Judges 4:3

_AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL CRIED UNTO THE LORD: FOR HE HAD NINE HUNDRED CHARIOTS OF IRON; AND TWENTY YEARS HE MIGHTILY OPPRESSED THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

Verse Judges 4:3. _NINE HUNDRED CHARIOTS OF IRON_] Chariots _armed_ with iron scythes, as is generally supposed; they could not have been made all of iron, but they might have been _shod with iron_, or had _iron_ _scythes_ projecting from the axle on each side, by which infantry might be easily cut down or thrown into confusion. The ancient _Britons_ are said to have had such chariots....

OPPRESSED - The same word is used Exodus 3:9 of the oppression of Israel by the Egyptians. If they were put to task-work in hewing timber, their condition was very like that of their ancestors making bricks....

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 THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL CRIED UNTO THE LORD,.... Because of their hard bondage, and begged deliverance from it, being brought to a sense of their sins, and humbled for them: FOR HE HAD NINE HUNDRED CHARIOTS OF IRON; the same with the αρματα το δρεπανηφορα, chariots which carried scythes at the side of them, fastened to the orbs of the wheels x, and were on both sides; and in some stood out ten cubits y which running furiously among the infantry, cut them to pieces in a terrible manner; of which Cyrus had in his army at first but an hundred, afterwards increased to three hundred z; and yet here a petty prince of Canaan had nine hundred of them; and which Josephus a has increased, beyond all belief, to the number of three thousand; which struck great terror into the Israelites, and who therefore durst not attempt to shake off his yoke, but cried to the Lord for help: and twenty years...

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

TWENTY YEARS.. long time to wait for deliverance....

Deborah and Barak Delivered Israel Judges 4:1 to Judges 5:31 _The Rise of Deborah Judges 4:1-9_ And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, when Ehud was dead. 2 And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles. 3 And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. 4 And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time, 5 And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her

DEBORAH AND BARAK This deliverance is described a second time in the early poem in Judges 5 (see on Judges 5:1). No other narrative describes more clearly the religious gathering of the clans, and the prowess of the hardy mountaineers when united. The plain of Esdraelon (see Intro. § 5) is one of the famous battle-fields of history. It drives like a wedge from the coast within 10m. of the Jordan; but it is dominated by hills on all sides, and is almost closed by them at its western end. In Judges 5 all the tribes are mentioned either as uniting or refusing to appear, save Judah and Simeon. Subsequently we hear no more of such united efforts. 1-3. Oppression by Jabin....