5:21 The Kishon River carried them off;
the river confronted them 1 – the Kishon River.
Step on the necks of the strong! 2
5:1 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this victory song: 3
18:1 In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the Danite tribe was looking for a place 4 to settle, because at that time they did not yet have a place to call their own among the tribes of Israel. 5
83:9 Do to them as you did to Midian 6 –
as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River! 7
83:10 They were destroyed at Endor; 8
their corpses were like manure 9 on the ground.
1 tn Possibly “the ancient river,” but it seems preferable in light of the parallel line (which has a verb) to emend the word (attested only here) to a verb (קָדַם, qadam) with pronominal object suffix.
2 tn This line is traditionally taken as the poet-warrior’s self-exhortation, “March on, my soul, in strength!” The present translation (a) takes the verb (a second feminine singular form) as addressed to Deborah (cf. v. 12), (b) understands נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) in its well-attested sense of “throat; neck” (cf. Jonah 2:6), (c) takes the final yod (י) on נַפְשִׁי (nafshiy) as an archaic construct indicator (rather than a suffix), and (d) interprets עֹז (’oz, “strength”) as an attributive genitive (literally, “necks of strength,” i.e., “strong necks”). For fuller discussion and various proposals, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 270-71.
3 tn The words “this victory song” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
4 tn Heb “an inheritance.”
5 tn Heb “because there had not fallen to them by that day in the midst of the tribes of Israel an inheritance.”
6 tn Heb “do to them like Midian.”
7 sn The psalmist alludes here to Gideon’s victory over the Midianites (see Judg 7-8) and to Barak’s victory over Jabin’s army, which was led by his general Sisera (Judg 4-5).
8 sn Endor is not mentioned in the accounts of Gideon’s or Barak’s victories, but both battles took place in the general vicinity of the town. (See Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-Yonah, The Macmillan Bible Atlas, 46, 54.) Because Sisera and Jabin are mentioned in v. 9b, many understand them to be the subject of the verbs in v. 10, though they relate v. 10 to Gideon’s victory, which is referred to in v. 9a, 11. (See, for example, Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 263.)
9 tn Heb “they were manure.” In addition to this passage, corpses are compared to manure in 2 Kgs 9:37; Jer 8:2; 9:21; 16:4; 25:33.