Judges 5:4
LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water. LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.
The verse is part of the sublime, impassioned, triumphant song of Deborah and Barak celebrating Israel's victory over Sisera's army and deliverance from Jabin, king of Canaan, after twenty years of oppression. The words and music of that song were composed to memorialize a great event in Israel's national life, expressing the individual and national life of God's chosen people, and showing that the music of ancient Israel was original and not copied or borrowed from the surrounding nations. It stands within the composite record of Judges 3 to 17 of backsliding from God followed by suffering, oppression, captivity and servitude, then returning to God followed by forgiveness and deliverance, displaying the perversity and unbelief of the people against the long-suffering and goodness of God amid the awful moral surroundings and demoralizing influences of the tribes Israel permitted to remain in the land of promise.
Its immediate setting is deliverance from a mighty foe after negligence and backsliding let the heathen repossess much of the land, become strongly fortified, and re-establish Baalism in many parts of Palestine. That apostasy brought the Lord's people into great distress, drove those who wished to worship the true God from their homes, and left them living in constant danger of violence, until at the worst of that sad condition the Lord through Deborah, a prophetess in Israel, called His people to arise and drive Sisera, captain of the army of Jabin the heathen king of Canaan, from their borders, after twenty years of oppression. Israel, under Deborah and Barak, overcame forces with iron chariots because the people had faith.
The verse describes the Lord going out from Seir and marching from the field of Edom as a manifestation of His power and divine agency, when the earth trembled and the heavens and clouds dropped water and the sky poured down rain. It portrays the awful exhibitions of divine power and majesty displayed at Sinai, while setting before Israel their helpless and distressed condition under the oppression of their enemies and relating in glowing language the history of their deliverance. In the battle at Tabor, the Lord's rain helped drive the enemy's horsemen and charioteers into flight.
The verse belongs to the account of Barak's victory over the Canaanites, one of the great battles associated with the battlefield of Megiddo, whose battle serves as an object lesson connected with the sixth and seventh plagues. It ascribes all the glory of deliverance to God and bids the people praise Him for His wonderful works, calling 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, showing that honor and power belong to God and not to men or to their idols. It stands in a song that blesses Jehovah because the leaders took the lead in Israel and the people offered themselves willingly, with the heart toward the governors who offered themselves willingly among the people, commending united effort by leaders, officers, and workers, including conference presidents, committees, union officials, church officers, and visiting ministers, and showing that such leading and willing offering arouses enthusiasm and home missionary zeal in every church and isolated company of believers.