Judges 5:8

They chose new gods— This verse is differently rendered. Some interpreters suppose that the meaning simply is, that in consequence of the Israelitish idolatry, war and destruction overtook them: forsaking God, they were forsaken of him, and given up into the hand of their enemies; who, to prevent them from regaining their liberty, disarmed them, as the Philistines did afterwards in the days of Saul; (see 1 Samuel 13:19 and Caesar's Comment. lib. 2: cap. 31:) or rather, that the Israelites were disarmed by their own pusillanimity, and so dispirited, that a shield or spear was not seen in their hands to oppose their enemies. If I might hazard a conjecture, I should conceive, that this verse refers to the present delivery by Deborah, and not to the past state of things. In the two former verses Deborah has set forth the melancholy condition of Israel till she arose its deliverer: it is reasonable, therefore, to expect, that she should immediately speak of that deliverance; and in this view the verse might be rendered;

The Lord hath chosen new things, [a renovation of his former mercies] Then, or accordingly, there is war in the gates. Shall not a spear and a shield be among the forty thousand in Israel?

After which she proceeds in the next verse to applaud those warriors, who thus, at the call of the Lord, seized the shield and the spear, and offered themselves willingly for the rescue of their country. It may be necessary to remark, that the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic versions render the first clause of this verse, the Lord hath chosen or will choose, new wars, or a new thing.