World English Bible · The judges
Judges 5
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Then and the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying, "Because the leaders took the lead in Israel, because the people offered themselves willingly, be , ! "Hear, you kings! Give ear, you princes! I, even I, will . I will sing to , the of Israel. ", when you went out of , when you marched out of the field of , the earth trembled, also dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water. The mountains quaked at , even Sinai at the of , the of Israel. "In the days of the son of , in the days of , the highways were unoccupied. The travelers walked through byways. The ceased in Israel. They ceased until I, , arose; Until I arose a mother in Israel. They chose new gods. Then war was . Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel? is toward the governors of Israel, who offered themselves willingly among the people. ! "Speak, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by . Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water, there they will rehearse acts, acts of his rule in Israel. "Then people went down to the . 'Awake, awake, ! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, , and lead away your , you son of Abinoam.' "Then a of the nobles and the people came down. came down for me against the mighty. Those whose root is in came out of , after you, , among your peoples. Governors come down out of . Those who handle the marshal's came out of . The princes of were with . As was , so was . They rushed into the valley at his feet. By the watercourses of , there were great resolves of . Why did you sit among the sheepfolds? To hear the whistling for the flocks? At the watercourses of , there were great searchings of . lived beyond . Why did Dan in ships? Asher sat still at the haven of the sea, and lived by his creeks. was a people that jeopardized their lives to the ; also, on the of the field. "The kings came and fought, then the kings of fought at by the waters of . They took no plunder of silver. From the stars fought. From their courses, they fought against . swept them away, that ancient river, the river . , march on with strength. Then the horse hoofs stamped because of the prancing, the prancing of their strong ones. ' Meroz,' said . ' bitterly its inhabitants, because they didn't come to help , to help against the mighty.' " shall be above women, the wife of the ; shall she be above women in the tent. He asked for water. She gave him milk. She brought him butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the tent peg, and her to the workmen's hammer. With the hammer she struck . She struck through his head. Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. At her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell down . "Through the window she looked out, and cried: mother looked through the lattice. 'Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the wheels of his chariots wait?' 29Her ladies answered her, Yes, she returned answer to herself, 'Have they not found, have they not divided the plunder? A lady, two ladies to every man; to a plunder of dyed garments, a plunder of dyed garments embroidered, of dyed garments embroidered on both sides, on the necks of the plunder?' "So let all your , , but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises in its strength." Then the land had rest forty years.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The judges, 1200 BC to 1050 BC ›
No central government and no standing army. The great empires are weak, which is precisely why Israel's troubles come from close neighbors: Moab, Ammon, Midian, and the newly arrived Philistines on the coast.
- Egypt
- Broken into competing power centres and no longer able to project force into Canaan. Its withdrawal is the single biggest reason this period has no imperial overlord.
- Mesopotamia
- Assyria exists but is dormant, hemmed in and looking east. The century that would have crushed a stateless Israel simply has not arrived yet.
- The coast
- The Philistines settle their five cities after arriving from the Aegean world, bringing Mycenaean-style pottery, a taste for pork, and an early advantage in ironworking. Further north the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Sidon start the trading expansion that will eventually give the alphabet to Greece.
- Further afield
- Greece has entered its dark age: the palaces are gone, Linear B is forgotten, and writing disappears from the Aegean for three centuries. In China the Zhou dynasty replaces the Shang in 1046 BC and issues the doctrine that heaven withdraws its mandate from unjust kings, an idea with an interesting resemblance to the book of Judges.