Judges 4:11

_NOW HEBER THE KENITE, WHICH WAS OF THE CHILDREN OF HOBAB THE FATHER IN LAW OF MOSES, HAD SEVERED HIMSELF FROM THE KENITES, AND PITCHED HIS TENT UNTO THE PLAIN OF ZAANAIM, WHICH IS BY KEDESH._ Now Heber the Kenite, [Septuagint, Chaber] ... HAD SEVERED HIMSELF FROM THE KENITES (i:e., who were established in the south of Palestine: see the note at Judges 1:16), AND PITCHED ... UNTO THE PLAIN OF ZAANAIM. It was a sort of debateable land (Stanley, 'Sinai and Palestine,' p. 332), this powerful nomadic chief having secured the quiet enjoyment of the pastures there by the adoption of a neutral position. (In addition to what is said in the passage referred to, see an account of the Yehud Chebr, the Arab descendants of Heber the Kenite, in Schwarz's 'Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine,' 1850). It is not unusual, even in the

10-16. Siser's confidence was chiefly in his chariots. But if we have ground to hope that God goes before us, we may go on with courage and cheerfulness. Be not dismayed at the difficulties thou meetest with in resisting Satan, in serving God, or suffering for him; for is not the Lord gone before thee? Follow him then fully. Barak went down, though upon the plain the iron chariots would have advantage against him: he quitted the mountain in dependence on the Divine power; for in the Lord alone is the salvation of his people, Jeremiah 3:23. He was not deceived in his confidence. When God goes before us in our spiritual conflicts, we must bestir ourselves; and when, by his grace, he gives us some success against the enemies of our souls, we must improve it by watchfulness and resolution....

Verse Judges 4:11. _HOHAB THE FATHER-IN-LAW OF MOSES_] For a circumstantial account of this person, and the meaning of the original word חתן _chothen_, which is translated _son-in-law_ in Genesis 19:14, see the notes on Exodus 2:15-2; Exodus 2:18; Exodus 3:1; Exodus 4:20; Exodus 4:24; Exodus 18:5....

Read, “Heber the Kenitc had severed himself from the Kenites which were of the children of Hobab,” etc., “unto the oak (or terebinth tree) in Zaanaim” (or Bitzaanaim, which Conder identifies with Bessum, twelve miles southeast of Tabor, and near Kedesh on the Sea of Galilee). This migration of Heber the Kenite, with a portion of his tribe, from the south of Judah to the north of Naphtali, perhaps caused by Philistine oppression, had clearly taken place recently. It is mentioned here to account for the subsequent narrative, but possibly also because the news of the great muster of the Israelites at Kedesh had been carried to Sisera by some of the tribe Judges 4:12, whose tents we are here informed were in the immediate neighborhood of Kedesh....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 4:2 SOLD THEM. See Judges 2:14, note. JABIN KING OF HAZOR. The exact site of _Hazor_ has not been identified with certainty, but it is conjectured by Robinson, with great probability, to have stood on the Tell now called _Khuraibeh_, overlooking the waters of Merom (now called Lake Huleh), where are remains of a sepulchre, Cyclopean walls, and other buildings. In Joshua 11:1 we read of the total destruction by fire of Hazor, and of the slaughter of Jabin, the king thereof, with all the inhabitants of the city, and of the slaughter of all the confederate kings, and the capture of their cities; Hazor, however, "the head of all those k

NOW HEBER THE KENITE,.... A descendant of Kain, a principal man among the Midianites; the Targum calls him the Salmaean: [WHICH WAS] OF THE CHILDREN OF HOBAB THE FATHER IN LAW OF MOSES; who came along with the children of Israel through the wilderness into the land of Canaan, and first settled about Jericho, and then removed into the wilderness of Judah, Judges 1:16; HAD SEVERED HIMSELF FROM THE KENITES; which dwelt in the said wilderness; to whom he belonged when this separation was made, and on what account is not certain. Abarbinel thinks that it was done now, and with a design to help Israel, that hearing Barak was gone up to Mount Tabor, and seeing Sisera prepared to fight with him, he made as if he was disgusted with his own people, and separated from them, that Jabin, with whom he was at peace, might the more confide in him; when it was out of love

3. THIRD DECLENSION: UNDER JABIN, DEBORAH, AND BARAK CHAPTER 4 _ 1. Sold into the hand of Jabin (Judges 4:1)_ 2. The cry of the children of Israel (Judges 4:3) 3. Deborah and Barak (Judges 4:4) 4. The conflict and Jael's deed (Judges 4:12) Ehud the mighty instrument of Jehovah had died, and again the children of Israel lapsed into evil. Then the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, King of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor. His captain was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles. A powerful oppressor he was, for this King had nine hundred chariots of iron and oppressed Israel twenty years. About one hundr

THE PREPARATION FOR WAR. D's framework is found in Judges 4:1 and Judges 4:23 f. Judges 4-5. Deborah and Barak Deliver Israel. The record of this deliverance appears first in a prose and then in a poetical form, of which the latter is the older, written without doubt under the inspiration of the actual events. There are some striking differences between the two versions. In the prose narrative the oppressor of Israel is Jabin, king of Hazor, whose captain is Sisera; Deborah's home is in Mount Ephraim; only the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali fight the tyrant; and Jael murders Sisera when he lies asleep in her tent. In the triumphal Ode there is no Jabin; Sisera is at the head of the kings of Canaan, himself the greatest king of all; Deborah appears to belong to the tribe of Issachar; all the tribes aroun

HOBAB. Compare Numbers 10:29. UNTO THE PLAIN. Or, at the oak. Joshua 19:33....

_Now Heber the Kenite_ The verse explains, with a view to Judges 4:17 ff., how the Kenites, who belonged properly to southern Palestine (see on Judges 1:16), came to be in this region: the family of Heber had _branched off_(cf. Genesis 10:5; Genesis 10:32) from the main clan, and pitched their tents as far north as the Tree of Bezaanim (so read, as below), near Kedesh. The words _even from the children of Hobab … Moses_are a gloss on _from Kain_, probably derived from Judges 1:16 in its original form. It is impossible to reconcile the geographical data i