Judges 4:1

Deborah Summons Barak

4:1 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight ¹  after Ehud’s death.

Judges 4:3-24

4:3 The Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, because Sisera ²  had nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels, ³  and he cruelly ⁴  oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

4:4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, ⁵  wife of Lappidoth, was ⁶  leading ⁷  Israel at that time. 4:5 She would sit ⁸  under the Date Palm Tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel ⁹  in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites would come up to her to have their disputes settled. ¹⁰ 

4:6 She summoned ¹¹  Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, “Is it not true that the Lord God of Israel is commanding you? Go, march to Mount Tabor! Take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun! 4:7 I will bring Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to you at the Kishon River, along with his chariots and huge army. ¹²  I will hand him over to you.” 4:8 Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go. But if you do not go with me, I will not go.” 4:9 She said, “I will indeed go with you. But you will not gain fame ¹³  on the expedition you are undertaking, ¹⁴  for the Lord will turn Sisera over to a woman.” ¹⁵  Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. 4:10 Barak summoned men from Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. Ten thousand men followed him; ¹⁶  Deborah went up with him as well. 4:11 Now Heber the Kenite had moved away ¹⁷  from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law. He lived ¹⁸  near the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.

4:12 When Sisera heard ¹⁹  that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 4:13 he ²⁰  ordered ²¹  all his chariotry – nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels – and all the troops he had with him to go from Harosheth-Haggoyim to the River Kishon. 4:14 Deborah said to Barak, “Spring into action, ²²  for this is the day the Lord is handing Sisera over to you! ²³  Has the Lord not taken the lead?” ²⁴  Barak quickly went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. 4:15 The Lord routed ²⁵  Sisera, all his chariotry, and all his army with the edge of the sword. ²⁶  Sisera jumped out of ²⁷  his chariot and ran away on foot. 4:16 Now Barak chased the chariots and the army all the way to Harosheth Haggoyim. Sisera’s whole army died ²⁸  by the edge of the sword; not even one survived! ²⁹ 

4:17 Now Sisera ran away on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, for King Jabin of Hazor ³⁰  and the family of Heber the Kenite had made a peace treaty. ³¹  4:18 Jael came out to welcome Sisera. She said to him, “Stop and rest, ³²  my lord. Stop and rest with me. Don’t be afraid.” So Sisera ³³  stopped to rest in her tent, and she put a blanket over him. 4:19 He said to her, “Give me a little water to drink, because I’m thirsty.” She opened a goatskin container of milk and gave him some milk to drink. Then she covered him up again. 4:20 He said to her, “Stand watch at the entrance to the tent. If anyone comes along and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ say ‘No.’” 4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. ³⁴  She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground ³⁵  while he was asleep from exhaustion, ³⁶  and he died. 4:22 Now Barak was chasing Sisera. Jael went out to welcome him. She said to him, “Come here and I will show you the man you are searching for.” He went with her into the tent, ³⁷  and there he saw Sisera sprawled out dead ³⁸  with the tent peg in his temple.

4:23 That day God humiliated King Jabin of Canaan before the Israelites. 4:24 Israel’s power continued to overwhelm ³⁹  King Jabin of Canaan until they did away with ⁴⁰  him. ⁴¹ 

Judges 10:7

10:7 The Lord was furious with Israel ⁴²  and turned them over to ⁴³  the Philistines and Ammonites.

Judges 10:17

An Outcast Becomes a General

10:17 The Ammonites assembled ⁴⁴  and camped in Gilead; the Israelites gathered together and camped in Mizpah.

Judges 11:4-33

11:4 It was some time after this when the Ammonites fought with Israel. 11:5 When the Ammonites attacked, ⁴⁵  the leaders ⁴⁶  of Gilead asked Jephthah to come back ⁴⁷  from the land of Tob. 11:6 They said, ⁴⁸  “Come, be our commander, so we can fight with the Ammonites.” 11:7 Jephthah said to the leaders of Gilead, “But you hated me and made me leave ⁴⁹  my father’s house. Why do you come to me now, when you are in trouble?” 11:8 The leaders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That may be true, ⁵⁰  but now we pledge to you our loyalty. ⁵¹  Come with us and fight with the Ammonites. Then you will become the leader ⁵²  of all who live in Gilead.” ⁵³  11:9 Jephthah said to the leaders of Gilead, “All right! ⁵⁴  If you take me back to fight with the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me, ⁵⁵  I will be your leader.” ⁵⁶  11:10 The leaders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord will judge any grievance you have against us, ⁵⁷  if we do not do as you say.” ⁵⁸  11:11 So Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead. The people made him their leader and commander. Jephthah repeated the terms of the agreement ⁵⁹  before the Lord in Mizpah.

Jephthah Gives a History Lesson

11:12 Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king, saying, “Why have ⁶⁰  you come against me to attack my land?” 11:13 The Ammonite king said to Jephthah’s messengers, “Because Israel stole ⁶¹  my land when they ⁶²  came up from Egypt – from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north, and as far west as the Jordan. ⁶³  Now return it ⁶⁴  peaceably!”

11:14 Jephthah sent messengers back to the Ammonite king 11:15 and said to him, “This is what Jephthah says, ‘Israel did not steal ⁶⁵  the land of Moab and the land of the Ammonites. 11:16 When they left ⁶⁶  Egypt, Israel traveled ⁶⁷  through the desert as far as the Red Sea and then came to Kadesh. 11:17 Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please allow us ⁶⁸  to pass through your land.” But the king of Edom rejected the request. ⁶⁹  Israel sent the same request to the king of Moab, but he was unwilling to cooperate. ⁷⁰  So Israel stayed at Kadesh. 11:18 Then Israel ⁷¹  went through the desert and bypassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They traveled east of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon River; ⁷²  they did not go through Moabite territory (the Arnon was Moab’s border). 11:19 Israel sent messengers to King Sihon, the Amorite king who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, “Please allow us to pass through your land to our land.” ⁷³  11:20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He ⁷⁴  assembled his whole army, ⁷⁵  camped in Jahaz, and fought with Israel. 11:21 The Lord God of Israel handed Sihon and his whole army over to Israel and they defeated them. Israel took ⁷⁶  all the land of the Amorites who lived in that land. 11:22 They took all the Amorite territory from the Arnon River on the south to the Jabbok River on the north, from the desert in the east to the Jordan in the west. ⁷⁷  11:23 Since ⁷⁸  the Lord God of Israel has driven out ⁷⁹  the Amorites before his people Israel, do you think you can just take it from them? ⁸⁰  11:24 You have the right to take what Chemosh your god gives you, but we will take the land of all whom the Lord our God has driven out before us. ⁸¹  11:25 Are you really better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he dare to quarrel with Israel? Did he dare to fight with them? ⁸²  11:26 Israel has been living in Heshbon and its nearby towns, in Aroer and its nearby towns, and in all the cities along the Arnon for three hundred years! Why did you not reclaim them during that time? 11:27 I have not done you wrong, ⁸³  but you are doing wrong ⁸⁴  by attacking me. May the Lord, the Judge, judge this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites!’” 11:28 But the Ammonite king disregarded ⁸⁵  the message sent by Jephthah. ⁸⁶ 

A Foolish Vow Spells Death for a Daughter

11:29 The Lord’s spirit empowered ⁸⁷  Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh and went ⁸⁸  to Mizpah in Gilead. From there he approached the Ammonites. ⁸⁹  11:30 Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, saying, “If you really do hand the Ammonites over to me, 11:31 then whoever is the first to come through ⁹⁰  the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from fighting the Ammonites – he ⁹¹  will belong to the Lord and ⁹²  I will offer him up as a burnt sacrifice.” 11:32 Jephthah approached ⁹³  the Ammonites to fight with them, and the Lord handed them over to him. 11:33 He defeated them from Aroer all the way to Minnith – twenty cities in all, even as far as Abel Keramim! He wiped them out! ⁹⁴  The Israelites humiliated the Ammonites. ⁹⁵ 

Judges 11:1

11:1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a brave warrior. His mother was a prostitute, but Gilead was his father. ⁹⁶ 

Judges 4:1

Deborah Summons Barak

4:1 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight ⁹⁷  after Ehud’s death.

[4:1]  ¹ tn Heb “did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

[4:3]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sisera) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:3]  ³ 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.

[4:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “with strength.”

[4:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “ a woman, a prophetess.” In Hebrew idiom the generic “woman” sometimes precedes the more specific designation. See GKC 437-38 §135.b.

[4:4]  ⁶ 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.

[4:4]  ⁷ tn Or “judging.”

[4:5]  ⁸ tn That is, “consider legal disputes.”

[4:5]  ⁹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[4:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for judgment.”

[4:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sent and summoned.”

[4:7]  ¹² tn Heb “horde”; “multitude.”

[4:9]  ¹³ tn Or “honor.”

[4:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “on [account of (?)] the way which you are walking.” Another option is to translate, “due to the way you are going about this.” In this case direct reference is made to Barak’s hesitancy as the reason for his loss of glory.

[4:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for into the hands of a woman the Lord will sell Sisera.”

[4:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “went up at his feet.”

[4:11]  ¹⁷ tn Or “separated.”

[4:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “pitched his tent.”

[4:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and they told Sisera.”

[4:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Sisera.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[4:13]  ²¹ tn Or “summoned.”

[4:14]  ²² tn Heb “Arise!”

[4:14]  ²³ tn The verb form (a Hebrew perfect, indicating completed action from the standpoint of the speaker) emphasizes the certainty of the event. Though it had not yet taken place, the Lord speaks of it as a “done deal.”

[4:14]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Has the Lord not gone out before you?”

[4:15]  ²⁵ tn Or “caused to panic.”

[4:15]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew text also includes the phrase “before Barak.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[4:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “got down from.”

[4:16]  ²⁸ tn Heb “fell.”

[4:16]  ²⁹ tn Heb “was left.”

[4:17]  ³⁰ map For location see Map1 D2; Map2 D3; Map3 A2; Map4 C1.

[4:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “for there was peace between.”

[4:18]  ³² tn Heb “Turn aside” (also a second time later in this verse).

[4:18]  ³³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sisera) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:21]  ³⁴ tn Heb “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”

[4:21]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”

[4:21]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and exhausted.” Another option is to understand this as a reference to the result of the fatal blow. In this case, the phrase could be translated, “and he breathed his last.”

[4:22]  ³⁷ tn Heb “he went to her.”

[4:22]  ³⁸ tn Heb “fallen, dead.”

[4:24]  ³⁹ tn Heb “The hand of the Israelites became more and more severe against.”

[4:24]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “cut off.”

[4:24]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Jabin king of Canaan.” The proper name and title have been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[10:7]  ⁴² tn Or “the Lord’s anger burned [or “raged”] against Israel.”

[10:7]  ⁴³ tn Heb “sold them into the hands of.”

[10:17]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “were summoned;” or “were mustered.”

[11:5]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “When the Ammonites fought with Israel.”

[11:5]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “elders.”

[11:5]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “went to take Jephthah.”

[11:6]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “to Jephthah.”

[11:7]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “Did you not hate me and make me leave?”

[11:8]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “therefore”; “even so.” For MT לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) the LXX has an opposite reading, “not so,” which seems to be based on the Hebrew words לֹא כֵן (lo’ khen).

[11:8]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “we have returned to you.” For another example of שׁוּב אֶל (shuv ’el) in the sense of “give allegiance to,” see 1 Kgs 12:27b.

[11:8]  ⁵² sn Then you will become the leader. The leaders of Gilead now use the word רֹאשׁ (ro’sh, “head, leader”), the same term that appeared in their original, general offer (see 10:18). In their initial offer to Jephthah they had simply invited him to be their קָצִין (qatsin, “commander”; v. 6). When he resists they must offer him a more attractive reward – rulership over the region. See R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 198.

[11:8]  ⁵³ tn Heb “leader of us and all who live in Gilead.”

[11:9]  ⁵⁴ tn “All right” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[11:9]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “places them before me.”

[11:9]  ⁵⁶ tn Some translate the final statement as a question, “will I really be your leader?” An affirmative sentence is preferable. Jephthah is repeating the terms of the agreement in an official manner. In v. 10 the leaders legally agree to these terms.

[11:10]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “The Lord will be the one who hears between us.” For the idiom שָׁמַע בַּיִן (shama’ bayin, “to hear between”), see Deut 1:16.

[11:10]  ⁵⁸ sn The Lord will judge…if we do not do as you say. The statement by the leaders of Gilead takes the form of a legally binding oath, which obligates them to the terms of the agreement.

[11:11]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “spoke all his words.” This probably refers to the “words” recorded in v. 9. Jephthah repeats the terms of the agreement at the Lord’s sanctuary, perhaps to ratify the contract or to emphasize the Gileadites’ obligation to keep their part of the bargain. Another option is to translate, “Jephthah conducted business before the Lord in Mizpah.” In this case, the statement is a general reference to the way Jephthah ruled. He recognized the Lord’s authority and made his decisions before the Lord.

[11:12]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “What to me and to you that…?”

[11:13]  ⁶¹ tn Or “took”; or “seized.”

[11:13]  ⁶² tn Heb “he” (a collective singular).

[11:13]  ⁶³ tn Heb “from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan.” The word “River” has been supplied in the translation with “Arnon” and “Jabbok,” because these are less familiar to modern readers than the Jordan.

[11:13]  ⁶⁴ tc The translation assumes a singular suffix (“[return] it”); the Hebrew text has a plural suffix (“[return] them”), which, if retained, might refer to the cities of the land.

[11:15]  ⁶⁵ tn Or “take”; or “seize.”

[11:16]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “For when they went up from.”

[11:16]  ⁶⁷ tn Or “went.”

[11:17]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “me.” (Collective Israel is the speaker.)

[11:17]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “did not listen.”

[11:17]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “Also to the king of Moab he sent, but he was unwilling.”

[11:18]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Israel; the pronoun in the Hebrew text represents a collective singular) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:18]  ⁷² tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[11:19]  ⁷³ tn Heb “to my place.”

[11:20]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “Sihon.” The proper name (“Sihon”) has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) because of English style; a repetition of the proper name here would be redundant in English.

[11:20]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “all his people” (also in the following verse).

[11:21]  ⁷⁶ tn That is, took as its own possession.

[11:22]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the desert to the Jordan.” The word “River” has been supplied in the translation with “Arnon” and “Jabbok,” because these are less familiar to modern readers than the Jordan.

[11:23]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “Now.”

[11:23]  ⁷⁹ tn Or “dispossessed.”

[11:23]  ⁸⁰ tn Heb “will you dispossess him [i.e., Israel; or possibly “it,” i.e., the territory]?” There is no interrogative marker in the Hebrew text.

[11:24]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “Is it not so that what Chemosh your god causes you to possess, you possess, and all whom the Lord our God dispossesses before us we will possess?” Jephthah speaks of Chemosh as if he is on a par with the Lord God of Israel. This does not necessarily mean that Jephthah is polytheistic or that he recognizes the Lord as only a local deity. He may simply be assuming the Ammonite king’s perspective for the sake of argument. Other texts, as well as the extrabiblical Mesha inscription, associate Chemosh with Moab, while Milcom is identified as the god of the Ammonites. Why then does Jephthah refer to Chemosh as the Ammonite god? Ammon had likely conquered Moab and the Ammonite king probably regarded himself as heir of all territory formerly held by Moab. Originally Moab had owned the disputed territory (cf. Num 21:26-29), meaning that Chemosh was regarded as the god of the region (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 203-4). Jephthah argues that Chemosh had long ago relinquished claim to the area (by allowing Sihon to conquer it), while the Lord had long ago established jurisdiction over it (by taking it from Sihon and giving it to Israel). Both sides should abide by the decisions of the gods which had stood firm for three hundred years.

[11:25]  ⁸² tn The Hebrew grammatical constructions of all three rhetorical questions indicate emphasis, which “really” and “dare to” are intended to express in the translation.

[11:27]  ⁸³ tn Or “sinned against you.”

[11:27]  ⁸⁴ tn Or “evil.”

[11:28]  ⁸⁵ tn Heb “did not listen to.”

[11:28]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “Jephthah’s words which he sent to him.”

[11:29]  ⁸⁷ tn Heb “was on.”

[11:29]  ⁸⁸ tn Heb “passed through.”

[11:29]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “From Mizpah in Gilead he passed through [to] the Ammonites.”

[11:31]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “the one coming out, who comes out from.” The text uses a masculine singular participle with prefixed article, followed by a relative pronoun and third masculine singular verb. The substantival masculine singular participle הַיּוֹצֵא (hayyotse’, “the one coming out”) is used elsewhere of inanimate objects (such as a desert [Num 21:13] or a word [Num 32:24]) or persons (Jer 5:6; 21:9; 38:2). In each case context must determine the referent. Jephthah may have envisioned an animal meeting him, since the construction of Iron Age houses would allow for an animal coming through the doors of a house (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 208). But the fact that he actually does offer up his daughter indicates the language of the vow is fluid enough to encompass human beings, including women. He probably intended such an offering from the very beginning, but he obviously did not expect his daughter to meet him first.

[11:31]  ⁹¹ tn The language is fluid enough to include women and perhaps even animals, but the translation uses the masculine pronoun because the Hebrew form is grammatically masculine.

[11:31]  ⁹² tn Some translate “or,” suggesting that Jephthah makes a distinction between humans and animals. According to this view, if a human comes through the door, then Jephthah will commit him/her to the Lord’s service, but if an animal comes through the doors, he will offer it up as a sacrifice. However, it is far more likely that the Hebrew construction (vav [ו] + perfect) specifies how the subject will become the Lord’s, that is, by being offered up as a sacrifice. For similar constructions, where the apodosis of a conditional sentence has at least two perfects (each with vav) in sequence, see Gen 34:15-16; Exod 18:16.

[11:32]  ⁹³ tn Heb “passed over to.”

[11:33]  ⁹⁴ tn Heb “with a very great slaughter.”

[11:33]  ⁹⁵ tn Heb “The Ammonites were humbled before the Israelites.”

[11:1]  ⁹⁶ tn Heb “Now he was the son of a woman, a prostitute, and Gilead fathered Jephthah.”

[4:1]  ⁹⁷ tn Heb “did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”