Judges 4:22

_AND, BEHOLD, AS BARAK PURSUED SISERA, JAEL CAME OUT TO MEET HIM, AND SAID UNTO HIM, COME, AND I WILL SHEW THEE THE MAN WHOM THOU SEEKEST. AND WHEN HE CAME INTO HER TENT, BEHOLD, SISERA LAY DEAD, AND THE NAIL WAS IN HIS TEMPLES._ As Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him. Having complete the rout of the Canaanite host, Barak was probably on his return home to Kedesh, when he was surprised by the intelligence of the awful tragedy that had been enacted within the tent of the Kenite, and subsequently by the ghastly spectacle of the corpse of Sisera, which Jael exhibited to him. This last scene closed the proceedings of that eventful day, as with it also ends the narrative of the national triumph of Israel over the last general confederacy of the Canaanites....

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 4:22. _BEHOLD, SISERA LAY DEAD_] What impression this made on the victorious Barak is not said: it could not give him much pleasure, especially when he learned the circumstances of his death....

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, BEHOLD, AS BARAK PURSUED SISERA,.... Knowing the way he took, at least as he supposed: JAEL CAME OUT TO MEET HIM; as she did Sisera, but with greater pleasure: AND SAID UNTO HIM, COME, AND I WILL SHOW THEE THE MAN WHOM THOU SEEKEST; for she full well knew whom he was in pursuit of: AND WHEN HE CAME INTO HER [TENT]; at her invitation: BEHOLD, SISERA LAY DEAD, AND THE NAIL [WAS] IN HIS TEMPLES: which she did not attempt to draw out, but left it there, that it might be seen in what way she had dispatched him....

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

BEHOLD. Figure of speech _Asterismos._ App-6....

_And, behold, as Barak pursued_ hardly does justice to the original, -lo Barak, in pursuit of Sisera"; a remarkable coincidence! cf. Judges 11:34; Genesis 29:6. According to Judges 4:16 Barak with his tribesmen pursued the Canaanites to Harosheth; Sisera's hiding-place must have lain more or less on the route. On the difficulties of the narrative as it stands see above Judges 4:17 _n._ 23, 24 give Rd's conclusion of the story; Judges 5:31 b is the finishing touch. _God subdued_ Instead of God (Elohim) the narrative uses regularly the Lord

_The Death of Sisera Judges 4:17-24_ 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. 18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle. 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. 20 Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and inquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No, 21 Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fast