Judges 5:20-21

5:20 From the sky ¹  the stars ²  fought,

from their paths in the heavens ³  they fought against Sisera.

5:21 The Kishon River carried them off;

the river confronted them ⁴  – the Kishon River.

Step on the necks of the strong! ⁵ 

Joshua 10:10

10:10 The Lord routed ⁶  them before Israel. Israel ⁷  thoroughly defeated them ⁸  at Gibeon. They chased them up the road to the pass ⁹  of Beth Horon and struck them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah.

Joshua 10:2

10:2 All Jerusalem was terrified ¹⁰  because Gibeon was a large city, like one of the royal cities. It was larger than Ai and all its men were warriors.

Joshua 7:6

7:6 Joshua tore his clothes; ¹¹  he and the leaders ¹²  of Israel lay face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord until evening ¹³  and threw dirt on their heads. ¹⁴ 

Joshua 7:2

7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho ¹⁵  to Ai (which is located near Beth Aven, east of Bethel ¹⁶ ) and instructed them, “Go up and spy on the land.” So the men went up and spied on Ai.

Joshua 13:15-17

13:15 Moses assigned land to the tribe of Reuben ¹⁷  by its clans. 13:16 Their territory started at Aroer ¹⁸  (on the edge of the Arnon Valley) and included the city in the middle of the valley, the whole plain of Medeba, 13:17 Heshbon and all its surrounding cities on the plain, including Dibon, Bamoth Baal, Beth Baal Meon,

Psalms 83:9-10

83:9 Do to them as you did to Midian ¹⁹  –

as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River! ²⁰ 

83:10 They were destroyed at Endor; ²¹ 

their corpses were like manure ²²  on the ground.

Hebrews 11:32

11:32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets.

[5:20]  ¹ tn Or “from heaven.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[5:20]  ² tn The MT takes “the stars” with what follows rather than with the first colon of v. 20. But for metrical reasons it seems better to move the atnach and read the colon as indicated in the translation.

[5:20]  ³ tn The words “in the heavens” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[5:21]  ⁴ 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.

[5:21]  ⁵ 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.

[10:10]  ⁶ tn Or “caused to panic.”

[10:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “he.” The referent is probably Israel (mentioned at the end of the previous sentence in the verse; cf. NIV, NRSV), but it is also possible that the Lord should be understood as the referent (cf. NASB “and He slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon”), or even Joshua (cf. NEB “and Joshua defeated them utterly in Gibeon”).

[10:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “struck them down with a great striking down.”

[10:10]  ⁹ tn Or “ascent.”

[10:2]  ¹⁰ tn This statement is subordinated to v. 1 in the Hebrew text, which reads literally, “When Adoni-Zedek…they feared greatly.” The subject of the plural verb at the beginning of v. 2 is probably the residents of Jerusalem.

[7:6]  ¹¹ sn Tearing one’s clothes was an outward expression of extreme sorrow (see Gen 37:34; 44:13).

[7:6]  ¹² tn Or “elders.”

[7:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “and fell on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel.”

[7:6]  ¹⁴ sn Throwing dirt on one’s head was an outward expression of extreme sorrow (see Lam 2:10; Ezek 27:30).

[7:2]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[7:2]  ¹⁶ map For the location of Bethel see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[13:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “assigned to the sons of Reuben.”

[13:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “their territory was from.”

[83:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “do to them like Midian.”

[83:9]  ²⁰ 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).

[83:10]  ²¹ 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.)

[83:10]  ²² 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.