Judges 5:6

In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
days	בִּימֵ֞י bi.Mei	H3117	a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
Shamgar	שַׁמְגַּ֤ר sham.Gar	H8044	Shamgar · proper noun, a man's name
son	בֶּן ben-	H1121	a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Anath	עֲנָת֙ 'a.Nat	H6067	Anath · proper noun, a man's name
days	בִּימֵ֣י bi.Mei	H3117	a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
Jael	יָעֵ֔ל ya.'El	H3278	Jael · proper noun, a woman's name
highways	אֳרָח֑וֹת 'o.ra.Chot	H734	a well-trodden road (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine plural absolute
unoccupied	חָדְל֖וּ cha.de.Lu	H2308	properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
travellers	וְהֹלְכֵ֣י ve.ho.le.Khei	H1980	to walk (in a great variety of applications · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
walked	יָלַךְ yâlak	H3212	to walk (literally or figuratively)
byways	עֲקַלְקַלּֽוֹת a.kal.ka.Lot	H6128	winding · adjective, feminine plural absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Judges 3:31 And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.
Isaiah 33:8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.
Leviticus 26:22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your…
Lamentations 1:4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted,…
Judges 4:17-18 Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor a…
2 Chronicles 15:5 And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of th…
Psalms 125:5 As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Isra…
Lamentations 4:18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Judges 5:6-11

Here, I. Deborah describes the distressed state of Israel under the tyranny of Jabin, that the greatness of their trouble might make their salvation appear the more illustrious and the more gracious (Jdg 5:6): From the days of Shamgar, who did something towards the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines, to the days of Jael, the present day, in which Jael has so signalized herself, the country has been in a manner desolate. 1. No trade. For want of soldiers to protect men of business in their business from the incursions of the enemy, and for want of magistrates to restrain and punish thieves and robbers among them (men of broken fortunes and desperate spirits, that, having no employment…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 5:6

The song proceeds in these verses to describe the sad condition of the country, the oppression of the people, and the origin of all the national distress in the people's apostasy from God. Idolatry was the cause of foreign invasion and internal inability to resist it.

John Gill on Judges 5:6

In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath,.... Of whom see Judges 3:31; who succeeded Ehud as a judge, but lived not long, and did not much; at least wrought not a perfect deliverance of the children of Israel; but during his time till now, quite through the twenty years of Jabin's oppression, things were as they are after described: in the days of Jael; the wife of Heber the Kenite, spoken of in the preceding chapter, Judges 4:17, who appears to be a woman of masculine spirit, and endeavoured to do what good she could to Israel, though not a judge among them, as Jarchi suggests; and who before this affair of Sisera had signalized herself by some deeds of hers in favour of Israel, and agains…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 5:6-7

6 In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, the paths kept holiday, And the wanderers of the paths went crooked ways. 7 The towns in Israel kept holiday, they kept holiday, Until that I, Deborah, arose, That I arose a mother in Israel 8 They chose new gods; Then was war at the gates: Was there a shield seen and a spear Among forty thousand in Israel? The deep degradation and disgrace into which Israel had sunk before the appearance of Deborah, through its falling away from the Lord into idolatry, forms the dark reverse of that glorification at Sinai. Although, after Ehud, Shamgar had also brought help to the people against their enemies by a victory over the Philis…

The Church Fathers

(Judges 5:6) In the days of Sangar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jahel, the paths remained empty, and those who entered through them walked along crooked roads. The paths are said to have remained empty because during the time of Sangar, the leader of Israel, the paths had been taken over by enemies of Israel, and they did not dare to freely ascend to the house of the Lord to pray; instead, those who entered through them secretly ascended through crooked streets, out of fear of the enemies. Concerning which enemies Sangar is said to have not fully freed them (Judg. 3:31). But what is inserted a little above, in the days of Jahel, is to be understood, because when Sisara was killed by Jahel, the roads were opened, and they went into the house of the Lord without any fear, who previously went there by winding paths. And that Jahel is mentioned before Debbora here, it is said that Debbora did this for the sake of humility, because Jahel, the wife of Aber the Cinaean, killed Sisara.
— Jerome, Commentary on the Song of Deborah

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Anath — An answer; i.e., to “prayer”, the father of Shamgar, who was one of the judges of Israel (Judg. 3:31).
Barak — Lightning, the son of Abinoam (Judg. 4:6). At the summons of Deborah he made war against Jabin. She accompanied him into the battle, and gave the signal for the little army to make the attack; in…
By-ways — Only in Judg. 5:6 and Ps. 125:5; literally “winding or twisted roads.” The margin has “crooked ways.”
Deborah — A bee. (1.) Rebekah’s nurse. She accompanied her mistress when she left her father’s house in Padan-aram to become the wife of Isaac (Gen. 24:59). Many years afterwards she died at Bethel, and was…
Ehud — Union. (1.) A descendant of Benjamin (1 Chr. 7:10), his great-grandson. (2.) The son of Gera, of the tribe of Benjamin (Judg. 3:15). After the death of Othniel the people again fell into idolatry,…
Jabin — Discerner; the wise. (1.) A king of Hazor, at the time of the entrance of Israel into Canaan (Josh. 11:1-14), whose overthrow and that of the northern chief with whom he had entered into a…
Poetry — Has been well defined as “the measured language of emotion.” Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man’s relation to God. “Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon,…
Shamgar — The Philistines from the maritime plain had made incursions into the Hebrew upland for the purposes of plunder, when one of this name, the son of Anath, otherwise unknown, headed a rising for the…
Songs — Of Moses (Ex. 15; Num. 21:17; Deut. 32; Rev. 15:3), Deborah (Judg. 5), Hannah (1 Sam. 2), David (2 Sam. 22, and Psalms), Mary (Luke 1:46-55), Zacharias (Luke 1:68-79), the angels (Luke 2:13), Simeon…
Succoth — Booths. (1.) The first encampment of the Israelites after leaving Ramesses (Ex. 12:37); the civil name of Pithom (q.v.). (2.) A city on the east of Jordan, identified with Tell Dar’ala, a high mound,…
Women

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Judges 5:6-11

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 5:6

John Gill on Judges 5:6

Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 5:6-7

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Judges 5:6-11

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 5:6

John Gill on Judges 5:6

Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 5:6-7

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Rashi on Judges 5:6