hiding in dens and caves of the earth.'

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18

Gideon's Preparations for Battle.

the Lord face to face. He calls the place 'Jehovah-shalom,' or 'the Lord is peace.'

The same night he is ordered to throw down his father's altar of Baal, and cut down the grove, and build an altar there to Jehovah. The men of the city, when they find this has been done, clamour for his death; but Joash defends him, and reproaches them as presumptuous in taking up the cause of Baal, who can plead for himself. From this Gideon receives the name of 'Jerubbaal,' or 'let Baal strive' or 'plead *.'

Gideon now summons the men of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. He once more asks for a sign, and the sign he asks is given. A fleece of wool, placed on the ground, is first wet, when all around is dry; and, when he begs for this further proof, is found to be dry, when all around is wet 5.

He then sets out for the war, and encamps opposite the Midianites at the well of Harod, or 'trembling.' His force of 32,000 seems small beside the enemy's, who number 135,000 (Judges viii. 10). But he is told it must be reduced, that victory may be known to be from the Lord. He is ordered first to send away all that are scared by the sight of the host opposed to them, and this brings the number down to 10,000. Then the rash, who throw themselves on the ground to drink, are dismissed; while those only, 300 in number, who lap the water from their hands, are retained. With this small force Gideon is told he shall vanquish the Midianites,

Another assurance of success is given him. He is bidden to go that night, with his armour-bearer Phurah, into the camp of the Midianites. There he hears one soldier tell another of a dream he has had, in which he saw a cake of barley bread roll into the Midianitish camp and throw down 'the tent" (R.V.). The other answers that this must be 'the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash,' into whose hand 'the Lord has delivered Midian.'

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He now prepares for the attack, dividing his 300 into three companies to surround the camp, and arming every man with a trumpet, a pitcher, and a 'lamp,' or torch within the pitcher.