Judges 4:17

_HOWBEIT SISERA FLED AWAY ON HIS FEET TO THE TENT OF JAEL THE WIFE OF HEBER THE KENITE: FOR THERE WAS PEACE BETWEEN JABIN THE KING OF HAZOR AND THE HOUSE OF HEBER THE KENITE._ Sisera fled ... to the tent of Jael - i:e. (roe, Proverbs 5:19, English version), wild goat, gazelle [Septuagint, Iaeel]. SISERA FLED ... TO THE TENT OF JAEL - i:e. (roe, Proverbs 5:19, English version), wild goat, gazelle [Septuagint, Iaeel]. According to the usages of nomadic people, the duty of receiving the stranger in the sheikh's absence devolves on his wife; and the moment the stranger is admitted into the tent, his claim to be defended or concealed from his pursuers is established. But how came the tent of Heber to be pitched in the neighbourhood of Carmel, when it was stated that he residence was

17-24 Sisera's chariots had been his pride and his confidence. Thus are those disappointed who rest on the creature; like a broken reed, it not only breaks under them, but pierces them with many sorrows. The idol may quickly become a burden, Isaiah 46:1; what we were sick for, God can make us sick of. It is probable that Jael really intended kindness to Sisera; but by a Divine impulse she was afterwards led to consider him as the determined enemy of the Lord and of his people, and to destroy him. All our connexions with God's enemies must be broken off, if we would have the Lord for our God, and his people for our people. He that had thought to have destroyed Israel with his many iron chariots, is himself destroyed with one iron nail. Thus the weak things of the world confound the mighty. The Israelites would have prevented much mischief, if they had sooner destroyed the Canaanites, as...

Sisera went, not to Heber’s tent, but to Joel’s, as more secure from pursuit. Women occupied a separate tent. Genesis 18:6, Genesis 18:10; Genesis 24:67....

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

HOWBEIT, SISERA FLED AWAY ON HIS FEET,.... Got off, and made his escape TO THE TENT OF JAEL, THE WIFE OF HEBER THE KENITE; before spoken of, Judges 4:11; and he made to that, because he might think himself safer in a tent than in a town; and especially in the tent of a woman, where he might imagine no search would be made; for women of note, in those times, had separate tents, see Genesis 24:67; and the rather he made his escape hither for a reason that follows: FOR [THERE WAS] PEACE BETWEEN JABIN THE KING OF HAZOR AND THE HOUSE OF HEBER THE KENITE; which Jabin might the more readily come into, because these were not Israelites, nor did they make any claim to the country, and lived only in tents, and attended their flocks, and were a quiet people, and not at all disposed

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 BATTLE OF THE KISHON AND THE DEATH OF SISERA. The Galilean highlanders rushed like a torrent down the slope of Mt. Tabor, and swept the enemy before them. When Sisera left his chariot and fled on foot (Judges 4:15), he made westward for Harosheth. The tent of Jael was pitched somewhere in the Great Plain, not (as Judges 4:11; Judges 4:17 would imply) away north in the neighbourhood of Kedesh or Hazor. The account of Sisera's death given in this chapter differs materially from the representation in the triumphal Ode. Jael covers him with a rug, or perhaps the word (which is found only here) means a tent curtain; she opens her milk-skin, and bids him drink; she apparently agrees to stand at the tent door and put his pursuers off the

THE TENT OF JAEL. Note, not of Heber: the woman's tent, which itself brought Sisera under the death penalty. But there is nothing to apologize for here. The Author and Giver of life came on Jael as on Ehud, and enabled her to save the daughters of Israel from. fate worse than death. Compare Judges 5:7; Judges 5:11; Judges 5:24; Judges 5:30. KENITE. Compare Judges 4:11....

Clause a taken with Judges 4:22 implies that Sisera, as he fled from the battle, found a place of refuge close by; but according to clause b taken with Judges 4:11 Jael's tent was in the north, near Kedesh-naphtali, 40 or 50 miles from the Kishon valley. The inconsistencies of the narrative can only be explained by supposing that the two stories of Jabin and Sisera have been combined by a sentence designed to harmonize them, 17b. Jael certainly belongs to the story of Sisera; it has been suggested that Heber belongs to that of Jabin. But we cannot separate Jael from Heber; it would be irregular to name a prominent Bedouin woman, living in an encampment with her family, without mentioning her husband. Probably we must separate Heber from Jabin, and suppose that the connexion between them is merely editorial; see above on...

SISERA FLED—TO THE TENT OF JAEL— The common Arabs so far observe the modes of the east, as to have a separate apartment in their tents for their wives, made by letting down a curtain, or a carpet, upon occasion, from one of their pillars; though they are not so rigid as some of the eastern people in these matters. Dr. Pococke tells us, that his conductor, who was an Arab, led him two or three miles to his tent, where there was an encampment of Arabs; and that there he sat down with his conductor's wife and others round the fire.—"The Arabs," says he, "are not so scrupulous as the Turks about their women; and though they have their _harem,_ or woman's part of the tent, yet _such as they are acquainted with_ come into them. I was kept in the _harem_ for _greater security,_ the wife being always with me; no stranger ever daring to come into the woman's apartment, unless introduced." Accordi...