Judges 5:6

“In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, etc.] Of whom (see <070331> Judges 3:31); who succeeded Ehud as a judge, but lived not long, and did not much; at least wrought not a perfect deliverance of the children of Israel; but during his time till now, quite through the twenty years of Jabin’s oppression, things were as they are after described: in the days of Jael; the wife of Heber the Kenite, spoken of in the preceding chapter, (<070417>Judges 4:17-22), who appears to be a woman of masculine spirit, and endeavoured to do what good she could to Israel, though not a judge among them, as Jarchi suggests; and who before this affair of Sisera had signalized herself by some deeds of hers in…”

“The song proceeds in these verses to describe the sad condition of the country, the oppression of the people, and the origin of all the national distress in the people's apostasy from God. Idolatry was the cause of foreign invasion and internal inability to resist it.”

“Words dcscriptive of a state of weakness and fear, so that Israel could not frequent the highways. It is a graphic description of a country occupied by an enemy. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Jael - Jael, though an illustrious woman, effected nothing for the deliverance of God's people, 'till God raised me up. By - ways - Because of the Philistines and Canaanites, who, besides the public burdens which they laid upon them, waited for all opportunities to do them mischief secretly; their soldiers watching for travellers in common roads, as is usual with such in times of war; and, because of the robbers even of their own people, who having cast off the fear of God, and there being no king in Israel to punish them, broke forth into acts of injustice and violence, even against their own brethren. Judges 5:7”

“Shamgar: Jdg 3:31 Jael: Jdg 4:17, Jdg 4:18 the highways: Lev 26:22; Ch2 15:5; Isa 33:8; Lam 1:4, Lam 4:18; Mic 3:12 travellers: Heb. walkers of paths byways: Heb. crooked ways, Psa 125:5 Judges 5:7”

“6 In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, the paths kept holiday, And the wanderers of the paths went crooked ways. 7 The towns in Israel kept holiday, they kept holiday, Until that I, Deborah, arose, That I arose a mother in Israel 8 They chose new gods; Then was war at the gates: Was there a shield seen and a spear Among forty thousand in Israel? The deep degradation and disgrace into which Israel had sunk before the appearance of Deborah, through its falling away from the Lord into idolatry, forms the dark reverse of that glorification at Sinai. Although, after Ehud, Shamgar had also brought help to the people against their enemies by a victory over the Philistines…”