4:1 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight 1 after Ehud’s death. 4:2 The Lord turned them over to 2 King Jabin of Canaan, who ruled in Hazor. 3 The general of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. 4 4:3 The Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, because Sisera 5 had nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels, 6 and he cruelly 7 oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.
4:4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, 8 wife of Lappidoth, was 9 leading 10 Israel at that time.
1 tn Heb “did evil in the eyes of the
2 tn Heb “the
3 tn Or “King Jabin of Hazor, a Canaanite ruler.”
4 tn Or “Harosheth of the Pagan Nations”; cf. KJV “Harosheth of the Gentiles.”
3 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sisera) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 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.
5 tn Heb “with strength.”
4 tn Heb “ a woman, a prophetess.” In Hebrew idiom the generic “woman” sometimes precedes the more specific designation. See GKC 437-38 §135.b.
5 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.
6 tn Or “judging.”