Matthew Henry on Judges 4:10-16
Here, I. Barak beats up for volunteers, and soon has his quota of men ready, Jdg 4:10. Deborah had appointed him to raise an army of 10,000 men (Jdg 4:6), and so many he has presently at his feet, following him, and subject to his command. God is said to call us to his feet (Isa 41:2), that is, into obedience to him. Some think it intimates that they were all footmen, and so the armies of the Jews generally were, which made the disproportion of strength between them and the enemy (who had horses and chariots) very great, and the victory the more illustrious; but the presence of God and his prophetess was abundantly sufficient to balance that disproportion. Barak had his men at his feet, whic…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 4:13
the river of Kishon--The plain on its bank was chosen as the battlefield by Sisera himself, who was unconsciously drawn thither for the ruin of his army.
John Gill on Judges 4:13
And Sisera gathered together all his chariots,.... Or "therefore" he gathered them together, which might lie some in one place, and some in another, for the better quartering of the men that belonged to them:
even nine hundred chariots of iron; and which, as before observed, are magnified by Josephus, and made to be three thousand:
and all the people that were with him; his soldiers, Jabin's army, of which he was captain, and are called a multitude, Judges 4:7; and which, the above writer says (h), consisted of three hundred thousand foot, and ten thousand horse, besides the iron chariots: these he collected together, and brought with him:
from Harosheth of the Gentiles; the place where h…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Judges 4:12-14
As soon as Sisera received tidings of the march of Barak to Mount Tabor, he brought together all his chariots and all his men of war from Harosheth of the Goyim into the brook-valley of the Kishon. Then Deborah said to Barak, "Up; for this is the day in which Jehovah hath given Sisera into thy hand. Yea (הלא, nonne, as an expression indicating lively assurance), the Lord goeth out before thee," sc., to the battle, to smite the foe; whereupon Barak went down from Tabor with his 10,000 men to attack the enemy, according to Jdg 5:19, at Taanach by the water of Megiddo.
