Judges 4 Footnotes

4:3 Although God allowed his people to suffer severely for long periods of time (see 3:8,14; 6:1; 10:8; 13:1), he was not unaware of their need, uncaring about their suffering, or incapable of helping them. Scripture teaches that God knows all things (Jb 34:21; Lk 12:30; 1Jn 3:20), that he is all-powerful (Ps 115:3; Heb 1:3; Rv 4:11), and that he is compassionate (Dt 4:25-31; Is 30:18-22). He allowed his people to suffer because he desired them to repent of their evil ways and to turn back to him (Lv 26:14-45).

4:6-9 Deborah declared, at first, that the Lord said he would give Sisera into Barak’s hands (v. 7), but later stated that the Lord would give him into the hands of a woman (v. 9). This is not a discrepancy. As a prophetess Deborah spoke for the Lord; if her prophecy did not come true, she would not have been considered a true prophet (Dt 18:18-22). Second, the circumstances changed. Barak did not immediately respond to God’s call. Had he acted in faith he would have received the honor of defeating Sisera; because of hesitancy, which manifested his doubt, God gave the honor to a woman.

4:15-16 If every man in Sisera’s army died in battle, how was Sisera still alive afterward (vv. 17-21)? All of his men (that is, the foot soldiers as distinguished from generals) could have been slain. Or “not a single man was left” who remained on the battlefield because some fled the battle and escaped—a not uncommon occurrence in modern, as well as ancient, warfare. (Compare Saul’s statement to Samuel, 1Sm 15:20, in which he claimed to have utterly destroyed the Amalekites; yet David later had to fight the same Amalekites—1Sm 27; 30; 2Sm 1.) Finally, the author of Judges did not mean to assert that every soldier in the Canaanite army died. He states that Jabin ruled from Hazor, but Sisera was from another town (Jdg 4:2,13) and organized his army from there. Some of the Canaanite forces would have remained at Hazor as Jabin’s personal guard.