Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 4:2

And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host [was] Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.

2. Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor ] Hazor, already a royal city in the 15 cent. b.c. (Amarna Tablets 154, 41), lay in the neighbourhood of Kedesh-naphtali (Jos 19:36 f., 2Ki 15:20) and to the S. of it ( 1Ma 11:63 ; 1Ma 11:67 ff.); the name (= enclosure) is preserved in Jebel areh (= sheep-fold) and Merj el-areh, W. of the lake of leh, but the site is not known with certainty; Guthe ( Bibel Atlas) places it at urbeh, 2 m. E. of Jebel areh; in any case Jabin’s city was at least 30 m. N. of the scene of Barak’s victory. The compiler here and in Jdg 4:23-24 raises Jabin king of Hazor ( Jdg 4:17, Jos 11:1) to the rank of king of Canaan (cf. Gen 26:1; Gen 26:8 ‘king of the Philistines’), an anomalous title, for Canaan was not an organized kingdom under a single head, but a general name for a region of independent towns each with a chief of its own (Jos 5:1; Jos 9:1; Jos 11:1 etc.). The tradition is further magnified in Jos 11:1-15, where the struggle between Jabin king of Hazor and the two tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, a reminiscence of which probably underlies the present narrative and Joshua 11, becomes the conquest of N. Canaan by Joshua and all Israel.

the captain of whose host was Sisera ] Cf. Jdg 4:7. By subordinating Sisera in this way an attempt was made to combine the two traditions. But the narrative as it proceeds makes it clear that Sisera was an independent chief; the nine hundred chariots of iron (see Jdg 1:19 n.) in Jdg 4:13 belong to him; like Jabin, he had his own capital, Harosheth, probably rithyeh, on the right bank of the Kishon, at the S.W. corner of the Plain of Jezreel, where the chariots could be used with effect. The name Sisera, which occurs again in Ezr 2:53, is foreign, cf. the Assyr. sasur ‘progeny,’ seseru ‘child’: it may not be Semitic at all; Moore compares the Hittite names ending in – sira, tasira, Maurasira (W. H. Mller, As. u. Eur., p. 332).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

See Jos 11:1 note. Since the events there narrated, Hazor must have been rebuilt, and have resumed its position as the metropolis of the northern Canaanites; the other cities must also have resumed their independence, and restored the fallen dynasties.

Harosheth (identified by Conder with El Harathlyeh, see Jdg 4:6) is marked by the addition of the Gentiles, as in Galilee of the nations Gen 14:1; Isa 9:1. The name Harosheth signifies workmanship, cutting and carving, whether in stone or wood Exo 31:5, and hence, might be applied to the place where such works are carried on. It has been conjectured that this being a great timber district, rich in cedars and fir-trees, and near Great Zidon Jos 11:8, Jabin kept a large number of oppressed Israelites at work in hewing wood, and preparing it at Harosheth for transport to Zidon; and that these woodcutters, armed with axes and hatchets, formed the soldiers of Baraks army.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 2. Jabin king of Canaan] Probably a descendant of the Jabin mentioned Jos 11:1, c., who had gathered together the wrecks of the army of that Jabin defeated by Joshua. Calmet supposes that these Canaanites had the dominion over the tribes of Naphtali, Zebulun, and Issachar while Deborah judged in Ephraim, and Shamgar in Judah.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

King of Canaan, i.e. of the land where the most of the Canaanites, strictly so called, now dwelt, which seems to be in thee northern part of Canaan. This seems to be of the posterity of that Jabin, whom Joshua slew, Jos 11:10 who watched all opportunities to recover his ancient possessions, and to revenge his own and fathers quarrel upon the Israelites.

In Hazor; either,

1. In the city of Hazor, which though taken and burnt by Joshua, Jos 11:11, yet might be retaken and rebuilt by the Canaanites. Or,

2. In the territory or kingdom of Hazor, which might now be restored to its former largeness and power, Jos 11:10, the names of cities being oft put for their territories, as Zorah, a city, Jos 15:33, is put for the fields belonging to it, Jdg 13:2, in which Samsons parents lived, Jdg 13:25; 16:31; 18:2.

Harosheth of the Gentiles; so called, because it was much frequented and inhabited by the Gentiles; either by the Canaanites, who being beaten out of their former possessions, seated themselves in those northern parts; or by other nations coming there for traffic, or upon other occasions, as Strabo notes of those parts; whence Galilee, where this was, is called Galilee of the Gentiles.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

2, 3. Jabin king of Canaan“Jabin,”a royal title (see on Jos 11:1). Thesecond Jabin built a new capital on the ruins of the old (Jos 11:10;Jos 11:11). The northernCanaanites had recovered from the effect of their disastrousoverthrow in the time of Joshua, and now triumphed in their turn overIsrael. This was the severest oppression to which Israel had beensubjected. But it fell heaviest on the tribes in the north, and itwas not till after a grinding servitude of twenty years that theywere awakened to view it as the punishment of their sins and to seekdeliverance from God.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And the Lord sold them,…. Delivered them into a state of bondage and slavery, where they were like men sold for slaves, see Jud 3:8;

into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; there was a city of this name, and a king of it of the same name, as here, in the times of Joshua, which city was taken and burnt by him, and its king slain, Jos 11:1; and either the country about it is here meant, as Jericho in the preceding chapter is put for the country adjacent to it; or this city had been rebuilt, over which reigned one of the posterity of the ancient kings of it, and of the same name; or Jabin was a name common to the kings of Canaan, as Pharaoh to the Egyptian kings; and by Canaan is meant, not the land of Canaan in general, but a particular part of it inhabited by that, or some of that nation or tribe, which was peculiarly so called:

the captain of whose host [was] Sisera; Jabin maintained a standing army to keep the people of Israel in subjection, the general of which was Sisera, of whom many things are after said:

which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles; not Jabin, as many understand it, for he had his royal seat and residence in Hazor; but Sisera his general, and where the army under his command was. This place had its name either because it was built by same of various nations, or inhabited by workmen of different countries; or rather it was a wood originally, as the name signifies, to which many of the seven nations of the Canaanites fled from before Joshua, and hid and sheltered themselves, and in process of time built strong towers and fortresses in it, and became numerous and powerful; and so the Targum paraphrases the words,

“and he dwelt in the strength of the towers of the people;”

and in other times, as Strabo relates w, the northern parts of the land of Canaan, as those were where Hazor and Harosheth were, were inhabited by a mixed people, Egyptians, Arabians, and Phoenicians; such were they, he says, that held Galilee, Jericho, Philadelphia, and Samaria.

w Geograph. l. 16. p. 525.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(2) Sold them.See Jdg. 2:14.

Jabin.The name means, he is wise. It may have been a dynastic name, like Abimelech, Melchizedek, Pharaoh, Hadad, Agag, &c.

King of Canaani.e., of some great tribe or nation of the Canaanite8. In Jos. 11:1 Jabin is called king of Hazor, and sends messages to all the other Canaanite princes.

Reigned in Hazor.See Jos. 11:1. Hazor was in the tribe of Naphtali (Jos. 19:36), and overlooked the waters of Merom (Jos., Antt. v. 5, 1). We find from Egyptian inscriptions of Barneses II., &c., that it was a flourishing town in very ancient days. Owing to its importance, it was fortified by Solomon (1Ki. 9:15). Its inhabitants were taken captive by Tiglath-pileser (2Ki. 15:29); and it is last mentioned in 1Ma. 9:27. (Comp. Jos., Antt. xiii. 5, 7.) De Saulcy discovered large and ancient ruins to the north of Merom, which he identifies with this town. The Bishop of Bath and Wells (Lord A. Hervey On the Genealogies, p. 28) has pointed out the strange resemblance between the circumstances of this defeat and that recorded in Joshua 11. In both we have a Jabin, king of Hazor; in both there are subordinate kings (Jdg. 5:19; Jos. 11:1); in both chariots are prominent, which, as we conjecture from Jos. 11:8, were burnt at Misrephoth-maim (burnings by the waters); and in both the general outline of circumstances is the same, and the same names occur in the list of conquered kings (Jos. 11:21-22). This seems to be the reason why Josephus, in his account of the earlier event (Antt. v. 1, 18), does not mention either Jabin or Hazor, though strangely enough he says, in both instances, with his usual tendency to exaggeration, that the Canaanites had 300,000 foot, 10,000 horse, and 3,000 chariots. It is again a curious, though it may be an unimportant circumstance, that in 1Sa. 12:9 the prophet mentions Sisera before Eglon. Of course, if the received view of the chronology be correct, we must make the not impossible supposition, that in the century and a half which is supposed to have elapsed since the death of Joshua, Hazor had risen from its obliteration and its ashes (Jos. 11:11; Jos., Antt. v. 5, 4), under a new Canaanite settlement, governed by a king who adopted the old dynastic name. If, on the other hand, there are chronological indications that the whole period of the Judges must be greatly shortened, we may perhaps suppose that the armies of Joshua and Barak combined the full strength of the central and northern tribes in an attack from different directions, which ended in a common victory. In that case, the different tribal records can only have dwelt on that part of the victory in which they were themselves concerned. It is remarkable that even so conservative a critic as Bishop Wordsworth holds that some of the judges of Israel were only judges of portions of Canaan, and that the years run parallel to those of other judges in other districts of the same country. If there are difficulties in whatever scheme of chronology we adopt, we must remember the antiquity and the fragmentary nature of the records, which were written with other and far higher views than that of furnishing us with an elaborate consecutive history.

The captain of whose host.In Eastern narratives it is common for the king to play a very subordinate personal part. In the last campaign of Crsus we hear much more of Surenas, the general of the Parthians, than of Orodes (Arsaces, 14).

Sisera.The name long lingered among the Israelites. It occurs again in Ezr. 2:53, as the name of the founder of a family of Nethinim (minor servants of the Levites, of Canaanite origin, 2 Samuel 21; Ezr. 2:43; 1Ch. 9:2); and in the strange fashion which prevailed among some of the Rabbis of claiming a foreign descent, the great Rabbi Akhivah professed to be descended from Sisera.

Harosheth.The name means wood-cutting. The Chaldee renders it, In the strength of citadels of the nations. It was an ingenious and not improbable conjecture of the late Dr. Donaldson, that the town was named from the fact that Sisera made the subject Israelites serve as hewers of wood in the cedar-woods and fir-woods of Lebanon. The site of Harosheth has been precariously identified with Harstheh, a hill on the south-east of the plain of Akka. (Thomsons Land and Book, ch. 29)

Of the Gentilesi.e., of the nations; of mixed inhabitants; lying as it did in Galilee of the Gentiles. (Comp. Tidal, king of nations, Gen. 14:1, and The king of the nations in Gilgal, Jos. 12:23.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

2. Sold them See note on Jdg 2:14.

Jabin king of Canaan This powerful monarch was probably a descendant of the Jabin who headed the confederacy of the northern Canaanites against Joshua, but who was signally defeated by that great conqueror. Jos 11:1-15. He had taken advantage of Israel’s many oppressions, and gradually strengthened his power in the north, and enlarged his kingdom, until he could send into the field a vast army with nearly a thousand iron chariots. Jdg 4:3. Having reduced all Israel to the most servile subjection, he was virtually ruler of the whole land, and called king of Canaan. The name Jabin was probably a royal title of the kings that reigned in Hazor. On this capital, see note at Jos 11:1.

Captain Sisera Jabin, like Abimelech, (Gen 21:22,) had a captain, or general, to command his army. Most of the kings of that time commanded their armies in person. Doubtless Sisera’s great military skill and sagacity had won him this honour. The famous Rabbi Akiba is said to have descended from this Canaanite general.

Harosheth “About eight miles from Megiddo, at the entrance of the pass to Esdraelon from the plain of Acre, is an enormous double mound called Harothieh. It is still covered with the remains of old walls and buildings. It was probably called Harosheth of the Gentiles, or nations, because it belonged to those Gentiles of Acre and the neighbouring plains which we know, from Jdg 1:31, the Hebrews could not subdue.” Thomson.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments