Judges 5:19, commentary and pictures

The verse stands in the triumphant song of Deborah and Barak celebrating Israel's deliverance and victory over Sisera's army and Jabin king of Canaan after twenty years of oppression. It places that battle at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo in the plain of Jezreel, where Barak with only ten thousand men of Zebulun and Naphtali overthrew Sisera's host with nine hundred chariots of iron until not a man was left, took no gain of money, and gave the land peace forty years. The overthrow of the Canaanite kings at Megiddo serves as the pattern for the final gathering of antichristian kings against Christ and His church at Armageddon under the sixth plague, where they will meet defeat as the Canaanite kings did. It shows that Israel could overcome such enemies when it acted in faith, and ascribes all the glory of deliverance to God rather than to men or their idols. It also shows God using a woman in public capacity to judge, prophesy, direct His work and proclaim His victory, and stands as a crisis in which Zebulun and Naphtali jeoparded their lives and Jael was blessed for defending God's cause, while Meroz was cursed for coming not to the help of the Lord against the mighty.

Battle Setting and Outcome

Judges 3 to 17 forms one composite record of backsliding from God followed by suffering, oppression, captivity and servitude, then returning to God with forgiveness and deliverance, displaying Israel's perversity and unbelief against God's long-suffering and goodness amid the moral surroundings and demoralizing influences of the tribes permitted to remain in the land. Within that record the verse belongs to the triumphant song of Deborah and Barak celebrating Israel's deliverance and victory over Sisera's army and Jabin king of Canaan after twenty years of oppression, including Jael's part in that deliverance. It is a sublime and impassioned triumph poem celebrating Israel's triumph over Sisera and the Canaanites. It belongs to the earliest poetry of Israel, which rose among the Galilean hills when Barak of Naphtali triumphed over the Canaanites, vindicating Galilee's honor for intellectual vigor and mental freshness and force. It stands in the Song of Deborah in Judges 5:1-31, with both words and music composed to memorialize a great event in the national life, showing that the music of ancient Israel was not copied or borrowed from surrounding nations but was an original expression of the individual and national life of God's chosen people.

The verse places the battle won by Barak and Deborah against the Canaanite kings at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo, in the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon between the hills of Samaria and Galilee. That ground lay on land belonging to Issachar in the northwestern territory allotted to the Hebrews. Megiddo was one of the entrances to the plain, which was a frequent route for war and traffic and became a major battlefield. The kings of Canaan fought there but gained no spoil.

Barak led only ten thousand armed men of Zebulun and Naphtali from Mount Tabor in the north against Sisera's idolatrous host come up the Kishon valley to the foothills a few miles south and west of Tabor with nine hundred chariots of iron, while forty thousand other Israelites had neither sword nor spear. The surface of the country made the iron chariots an encumbrance rather than strength and gave Barak the advantage. So the Canaanite kings were driven back down the Kishon valley to Harosheth of the Gentiles until all Sisera's host fell by the sword with not a man left. Sisera himself fled on foot over Mount Tabor and perished in Heber's tent by Jael's hand with a nail.

The kings of Canaan fought at Taanach but took no gain of money or spoil. Through God's intervention Barak led Israel to victory that effectually subdued the Canaanites. The victory gave the Israelites their first possession of the plain, though Canaanite towns in the region remained in Canaanite hands until the time of the kings. Afterward the land had peace forty years.

Megiddo and Final Armageddon

Judges 5:19 belongs to the account of Barak's victory over the Canaanites, one of the great conflicts associated with Megiddo, the Old Testament battlefield where Israel fought the enemies of God's people. It places that battle of the kings of Canaan at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo, where the kings fought but gained no spoil. That battle of Megiddo in the time of Deborah and Barak serves as an object lesson for the final gathering of nations at Armageddon under the sixth plague, and the chapter is important to study in connection with the sixth and seventh plagues. The defeat of the Canaanitish kings at Megiddo, where Israel overthrew them, serves as a pattern for the gathering of antichristian kings against Christ and His church, for as the Canaanitish kings were defeated so those kings will meet defeat.

Faith Worship and Service

The defeat of Sisera's army at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo, though it possessed iron chariots and the kings of Canaan took no spoil, shows that Israel could overcome such enemies when it acted in faith. The triumphant song to which the verse belongs ascribes all the glory of that deliverance to God and bids the people praise Him for His wonderful works, showing that honor and power belong to God and not to men or to their idols. It calls the kings and princes of the surrounding nations to hear what God wrought for Israel as a warning not to harm them. It portrays the awful exhibitions of divine power and majesty displayed at Sinai, sets before Israel their helpless and distressed condition under oppression, and tells the history of their deliverance, which effectually subdued the Canaanites and was followed by forty years of peace, yet prosperity did not bring Israel nearer to God.

The verse belongs to the song in Judges 5:1-31 connected with Deborah, and together with Judges 4:4-9, 14 and Judges 4 and 5 as a whole it shows God using a woman in a public capacity to His glory in judging Israel, prophesying, directing His work, helping Barak, and publicly proclaiming His truth and victory. It therefore proves that women may bear testimony for Christ, help in His work, and serve publicly in prophetic and spiritual roles in womanly, Christian ways without usurping authority over men. The command in 1 Corinthians 14:34, 35 only corrected blameworthy disorder by Corinthian women who were out of place in assuming authority to teach and rule.

The verse stands in the record of a crisis in the work of the Lord when those who discerned the importance of the time accepted the message God sent and brought salvation to themselves and to the people, while those who could not discern God's providence and did not believe His testimony brought a curse upon themselves. Zebulun and Naphtali jeoparded their lives unto death in the high places of the field. Jael, though a tender-hearted woman of a tender-hearted family on friendly terms with the enemy, defended the cause of God by killing the enemy of Israel and was blessed above women in the tent. Meroz was cursed bitterly by the angel of the Lord because its inhabitants came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty.