Saturday, January 24, 2004
Judges 4-5 -- the Song of Deborah
Judges 4-5 is the story of Israel's defeat of the Canaanite oppressor led by by Sisera, who
Judges 4:3 had nine hundred chariots of iron, and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly twenty years.
by Barak the military leader of Israel at the orders of the prophetess Deborah,
In chapter 5, Deborah sings a victory song (recall the Song of Miriam celebrating YHWH's deliverance at the Red Sea, Exodus 15) which recounts the events told in the prose narrative but with numerous differences.
According to the Jewish Study Bible, "Many scholars believe that the story was composed as an interpretation of the song: Stylistically, the song is in archaic heb, and is extremely difficult...." The most striking difference between the (later?) prose interpretation and Deborah's song is that the prose credit the warriors' swords in effecting God's deliverance:
NAU Judges 4:15 The LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak;
This is unique in the Bible; nowhere else does God use human agency in throwing his enemies into panic. In the song, the warrior's swords are not mentioned. Instead, the fight is God's alone:
Then the kings came, they fought:
The kings of Canaan fought
At Taanach, by Megiddo's waters --
They got no spoil of silver.
The stars fought from heaven,
From their courses they fought against Sisera.
The torrent Kishon swept them away,
The raging torrent, the torrent Kishon.
March on, my soul, with courage!
(TNK Judges 5:19-21)
Of course, the most memorable part of this story cycle is that Sisera fled from this battle by Megiddo's waters and sought refuge in the tent of his ally Heber the Kennite. There, his wife Jael, greeted him
Judges 4:18 Jael came out to meet Sisera, and said to him, "Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear."
and then, when (according to the prose narrative) Sisera is sleeping, she hammers a tent peg through his temple. In the song, this is the only human fighting, and no mention is made of Sisera being asleep:
Most blessed of women be Jael,
Wife of Heber the Kenite,
Most blessed of women in tents.
He asked for water, she offered milk;
In a princely bowl she brought him curds.
Her left hand reached for the tent pin,
Her right for the workmen's hammer.
She struck Sisera, crushed his head,
Smashed and pierced his temple.
At her feet he sank, lay outstretched,
At her feet he sank, lay still;
Where he sank, there he lay -- destroyed.
(TNK Judges 5:24-27)
The Song of Deborah is a classic expression of the theology of divine warfare. God hears the cry of his people. Because of the oppression of the Canaanite kings, commerce had been destroyed in the land and people were no longer felt safe to live in unfortified cities:
In the days of Jael, the highways were deserted,
And travelers went by roundabout ways.
The peasantry ceased,
they ceased in Israel,
Until I, Deborah, arose,
Until I arose, a mother in Israel.
(NAU Judges 5:6-7)
God is intensely interested in the peace (shalom) of the peasantry and their ability to engage in ordinary commerce. This is not mentioned in the prose narrative, but Deborah sings of it – a sign that she was a leader in touch with both her people and with God. And in her song, it was not through the strength of the men of Barak’s army, but through the strength of the stars who fought in heaven and the torrents that flowed on earth, that the Lord defeated the 900 iron chariots of the oppressor. Where Deborah does sing of a human agent of deliverance, it was the hand of a woman, and a non-Israelite at that.
Judges 5:31b And the land had rest forty years.
Judges 4:3 had nine hundred chariots of iron, and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly twenty years.
by Barak the military leader of Israel at the orders of the prophetess Deborah,
In chapter 5, Deborah sings a victory song (recall the Song of Miriam celebrating YHWH's deliverance at the Red Sea, Exodus 15) which recounts the events told in the prose narrative but with numerous differences.
According to the Jewish Study Bible, "Many scholars believe that the story was composed as an interpretation of the song: Stylistically, the song is in archaic heb, and is extremely difficult...." The most striking difference between the (later?) prose interpretation and Deborah's song is that the prose credit the warriors' swords in effecting God's deliverance:
NAU Judges 4:15 The LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak;
This is unique in the Bible; nowhere else does God use human agency in throwing his enemies into panic. In the song, the warrior's swords are not mentioned. Instead, the fight is God's alone:
Then the kings came, they fought:
The kings of Canaan fought
At Taanach, by Megiddo's waters --
They got no spoil of silver.
The stars fought from heaven,
From their courses they fought against Sisera.
The torrent Kishon swept them away,
The raging torrent, the torrent Kishon.
March on, my soul, with courage!
(TNK Judges 5:19-21)
Of course, the most memorable part of this story cycle is that Sisera fled from this battle by Megiddo's waters and sought refuge in the tent of his ally Heber the Kennite. There, his wife Jael, greeted him
Judges 4:18 Jael came out to meet Sisera, and said to him, "Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear."
and then, when (according to the prose narrative) Sisera is sleeping, she hammers a tent peg through his temple. In the song, this is the only human fighting, and no mention is made of Sisera being asleep:
Most blessed of women be Jael,
Wife of Heber the Kenite,
Most blessed of women in tents.
He asked for water, she offered milk;
In a princely bowl she brought him curds.
Her left hand reached for the tent pin,
Her right for the workmen's hammer.
She struck Sisera, crushed his head,
Smashed and pierced his temple.
At her feet he sank, lay outstretched,
At her feet he sank, lay still;
Where he sank, there he lay -- destroyed.
(TNK Judges 5:24-27)
The Song of Deborah is a classic expression of the theology of divine warfare. God hears the cry of his people. Because of the oppression of the Canaanite kings, commerce had been destroyed in the land and people were no longer felt safe to live in unfortified cities:
In the days of Jael, the highways were deserted,
And travelers went by roundabout ways.
The peasantry ceased,
they ceased in Israel,
Until I, Deborah, arose,
Until I arose, a mother in Israel.
(NAU Judges 5:6-7)
God is intensely interested in the peace (shalom) of the peasantry and their ability to engage in ordinary commerce. This is not mentioned in the prose narrative, but Deborah sings of it – a sign that she was a leader in touch with both her people and with God. And in her song, it was not through the strength of the men of Barak’s army, but through the strength of the stars who fought in heaven and the torrents that flowed on earth, that the Lord defeated the 900 iron chariots of the oppressor. Where Deborah does sing of a human agent of deliverance, it was the hand of a woman, and a non-Israelite at that.
Judges 5:31b And the land had rest forty years.
