Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 4:15
And the LORD discomfited Sisera, and all [his] chariots, and all [his] host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off [his] chariot, and fled away on his feet.
15. discomfited ] lit. ‘confused,’ ‘threw into a panic.’ The word, not a common one, occurs again in the prose counterpart to the Song of Moses (Exo 14:24), and in Jos 10:10 just before the poetic fragment Jdg 4:12-13; cf. 1Sa 7:10. The words with the edge of the sword do not go well with threw into a panic; they may have come accidentally from Jdg 4:16.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Lighted down off his chariot – Probably his chariot stuck in the morass (see the note at Jdg 4:7); or he might leave his chariot in order to mislead his pursuers, and in hope of gaining a place of safety while they were following the track of the chariot-wheels and the bulk of the host.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. The Lord discomfited Sisera] vayiahom Jehovah; the Lord CONFOUNDED, threw them all into confusion, drove them pell-mell-caused chariots to break and overthrow chariots, and threw universal disorder into all their ranks. In this case Barak and his men had little to do but kill and pursue, and Sisera in order to escape, was obliged to abandon his chariot. There is no doubt all this was done by supernatural agency; God sent his angel and confounded them.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Lord discomfited Sisera, with great terror and noise, as the word signifies, Exo 14:24; Jos 10:10; 1Sa 10, most probably with thunder, and lightning, and hailstones, or other such instruments of destruction poured upon them from heaven, as is sufficiently implied, Jdg 5:20.
With the edge of the sword, i.e. by the sword of Barak and his army, whose ministry God used; but so that they had little else to do but to kill these whom God by more powerful arms had put to flight.
Fled away on his feet, that he might flee away more secretly and securely in the quality of a common soldier, whereas his chariot would have exposed him to more observation and hazard.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. the Lord discomfitedSiseraHebrew, “threw his army into confusion”;men, horses, and chariots being intermingled in wild confusion. Thedisorder was produced by a supernatural panic (see on Jud5:20).
so that Sisera lighted downoff his chariot, and fled away on his feetHis chariot beingprobably distinguished by its superior size and elegance, wouldbetray the rank of its rider, and he saw therefore that his onlychance of escape was on foot.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the Lord discomfited Sisera and all [his] chariots, and all [his] host,…. Frightened them, as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, or disturbed them with a noise and tumult, as the word signifies; with a noise in the heavens, which were in their ears, as Abarbinel observes, like the noise of a large army, as was the case of the Syrians, 2Ki 7:6; and they saw, he says, horses and chariots of fire, and the like, which terrified them; and all this he supposes was done before Barak descended from the mountain, so that he had nothing to do when he came but to pursue and kill, whereby it plainly appeared it was the Lord’s doing. Josephus i says there was a great tempest of rain and hail, and the wind blew the rain in their faces, which so blinded their eyes, that their slings and arrows were of no use to them; and they that bore armour were so benumbed, that they could not hold their swords. Something of this kind is intimated by Deborah in her song, Jud 5:20; and this was accompanied or followed by a slaughter
with the edge of the sword before Barak; the fright and dread they were put into was increased by the appearance of Barak, who fell upon them in their confusion, and cut them to pieces:
so that Sisera lighted down off [his] chariot, and fled away on his feet; being very probably swift of foot; and besides thought it safest to quit his chariot, which in the confusion was in danger of being run against by others; as also he might judge he should not be so easily discerned who he was when on foot, as a common soldier, as in his splendid chariot; and this he might do in his fright, not considering his horses were swifter than he: thus Homer represents a Trojan warrior leaping out of his chariot to escape Diomedes, and another as doing the same to get clear of Achilles k.
i Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 5. sect. 1.) sect. 4. k Vid. Iliad. 5. & 20.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“ And the Lord discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak. ” , as in Exo 14:24 and Jos 10:10, denotes the confounding of the hostile army by a miracle of God, mostly by some miraculous phenomenon of nature: see, besides Exo 14:24; 2Sa 22:15; Psa 18:15, and Psa 144:6. The expression places the defeat of Sisera and his army in the same category as the miraculous destruction of Pharaoh and of the Canaanites at Gibeon; and the combination of this verb with the expression “with the edge of the sword” is to be taken as constructio praegnans, in the sense: Jehovah threw Sisera and his army into confusion, and, like a terrible champion fighting in front of Israel, smote him without quarter, Sisera sprang from his chariot to save himself, and fled on foot; but Barak pursued the routed foe to Harosheth, and completely destroyed them. “ All Sisera’s army fell by the edge of the sword; there remained not even to one, ” i.e., not a single man.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(15) Discomfited.The same word as in Exo. 14:24; Jos. 10:10. The LXX. exestse, and the Vulg. perterruit, imply the element of immediate Divine aid in the battle.
Sisera, and all his chariots.Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God (Psa. 20:7; comp. Psa. 33:16-17; Pro. 21:31).
And all his host.Do unto them . . . as to Sisera, as to Jabin at the brook of Kison, which perished at Endor, and became as the dung of the earth (Psa. 83:9-10). Considering the allusion to the swollen waters of the Kishon and the storm in Jdg. 5:20-22, it seems probable that Josephus is following a correct Jewish tradition when he describes the battle thus:They joined battle, and as the ranks closed a violent storm came on, and much rain and hail; and the wind drove the rain against the faces of the Canaanites, darkening their outlook, so that their archeries and their slings were rendered useless, and their heavy-armed soldiers, because of the cold, were unable to use their swords. But since the storm was behind the Israelites, it caused them less harm, and they further took courage from their belief in Gods assistance, so that, driving into the midst of the enemy, they killed many of them, &c. (Antt. v. 5, 4). The battle thus closely resembled that of Timoleon against the Carthaginians at the Crimessus (Grote, xi. 246), and the English victory at Crecy, as has been graphically described by Dean Stanley (Jew. Church, i. 329). We may add that similar conditions recurred in the battle of Cann, except that it was the storm of dust and not of rain that was blown in the faces of the Romans by the Scirocco (Liv. 22:46; Plut. Fab. 16).
Sisera lighted down off his chariot.We find an Homeric hero, Idus (Il. v. 20), doing the same thing. On this the frivolous critic Zoilus made the objection, Why did he not fly in his chariot? The answer is the same as here: Sisera would have far more chance of escaping into concealment if he left the well-known chariot of a general. Besides this, his chariotlike those of the Egyptians at the Red Seawas probably struggling in the trampled morass. It was left to rust on the banks of the Kishon, like Rodericks on the shores of the Guadelete (Stanley).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. The Lord discomfited Sisera Confused and confounded him, and gave such an impulse to the warriors of Barak that the vigorous use of their swords was more terrible than Jabin’s chariots, and filled all the Canaanitish host with such sudden alarm that they fled panic stricken before the Israelites. There was also direct miraculous interposition. “They fought from heaven,” says Jdg 5:20, and Josephus states that there came a violent tempest and hail, which so obscured the eyes of Sisera’s host that they could not use their arrows and slings, and many were killed by their own horses and chariots. The rain had swelled the Kishon to a flood, so that its rushing waters swept multitudes away. Jdg 5:21. The flight of the defeated host would naturally be down the valley towards Harosheth.
Sisera lighted Hoping, probably, to elude pursuit.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jdg 4:15 a
‘And Yahweh discomfited Sisera and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak.’
It was a total rout. Without iron accoutrements to hinder them, and more lightly armed, and fired by the belief that Yahweh had done this, the Israelites could cope with the conditions much better. And the Canaanites were already in disarray. So while there would undoubtedly be some resistance, they were totally unprepared. And not knowing how many of these dreadful barbarians were coming against them, and being without their main officers, who were caught up in their chariots, to rally them, they panicked and eventually turned and fled. And a fleeing army is easily beaten, especially by the more lightly clad.
Jdg 4:15 b
‘And Sisera lighted down from his chariot, and fled away on his feet.’
This is the only indication we have in Judges 4 of the flooding of the plain. Sisera must have left his chariot because it was unusable. Only flooding could have done that, and caused him to panic in this way. Possibly his officers were the ones who told him to save himself while they fought a rearguard action, or perhaps he got away in the confusion, but it emphasises the panic that had seized hold of the Canaanite army, and Sisera as well. They had heard about the activities of Yahweh, God of Israel, and now they were seeing Him in action. They did not like the odds.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 4:15. And the Lord discomfited Sisera Though the expression in the text may be well understood according to the Scripture idiom, without any miraculous interposition; yet it is generally supposed, from the signification of the original word vayaham, (which imports a terror by the noise of thunder and lightning; see Schultens Orig. Heb. lib. 1: p. 140.) that the Lord interposed miraculously: see 1Sa 7:10. Jos 10:10.; and something of this kind seems to be acknowledged by Deborah in her song, Jdg 4:20. Josephus, who is of this opinion, greatly aggrandizes the affair. He says, that as soon as the armies were engaged, there arose a prodigious tempest of hail and rain, which drove in the faces of the Canaanites, and occasioned a total rout of them. See Antiq. lib. 5: cap. 5.
REFLECTIONS.Barak, at Deborah’s command, having quickly raised the ten thousand men, chiefly out of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, encamped on mount Tabor; and Deborah, according to her promise, accompanied him. Sisera is soon informed of these military preparations, either by the Canaanites or the Kenites, who lately removed into this part of the country out of Judah, and were at peace with Jabin. He immediately collects his army, with his nine hundred chariots of iron, in which his strength lay, and against which ten thousand footmen were a very unequal match. When the armies were thus encamped, the one at the brook beneath, and the other in the mountain above;
1. Deborah issues the order for the battle to begin. Barak and the people might well tremble at the sight before them; but she assures them that they need not fear; God is with them, and this very day should they see his great salvation. The victory is already won, since God has promised it. Note; If God be for us, let us never fear who are against us.
2. Barak obeys. He trusts not to his encampment on the mountain, nor waits there to be attacked; but, trusting on the divine promise, boldly descends. Struck with a panic fear, the army of Sisera dares not to abide his coming, but, discomfited of God, seek in vain by flight to save themselves from the sword of Barak. Note; (1.) They who go forth in faith must return victorious. (2.) When God pursues the sinner, flight is vain.
3. A total overthrow is given to these numerous hosts. They are pursued to the very gates of their city, and not a man spared from the sword: both chariots and horses are fallen, and Sisera alone escapes on foot, only to fall more ignominiously in the tent of Jael. Note; (1.) When God begins in earnest with his enemies, he will also make an end. (2.) We do well to prosecute our successes against our corruptions, and quicken our diligence the more we prevail against them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Such, Reader, will be, and such even now is, the sure event of the wars of God’s people, who fight under the banner of Jesus. There shall not a man be able to stand before thee all thy days. So run the words of the royal charter to our Joshua Jesus, and his people in him. Jos 1:5 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 4:15 And the LORD discomfited Sisera, and all [his] chariots, and all [his] host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off [his] chariot, and fled away on his feet.
Ver. 15. And the Lord discomfited Sisera. ] Or, Terrified, as the vulgar Latin hath it, perhaps by thunder and hailstones, as Jos 10:10 1Sa 7:10 , where the same Hebrew word is used; or else by some hurry noise made in the air by the angels, as 2Ki 6:15-18 ; but something was certainly done from heaven, Jdg 5:20 wherewith the Canaanites were so frightened, that many of them ran into the river Kishon and there perished. Jdg 5:21 So the winds fought for Theodosius in that famous battle against Maximus. a Hence Claudian, a heathen, cried out of him –
“ O nimium dilecte Deo, cui militat aether,
Et coniurati veniunt ad classica venti ”
a
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the LORD discomfited = Jehovah discomfited. Compare Psa 83:9. The word implies supernatural phenomena. Compare Jdg 5:20-22. Exo 14:24. Jos 10:10. 2Sa 22:15. Psa 18:15.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jdg 5:20, Jdg 5:21, Jos 10:10, 2Ki 7:6, 2Ch 13:15-17, Psa 83:9, Psa 83:10, Heb 11:32
Reciprocal: Exo 14:7 – General Exo 14:25 – took off Jos 10:8 – General Jdg 5:28 – Why is Jdg 7:9 – I have delivered 1Sa 7:10 – discomfited Psa 33:17 – An horse Jer 46:6 – not