Judges 5:18

18 ¹Zebulun is a people who risked their lives to the death; ²Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field.

Judges 5:18 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 5:18

Zebulun and Naphtali were a people
These two tribes were chiefly concerned in this war; out of them were the 10,000 men that followed Barak, who willingly offered themselves, and were the most active and vigorous:

[that] jeoparded themselves unto the death;
exposed them to the utmost danger, fearless of death itself: or reproached ^F11 their lives; were careless of them, valued them not; they were not dear to them, but were ready to part with them freely, in the cause of liberty in which they were engaged:

in the high places of the field;
on the top of Mount Tabor, where they were mustered, and from whence they beheld the vast host of Sisera surrounding them; and yet, with an undaunted bravery and courage, descended the hill to fight with them. The Vulgate Latin version reads, "in the country of Merome"; in the plains and fields of it, near which were the waters of Merom, where Joshua fought Jabin, a former king of Canaan, and supposed by some to be the same with Kishon here, ( Joshua 11:5 ) ( Psalms 83:9 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 (Prx) "probris affecit", Pagninus; so the Targum.

Judges 5:18 In-Context

16 Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling for the flocks? Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.

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.

18 Zebulun is a people who risked their lives to the death; Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field.

19 "The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan, at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they got no spoils of silver.

20 From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera.

Cross References

• 1. Judges 4:10
• 2. Judges 4:10