Judges 4:19

_AND HE SAID UNTO HER, GIVE ME, I PRAY THEE, A LITTLE WATER TO DRINK; FOR I AM THIRSTY. AND SHE OPENED A BOTTLE OF MILK, AND GAVE HIM DRINK, AND COVERED HIM._ She opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, х_ NO'D_ (H4997) _ HECHAALAAB_ (H2461)] - a skin or leather bag, so called from being shaken, in order to make the milk into butter. [Septuagint, eenoixe teen askon tou galaktos.] Josephus says ('Antiquities,' b. 5:, ch. 5:, sec. 4) it was sour milk, or what the Arabs call "leban"; a favourite and refreshing beverage. AND COVERED HIM. Sisera reckoned on this as a pledge of his safety, especially in the tent of a friendly sheikh. This pledge was the strongest that could be sought or obtained, after he had partaken of refreshments, and been introduced into the inner or wife's apartment-a sanctuary inviolable by the intrusion even of her nearest

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...

Verse Judges 4:19. _SHE OPENED A BOTTLE OF MILK_] She gave more than he requested; and her friendship increased his confidence and security....

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

AND HE SAID UNTO HER, GIVE ME, I PRAY THEE, A LITTLE WATER TO DRINK, FOR I AM THIRSTY,.... Which might be occasioned by the heat of the battle, and by the heat of the day, and by heat in running; he asks for a little water, that being very desirable by persons athirst. Some think he did not ask for wine, because he knew the Kenites did not drink any, and so of course kept none in their tents; but though this was the custom of the Rechabites, who were the same with the Kenites, Jeremiah 35:8; yet it is very probable this custom had not yet obtained among them, since it was enjoined by Jonadab their father, who lived in the times of Jehu, 2 Kings 10:15; AND SHE OPENED A BOTTLE OF MILK, AND GAVE HIM TO DRINK; which she did either out of courtesy, being a better liquor, or wi

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

BOTTLE. skin. MILK. Rendered "butter" in Judges 5:25. probably. buttermilk, much used in the East....

_a bottle of milk_ THE MILK-SKIN, the goat-skin in which the Bedouin still keep water, milk etc.; cf. Joshua 9:4 (used for wine). From Judges 5:25 we gather that Jael poured the milk into a bowl. Her hospitality gave Sisera a feeling of security. Note the contrast with Judges 5:25-27; here Sisera asks for drink, and Jael brings it after he has lain down and been covered with the tent-rug....

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...