Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Judges 5:26
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
She put her hand to the nail , etc.] Her left hand, as the Septuagint, Arabic, and Vulgate Latin versions express it, and as appears by what follows; she having taken up a pin from her tent, with which it was fastened to the ground, she clapped it to the temples of Sisera: and her right hand to the workman’s hammer ; in her right hand she took a hammer, such as carpenters, and such like workmen, make use of, and workman like went about her business she had devised, and was determined upon, being under a divine impulse, and so had no fear or dread upon her: and with the hammer she smote Sisera ; not that with the hammer she struck him on the head, and stunned him, but smote the nail she had put to his temples and drove it into them: she smote off his head ; after she had driven the nail through his temples, she took his sword perhaps and cut off his head, as David cut off Goliath’s, after he had slung a stone into his forehead; though as this seems needless, nor is there any hint of it in the history of this affair, the meaning may only be, that she struck the nail through his head, as the Septuagint, or broke his head, as the Targum: when she had pierced and stricken through his temples ; that being the softest and tenderest part of the head, she drove the nail quite through them to the ground, <070421>Judges 4:21 . Ver. 27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down , etc.] Perhaps at her first approach to him, and attempt to drive the nail, or at the blow she gave, he rose up, but she had done the business so effectually at the first stroke, that he dropped at once, and laid down his head again: at her feet he bowed, he fell ; when she redoubled her blow: where he bowed, there he fell down dead; and struggled and stirred no more; thus ingloriously did this general of a vast army die. This action is not otherwise to be justified, but by its being done through an impulse of the Spirit of God upon her, to take away the life of an implacable enemy of God’s people; otherwise it might seem to be a breach of hospitality towards her guest she had invited in, and of the peace which subsisted between this general’s prince and her husband; and therefore is not to be drawn into an example where there is no appearance of a divine warrant.
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