Judges 5:18

18 Zebulun [is] a people who scorned death, and Naphtali, 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 do you sit among the sheepfolds, to hear [the] calling sounds of the herds? For the clans of Reuben, [there were] great searchings of the heart.

17 Gilead has remained beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan dwell as a foreigner [with] ships? Asher sat at [the] coast of [the] waters, and by his coves he has been settling down.

18 Zebulun [is] a people who scorned death, and Naphtali, on the heights of [the] field.

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

20 The stars fought from heaven; from their courses they fought against Sisera.