Judges 5:14
Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer. Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.
Judges 5:14 belongs to the composite record of Judges 3 to 17 showing Israel's backsliding from God followed by suffering, oppression, captivity and servitude, then returning to God for forgiveness and deliverance, exposing the perversity and unbelief of the people amid awful moral surroundings and the demoralizing influences of the tribes permitted to remain in the land of promise, and showing the long-suffering and goodness of God in using the best willing instruments He has. It is part of the account of Deborah, a prophetess who helped Barak, showing that a woman could serve publicly in a prophetic role and assist in Israel's leadership. It stands in the Song of Deborah, a sublime and impassioned triumph poem composed to memorialize a great event in Israel's history by celebrating victory over Sisera's army.
The song celebrates deliverance from Sisera and from Jabin king of Canaan after twenty years of oppression and recounts Jael's role in that deliverance. The destruction of Sisera and his forces effectually subdued the Canaanites, and after this the land had peace forty years, but prosperity did not bring Israel nearer to God. The verse names the tribes that took part in Israel's cause under Deborah and Barak: Ephraim supplied fighters against Amalek, Benjamin joined with its people, leaders came down from Machir, and Zebulun supplied those who handle the writer's pen. In the poem Ephraim's people are marked by valor, Machir's shepherds leave their flocks and cross the river, and Benjamin's small contingent is eager to fight.
The governors from Machir and those from Zebulun who handle the pen were the chief officers among the people who became intensely concerned and went on foot with Deborah to the scene of action to render helpful service when the decisive hour came, while Zebulun and Naphtali furnished the ten thousand armed warriors Barak led against Sisera. The song ascribes to God all the glory of the deliverance and bids the people praise Him for His wonderful works. It calls upon the kings and princes of surrounding nations to hear what God has wrought for Israel and to take warning not to do them harm, shows that honor and power belong to God and not to men or to their idols, portrays the awful exhibitions of divine power and majesty displayed at Sinai, and sets before Israel their helpless and distressed condition under the oppression of their enemies while relating in glowing language the history of their deliverance.
The victory of Deborah and Barak to which the verse belongs was the means by which the Israelites first gained possession of the Plain of Jezreel. The verse belongs to the account of the battle of Megiddo in the days of Deborah and Barak, with Barak's victory over the Canaanites as one of the great battles fought at Megiddo, the Old Testament battlefield linked with Armageddon. That battle serves as an object lesson connected with the gathering of the nations at Armageddon under the sixth plague and with the sixth and seventh plagues. The verse presents Zebulun with Naphtali as faithful tribes who helped the Lord against a mighty foe while Meroz stayed home and was cursed by the angel for refusing to help, meaning that courageous willing service in time of great need brings honor and that staying home idle from love of ease or dread of work is negligence that is as wrong now as then. Every division of God's people in the campaign for the sale of Christ's Object Lessons is to be as faithful and courageous as Zebulun and Naphtali and as Barak's ten thousand soldiers were, lest refusing churches be regarded by the angel as the inhabitants of Meroz were.