Chapter 5
This chapter is a victory song, and a song of tribute to Deborah, Barak, and Jael. Also, I note that it praises Naphtali and Zebulon for taking up arms with Barak against Sisera. Several other tribes are derided for staying home and doing nothing.
This verse:
6 "In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned, and travelers kept to the byways. [Jdg 5:6 ESV]
This is the same Shamgar mentioned as a judge in 3:31. Apparently he is still alive at the time of Deborah, and Jael, and Barak. Maybe that is why there is little detail about Shamgar. Perhaps his was a smaller restoration of a small portion of the Land, and there was not a huge turning away after his death. In fact, we haven't been told that he died, unlike we were about Othniel and Ehud. Also, Shamgar may have lived in an entirely different part of Israel, and the two stories overlap in time but not in geography. (2021-Shamgar was still alive. At the beginning of 4 we saw that Ehud, not Shamgar, had died and the people were turning away. Clearly implied that Shamgar was still around and that he and Deborah overlapped.)
2021 - The oppression by Jabin was so bad that the people stayed off the main roads lest they meet Jabin's men. We have never known such oppression in this country, at least not since the Revolutionary War. One can envision such a thing though, avoiding a tyrannical government of our own, running around to make sure you don't have any more than anyone else.
This verse also:
17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan, why did he stay with the ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings. [Jdg 5:17 ESV]
Didn't Jacob say in his blessings on his sons that Asher would be in the seacoasts? (No, that was Zebulon. Asher was going to have rich food, and Issachar would be a strong donkey.) It is true that when the land was divided, Asher was given the NW coast of Israel, all the way up to the port of Sidon. So they were on the coast at this time.
2021 - 20 From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. [Jdg 5:20 ESV]
An interesting verse, alluding perhaps to how God fights for Israel, how he delivers their enemies. The whole universe was turned against Sisera. Perhaps a way of saying that this victory, ordained by God, was a supernatural victory. Things happened that could not be explained.
2021 - This verse looks to me like poetry, and I thought maybe it was a rhyme in Hebrew:
27 Between her feet he sank,
he fell,
he lay still;
between her feet he sank,
he fell;
where he sank,
there he fell--dead. [Jdg 5:27 ESV]
So I went and looked at the interlinear. It's transliterated like this:
bayin regel kara napal sakab
bayin regel kara napal aser
kara sam napal sadad.
So a "hook" in the middle of the song of Deborah, the repetition of which would bring this whole story to mind. We don't do this sort of thing. Maybe we should! It would be interesting to come back and try to compose a rhyme of these words.
After this, Israel has peace for 40 years.
So again, all these things happen after we've been told that God kept all his promises to Israel about the land. Yet these "aborigines of Canaan" continue to cause problems. There are still foreign kings living in the land, kings that were never defeated. I come back to them being secondary kings, incapable of opposing the whole army of Israel, and so forced to accept the rule and the people of Israel in a more or less quiet way, not making any trouble, lest the wrath of all Israel come against them and wipe them out. Further, it is not these kings alone who decide to oppress Israel. In each case so far in Judges, it is God who raises up one of these remaining peoples - these whom God intentionally leaves in place to test Israel.
It would be good to put together a coherent explanation of how this all works. Went back today (5/26/20) and found this "coherent statement in MSB in the note on Joshua 21:43-45, 45 is quoted below:
45 Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. [Jos 21:45 ESV]
And here is the MSB note, quoted:
"This sums up God's fulfillment of His covenant promise to give Abraham's people the Land (Ge 12:7, Jos 1:2, 5-9). God also kept His Word in giving the people rest (Dt. 12:9, 10). In a valid sense, the Canaanites were in check, under military conquest as God had pledged (Jos 1:5), not posing an immediate threat. Not every enemy had been driven out, however, leaving some to stir up trouble later. But God's people failed to exercise their responsibility and possess their land to the full degree in various areas.".
So I had it right. The remaining "natives" of Canaan were having to mark time and shuffle their feet and behave themselves, lest they incur the wrath of the full army of Israel. Things were now about political maneuvering instead of military strategy. They were still there...but they were not really in control. Until God decides in Judges to raise them up in response to the idolatry of Israel.
2022 - God also told Israel that he wouldn't give them everything all at once, lest they not be able to oversee it all, lest the wild animals get out of control. And he tells them at another point that he is leaving some to test whether Israel will remain true to his commandments for them and follow his ways and his orders. Testing is needed - regular testing - to keep faith strong. He had given them the land and rest. They were "unopposed" in the land. And yet, as they disobey, God empowers those left in the land to oppress Israel. Discipline to bring them back to him. Each time they rebel, each time they are disciplined, and so far at least, each time they criy out and seek God again.