Judges 5 Footnotes

5:8 If there were no shields or spears among forty thousand in Israel, how could Israel have defeated a trained army mounting nine hundred iron chariots (4:12)? It was the Lord who fought for Israel and overcame the Canaanite weaponry. The narrative notes that God brought confusion among the ranks of the Canaanite army (4:15), which forgot its training and discipline and fled in the face of an enemy it did not understand. Furthermore, once the first group of Canaanites had been defeated their weapons were available for Israel’s use (4:16).