Judges
Chapter 5
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Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
A dotted word is a harder one. Point at it, or tap it, for a short definition.
1Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying,
2When leaders led in Israel, when the people volunteered, bless God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary..
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- Translation
Peraot can be read as leaders, or as hair let loose. This draft prints leaders.
3Hear, kings. Give ear, rulers. I, to God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., I will sing. I will make music to God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., the God of Israel.
4God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the field of Edom, the earth quaked. The sky also dripped. The clouds also dripped water.
5Mountains flowed before God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., this Sinai, before God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., the God of Israel.
6In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the roads stopped, and those who walked the paths walked twisting roads.
7The open villages stopped in Israel. They stopped, until I, Deborah, arose. I arose, a mother in Israel.
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- Translation
Perazon is the open villages, the places without a wall.
8They chose new gods. Then war was at the gates. Was a shield seen, or a spear, among forty thousand in Israel?
9My heart is with the commanders of Israel, the volunteers among the people. Bless God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary..
10Riders of tawny donkeys, you who sit on saddle-cloths, and you who walk on the road, speak.
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Atonot tsehorot are tawny donkeys. Middin are the cloths of a saddle.
11From the sound of those who divide, there at the watering places, they recount the Right before God. acts of God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., the Right before God. acts of his open villages in Israel. Then the people of God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. went down to the gates.
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- Translation
Mechatsitsim is uncertain. It is printed as those who divide. The line does not say whether they divide water or spoil.
12Wake, wake, Deborah. Wake, wake, speak a song. Rise, Barak, and take your captives captive, son of Abinoam.
13Then a survivor came down to the nobles. The people of God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. came down for me among the warriors.
14From Ephraim, their root was in Amalek. After you, Benjamin, among your peoples. From Machir commanders came down, and from Zebulun those who draw with the writer’s staff.
15My chiefs in Issachar were with Deborah, and Issachar, so was Barak. Into the valley he was sent on his feet. Among the divisions of Reuben, the resolves of heart were great.
16Why did you sit between the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling of the flocks? Among the divisions of Reuben, the searchings of heart were great.
17Gilead stayed across the Jordan. And Dan, why did he stay with the ships? Asher sat at the shore of the seas and stayed by his harbors.
18Zebulun is a people that scorned its life to the death, and Naphtali, on the heights of the field.
19Kings came. They fought. Then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo. Gain of silver they did not take.
20From the sky they fought. The stars from their tracks fought with Sisera.
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Mesillot are their tracks, the paths they move on. The line does not add a word for courses.
21The A stream bed that keeps water, or runs when the rain comes. Kishon swept them away, the ancient A stream bed that keeps water, or runs when the rain comes., the A stream bed that keeps water, or runs when the rain comes. Kishon. March on, my soul, with strength.
22Then the horses’ heels hammered, from the galloping, the galloping of his mighty ones.
23Curse Meroz, said the messenger of God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary.. Curse, curse its inhabitants, because they did not come to the help of God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., to the help of God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. among the warriors.
24Blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Among women in the tent she is blessed.
25Water he asked. Milk she gave. In a bowl of nobles she brought curds near.
26Her hand she stretched to the peg, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer. She hammered Sisera. She struck his head. She shattered and pierced his temple.
27Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. Between her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell, destroyed.
28Through the window she looked out and wailed, the mother of Sisera, through the lattice. Why does his chariot delay in coming? Why do the steps of his chariots hold back?
29The wisest of her ladies answer her. She herself also returns her words to herself.
30Are they not finding and dividing spoil? A womb, two wombs, for each man’s head. Spoil of dyed cloth for Sisera, spoil of dyed cloth, embroidered, a dyed cloth, two embroidered pieces, for the necks of the spoil.
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Rechem rachamatayim is “a womb, two wombs.” It is a crude count of captive women, one or two for each man. The line is printed as the Hebrew says it.
31So may all your enemies perish, God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., and those who love him be like the sun going out in its strength. And the land was quiet forty years.
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- Translation
Tset ha-shemesh is the sun going out in its strength, the sun at full force. It is not the sunset.