Judges 5:18

18 Zebulun and Naphtali [were] a people [that] jeoparded their lives to death in the high places 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 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

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

Judges 5:18 In-Context

16 Why abodest thou among the sheep-folds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben [there were] great searchings of heart.
17 Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea-shore, and abode in his breaches.
18 Zebulun and Naphtali [were] a people [that] jeoparded their lives to death in the high places of the field.
19 The kings came [and] fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Tanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.
20 They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
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