Judges 5:25

_HE ASKED WATER, AND SHE GAVE HIM MILK; SHE BROUGHT FORTH BUTTER IN A LORDLY DISH._ BUTTER, х_ CHEM'AAH_ (H2529), curdled milk; Septuagint, bouturon: a favourite beverage in the East]. Josephus calls it sour milk, which, diluted with water, is called "leban", and is common, for a refreshing, beverage in Palestine. IN A LORDLY DISH, х_ BªCEEPEL_ (H5602) _ 'ADIYRIYM_ (H117)] - in a princely, i:e., precious, bowl....

24-31 Jael had a special blessing. Those whose lot is cast in the tent, in a low and narrow sphere, if they serve God according to the powers he has given them, shall not lose their reward. The mother of Sisera looked for his return, not in the least fearing his success. Let us take heed of indulging eager desires towards any temporal good, particularly toward that which cherishes vain-glory, for that was what she here doted on. What a picture does she present of an ungodly and sensual heart! How shameful and childish these wishes of an aged mother and her attendants for her son! And thus does God often bring ruin on his enemies when they are most puffed up. Deborah concludes with a prayer to God for the destruction of all his foes, and for the comfort of all his friends. Such shall be the honour, and joy of all who love God in sincerity, they shall shine for ever as the sun in the firma...

Verse Judges 5:25. _SHE BROUGHT FORTH BUTTER_] As the word חמאה _chemah_, here translated _butter_, signifies _disturbed, agitated_, c., it is probable that _buttermilk_ is intended. The Arabs form their buttermilk by agitating the milk in a leathery bag, and the buttermilk is highly esteemed because of its refreshing and cooling quality but there is no reason why we may not suppose that Jael gave him _cream_: Sisera was not only _thirsty_, but was also _exhausted_ with fatigue; and nothing could be better calculated to quench his thirst, and restore his exhausted strength, than a bowl of cream. I am surprised that Mr. Harmer should see any difficulty in this. It is evident that Deborah wishes to convey the idea that Jael was _more liberal_ and _kind_ than Sisera had requested. He asked for _water_, and she brought him _cream_; and she...

BUTTER - Rather curdled milk, probably a fermented and intoxicating drink. All these marks of respect and friendship would lull Sisera into security....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 5:1 THEN SANG DEBORAH, etc. The ode which follows was doubtless the composition of Deborah the prophetess, and was sung by her (as the gender of the Hebrew verb indicates), assisted by Barak, who perhaps sang the antistrophe (cf. Exodus 15:1, Exodus 15:21). It is a song of wonderful beauty and lyric power, somewhat difficult, as all Hebrew poetry is. JUDGES 5:2 Her first feeling was one of patriotic joy that her countrymen had been roused to the venture of war, and of gratitude to God that it was so. "For the bold leading of the leaders of Israel, for the

HE ASKED WATER, AND SHE GAVE HIM MILK,.... That is, Sisera asked it of her, as the Targum expresses it, when he turned into her tent: SHE BROUGHT HIM FRESH BUTTER IN A LORDLY DISH; which signifies either the same, the milk with cream on it, for that is meant by butter; or having first taken off the cream, she gave him milk to drink, and then brought the cream in a dish for him to eat, and thereby the more incline him to sleep; and this she brought in a dish fit for any lord or nobleman to eat out of; in such a polite and courteous manner did she use him, so that he could have no suspicion of her having any ill design against him. R. Jonah, as Kimchi notes, interprets this of a dish of the mighty or lordly ones, of the shepherds, the principal of the flock, as they are called in Jeremiah 25:34, out of which they had used to drink their milk, or eat their cream, and suc

CHAPTER 5 The Song of Deborah and Barak _ 1. The praise of Jehovah (Judges 5:1)_ 2. The condition of the people and their deliverance (Judges 5:6) 3. The celebration of the victory and the victors (Judges 5:12) 4. The fate of the enemy (Judges 5:23) This is one of the prophetic songs of the Bible. It is full of the fire of passion and enthusiasm, reflecting the character of the woman through whom the deliverance had been wrought. It has been classed with the barbaric outbursts of the battle-hymns and odes of triumph of heathen nations, likened to some wild chant of a victor, whose blood-thirst has been que

THE BLESSING OF JAEL. Jael's deed is unhesitatingly and emphatically approved. While the oppressor of Israel stood in her tent, drinking the milk she gave him, she suddenly felled him to the earth with her tent-hammer. In Judges 5:26 read, She put her hand to the mallet, Her right hand to the hammer, And she hammered Sisera. It is often supposed that, seizing a wooden tent-peg in her left hand and a hammer in her right, she drove the peg through his temples into his brain surely a difficult thing to do to a standing warrior. But according to the laws of Heb. parallelism, the second line of Judges 5:26 is merely a variation of the first, so that she had only one weapon, called now a mallet and now a hammer, with which she dealt the death-blow. And when a woman of leonine courage, burning with a sense of intolerable

BUTTER. See note on Judges 4:19....

The original is more forcible: _Water he asked, milk she gave_, _In a bowl fit for nobles she offered him curd_. _A bowl of_(i.e. fit for) _nobles_was a large, rich bowl. The word, only here and Judges 6:38 in Hebr., is mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions as an object of plunder or tribute, e.g. a _bowl_was brought to Shalmaneser by Jehu (Schrader, _COT_. i. p. 199). Not _butter_, which the Bedouin do not use, but _curdled milk_is meant, a refreshing drink such as would be offered to a guest. Genesis 18:8....