ARTICLE VI.

THE SONG OF DEBORAH-JUDGES, CHAPTER V.1

By R. D. C. Robbins, Professor in Middlebury College.

Introductory Historical Notices.

THE time of the rule of the Judges is an interesting portion of Biblical history. The wanderings of the Israelites had at length ended. The Lord had dried up the waters, so that "the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan," until all Israel had passed over, "that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord that it is mighty." The passover had been eaten in the plains of Jericho. There was no longer occasion for manna to descend for the sustenance of the multitudes of Israel, for they were now fed from the fruits of the Promised Land. The walled city had fallen before the compassing of the ark of the Lord, the sound of the trumpet and the shouting of the people, so that they went without hindrance and took the city, and devoted the "silver and the gold and the vessels of brass and iron" to the treasury of the Lord. Divers kings of the mountains and valleys, of the north and the south, with all their hosts, "as the sand that is upon the seashore in multitude," had disappeared from before the face of the children of Israel, because the Lord God of Israel fought for them. Thus the land, as the promise had been made to Moses, was subdued, and given for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by tribes; and the land rested from war. So, says the historian: "There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass."

1 The works most consulted in the preparation of this Article are: Das Triumphlied Debora's, nach dem gründlich revidirten hebräischen Text auf's neue übersetzt, eingeleitet und erklärt. Von Johannes V. Gumpach, Heidelberg, 1852; Das Bucher Richter, Erklärt von Ernst Bertheau, Leipzig, 1845; Commentarius Philologico-criticus in Carmen Deborae, Judg. V. Georgius Hermannus Hollmann; and several of the commentators upon the Old Testament, especially Maurer and Rosenmüller. The very able Article of Dr. Robinson in the Biblical Repository, Vol. I., has also been occasionally referred to.

The time had arrived when a new trial awaited the chosen people of God. Moses had, sometime previously, ascended the mount and caught a distant view of the Land of Promise, and departed to his rest, and the people wept for him. But he "had laid his hands upon" Joshua, the son of Nun, who “was full of the spirit of wisdom," and, according to his promise, God was with him as he had been with Moses, and prospered him, so that no man was able to stand before him. "Now it came to pass, a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age." Still, very much land was yet to be possessed, and the leader could not resign his office without words of encourage. ment and admonition to those before whom he had so long ministered, and in whose sight "the Lord had magnified him." He was not insensible to the danger that awaited his flock, when he should be taken from them. They had long been accustomed to rely upon him and his predecessor for counsel and guidance. But now they were to have the trial of depending only upon their unseen king and leader. The indications of their willingness to be led into idolatry by the surrounding nations was fresh in his mind. He, therefore, " called for all Israel, and for their elders and for their heads and for their judges and for their offiHe first referred to the goodness of God in fighting for them, and driving out great nations and strong, and enabling one man to chase a thousand, so that no man had been able to stand before them. In this they were reminded that they had the proof of God's willingness to perform fully the promise that he had made them, of the entire possession of the land of their inheritance.

The condition of the promise was, indeed, what he specially wished to inculcate upon them at this time. It had been specifically stated, that they were not to sit supinely down and expect that their enemies would disappear as by magic; but that, if they would not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before them, then they should become "pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides;" and, moreover, that the Lord would do to them as he thought to do unto their enemies. Joshua, accordingly, dwells upon the necessity of their not having part nor lot with the remnant of the idolaters of the land, of their avoiding inter

1 Numbers 33: 55, 56.

marriage or alliance with them, and the serving or bowing them. selves to, or even mentioning the names of, their deities. He faithfully admonishes them as he is just going the way of all the earth, that, as surely as all the promised good has previously been lavished upon them, so, if they are unfaithful and transgress the covenant of the Lord their God, and serve the god of the nations, his anger shall be kindled against them, and he will bring upon them all evil things, until he shall have utterly destroyed them from off the land.1

The people responded to this admonition in all sincerity, and with full purpose of heart to serve only the Lord God and obey only his voice. "God forbid," they exclaim, "that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods," for he it was who rescued us from bondage in Egypt, who appeared for us in signs and wonders, fed us in the wilderness, protected us from the nations through whose territory we passed, divided the waters for our passage over Jordan, and more recently drove out the nations from our promised inheritance and gave it to us by lot. Surely we, too, as well as you, will choose the Lord and serve only him. In order to make the promise more binding and induce a remembrance of their covenant on the part of the people, Joshua caused the words of the promise to be recorded in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord, and said: Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us; it shall, therefore, be a witness unto you, lest you deny your God." "

The result soon proved that the solicitude of Joshua was not uncalled for. As the object for which Moses and Joshua had been raised up and entrusted with supreme authority had now been accomplished, it was the Divine purpose that the Israelites should fall back into the original theocratic rule, in order to exhibit more clearly the Divine goodness and human depravity. The elders (p), the paternal chiefs of the tribes now again resumed, in a good degree, their primitive authority, though it may be supposed that the office of " rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, rulers of tens," as appointed by Moses, was still retained. It should seem, however, that it was not always filled with "able men, such as feared God, men of

1 Joshua 23: 6 seq.

2 Joshua 24: 26, 27.

8 Exodus 3: 16.

"1

truth and hating covetousness." The Israelites were again a number of separate tribes or clans, with their own separate rulers and internal organization, yet they did not cease to form one general community, as far as related to objects pertaining to the well-being of all. For we read that after the death of Joshua, "the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first to fight them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up."

But even so soon, distrust seems to have begun to creep over them; for instead of going with full confidence that God would, as he promised, deliver the land into their hand, Judah asked his brother Simeon to take part with him. This he readily did, and the Lord, overlooking the want of confidence in himself, delivered the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands. When they afterwards went against the Canaanites "that dwelt in the mountains and in the south and in the valley," "they drove out the inhabitants of the mountains, but they drove not out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron."5 Many other of the heathen nations, too, were allowed to retain their possessions in the midst of the children of Israel, and become tributary to them. Thus, before two generations had passed, the solemn promise made to Joshua was repeatedly for gotten, and the injunctions so often made were violated. The angel of the Lord' accordingly was sent to lift up a warning voice against those who had forgotten the deliverances which the Lord made for Israel, and the oaths which their fathers had taken, and had followed other gods, even the gods of the people whom they had spared in their midst, contrary to the repeated injunctions of him who was now their ruler, as also of their fathers in a former generation. But still they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies." Everywhere the hand of the Lord was against them, as he had forewarned them it should be, and they were troubled on every side."

God could not yet wholly give up his disobedient and idolatrous people, but he raised up judges for them, and delivered them, by their aid, out of the hands of their enemies. Still they would not listen to the judges, to avoid disobedience, but went again and again after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them. Thus God gave them into the hand of the king of Mesopotamia, and they served him eight years, until God listened to the cry of their suffering and raised up a judge and deliverer, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother."' The spirit of the Lord rested upon him and he judged Israel, and went out to war, and prevailed and delivered Israel.

After another forty years' rest,' God again delivered up his dis obedient subjects, and even strengthened Eglon, king of Moab, so that he smote Israel, and retained them in subjection eighteen years. They were delivered by Ehud, a Benjamite, soon again to become subject in part to the Philistines, from whom they were delivered by Shamgar.*

But the stiff-necked and rebellious nation did not yet learn obedience; for it is said: they again did evil in the sight of the Lord after the death of Ehud, and the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who, with his nine hundred chariots of iron, and his hosts of horsemen and footmen, under Sisera, mightily oppressed the children of Israel. But they

again cried in their distress unto God," and he provided a deliverer. A woman, Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, judged Israel at this time, and the people went up to her for

1 Judges 3: 8 seq.

2 Judges 3: 11.

Judges 3: 15 seq. Josephus's words are very significant in respect to this bondage and its causes: When Othniel was dead, the affairs of the Israelites fell again into disorder; and while they neither paid to God the honor due to him nor were obedient to the laws, their afflictions increased, till Eglon, king of the Moabites, did so greatly despise them on account of the disorders of their politi. cal government, that he made war upon them, and overcame them in several battles,... subdued their army and ordered them to pay tribute.... He (after ward) omitted no method whereby he might distress them, etc.— - Whiston's Josephus, 5. 4. 1.

Judges 3:31. Some of the judges, all perhaps, seem to have belonged more especially to a part of the nation, as Shamgar to the part bordering on the Philistines, Deborah to the more northern tribes, etc. Cf. Ewald, Gesch. Israels, B. II. S. 475 seq.

Josephus says: "he had in pay three hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand horsemen."—5. 4. 1.

• Judges 4: 1, 2.

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7 Judges 4: 3.