Text -- Judges 4:1-5 (NET)

Deborah Summons Barak

4:1 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight after Ehud’s death. 4:2 The Lord turned them over to King Jabin of Canaan, who ruled in Hazor. The general of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. 4:3 The Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, because Sisera had nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels, and he cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. 4:4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 4:5 She would sit under the Date Palm Tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites would come up to her to have their disputes settled.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jdg 4:1

¹ tn Heb “did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

NET Notes: Jdg 4:2

¹ tn Heb “the Lord sold them into the hands of.”

² tn Or “King Jabin of Hazor, a Canaanite ruler.”

map For location see Map1 D2; Map2 D3; Map3 A2; Map4 C1.

³ tn Or “Harosheth of the Pagan Nations”; cf. KJV “Harosheth of the Gentiles.”

NET Notes: Jdg 4:3

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sisera) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Regarding the translation “chariots with iron-rimmed wheels,” see Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, 255, and the article by R. Drews, “The ‘Chariots of Iron’ of Joshua and Judges,” JSOT 45 (1989): 15-23.

³ tn Heb “with strength.”

NET Notes: Jdg 4:4

¹ tn Heb “ a woman, a prophetess.” In Hebrew idiom the generic “woman” sometimes precedes the more specific designation. See GKC 437-38 §135.b.

² tn Heb “she was.” The pronoun refers back to the nominative absolute “Deborah.” Hebrew style sometimes employs such resumptive pronouns when lengthy qualifiers separate the subject from the verb.

³ tn Or “judging.”

NET Notes: Jdg 4:5

¹ tn That is, “consider legal disputes.”

² map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

³ tn Heb “for judgment.”