Judges 4:14-23

14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him.
15 At Barak’s advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.
16 Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left.
17 Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
19 “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
20 “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’ ”
21 But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.
22 Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. “Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead.
23 On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.

Judges 4:14-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 4

This chapter shows how that Israel sinning was delivered into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, by whom they were oppressed twenty years, Jud 4:1-3; and that Deborah and Barak consulted together about their deliverance, Jud 4:4-9; and that Barak, encouraged by Deborah, gathered some forces and fought Sisera the captain of Jabin's army, whom he met, and obtained a victory over, Jud 4:10-15; who fleeing on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber, was received into it, and slain by her while asleep in it, Jud 4:16-22; which issued in a complete deliverance of the children of Israel, Jud 4:23,24.

Cross References 16

  • 1. S Judges 1:2
  • 2. Deuteronomy 9:3; 1 Samuel 8:20; 2 Samuel 5:24; Psalms 68:7
  • 3. S Joshua 10:10; Psalms 83:9-10
  • 4. S Exodus 14:28; Psalms 83:9
  • 5. ver 18,21,22; Judges 5:6,24
  • 6. S Genesis 15:19
  • 7. S Joshua 11:1
  • 8. S ver 17
  • 9. S Genesis 18:8; Judges 5:25
  • 10. S ver 17
  • 11. Genesis 2:21; Genesis 15:12; 1 Samuel 26:12; Isaiah 29:10; John 1:5
  • 12. Judges 5:26
  • 13. S ver 17
  • 14. Judges 5:27
  • 15. Nehemiah 9:24; Psalms 18:47; Psalms 44:2; Psalms 47:3; 1Psalms 44:2
  • 16. S Joshua 11:1
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