Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 5:7
[The inhabitants of] the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.
7. The rulers ceased ] The Targ., Peshitto, Jewish commentators followed by AV., treat the Hebr. pr zn (sing.), found only here and Jdg 5:11, as equivalent to pr zth (plur.) = ‘open regions,’ ‘hamlets,’ as opposed to walled towns, Eze 38:11, Zec 2:3; hence perz ‘hamlet-dweller’ 1Sa 6:18 and, doubtfully, Perizzites Jdg 1:5 n. But this rendering inhabitants of villages does not suit Jdg 5:11; ‘the righteous acts towards his peasantry’ makes sense in English, but it does not fairly represent the harshness of the Hebrew. Another ancient rendering, is ‘powerful ones,’ LXX. B, Vulgate fortes, rulers, more strictly ‘power,’ ‘rule’; but this, though suitable for Jdg 5:11, has no support in usage or etymology. The meaning of the word here and in Jdg 5:11 must be left uncertain. In the following words ceased in Israel, they ceased, the repetition of the verb is either accidental, or a clause has dropped out.
Until that I Deborah arose ] till thou didst arise, Deborah, didst arise etc. The verb is to be taken as 2nd fem. (archaic), on account of the address in Jdg 5:12, though the Massoretic scribes intended the form to be 1st pers., as it usually is: LXX, Vulgate 3rd pers., Peshitto, Targ. 1st pers.
a mother in Israel ] Cf. the use of father in. Isa 22:21; Job 29:16.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Render the word villages (here and in Jdg 5:11) judgment, rule, or judges, rulers. The sense is The princes (or magistrates) ceased in Israel, i. e. there was no one to do justice in the gate, or defend men from their oppressors.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. The villages ceased] The people were obliged to live together in fortified places; or in great numbers, to protect each other against the incursions of bands of spoilers.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The villages ceased; the people forsook all their unfortified towns, as not being able to protect them from military insolence.
A mother, i.e. to be to them as a mother, to instruct, and rule, and protect them, which duties a mother oweth to her children as far as she is able.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
The inhabitants of the villages ceased,…. Not only did those Canaanitish robbers go upon the highway, and robbed all they met with, which made travelling difficult and dangerous; but entered into the villages and unwalled towns, and broke into houses and plundered them; so that the inhabitants of them were obliged to quit their dwellings, and go into the fortified cities for security; by which means the villages were left empty, and in time fell to ruin, and ceased:
they ceased in Israel: for they were the villages which belonged to the Israelites that were plundered, and not those that belonged to any of the Canaanites; and these were the unhappy circumstances Israel were under
until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel; until it pleased God to raise her up, and endow her in a very wonderful and extraordinary manner with gifts qualifying her to be a nursing mother to Israel, to teach and instruct them in the mind and will of God, to administer judgement and justice to them, to protect and defend them, and in all which she discovered a maternal affection for them; and as a good judge and ruler of a people may be called the father of them, so she, being a woman, is with propriety called a mother in Israel, having an affectionate concern for them as her children: now, till she arose, there was no perfect salvation and deliverance wrought for them, since the death of Ehud, even throughout the days of Shamgar and Jael; which is observed to excite praise and thankfulness on the present occasion, which hereby became the more illustrious.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
WIFE AND MOTHER. A MODEL IN BOTH
(A Sermon to Women)
1Pe 3:1-2; Jdg 5:7.
I WANT to speak as plainly today as is our wont in addressing the men.
Our first text is addressed to the wives.
Ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives.
In Peters mind the great work of the wife was to win her husband, and he understood that some graces were essential to that accomplishment.
Affection is the first grace of a wife! The subjection mentioned in the text is not slavery, but the sweet service of love.
Love! of mans life tis a thing apart,Tis womans whole existence.
And the model wife will make her husband feel that fact.
She will set it forth in her tender care for him; in her tidy home; in her personal toilet; and in ten thousand unspeakable, yet eloquent, ways; and when there is opportunity she will whisper it into his ear in modest, yet unmistakable words. A woman, without this grace of affection, is a travesty upon her sex, and its a pity that she should ever be called a wife. Her coldness and indifference is a shroud for domestic happiness, and her cross looks and scolding words are nails for its coffin. Dr. Talmage says, At the siege of Argus, Pyrrhus was killed by the tile off a roof, thrown by a woman; and Abimelech was slain by a stone that a woman threw from the tower of Thebes; and Earl Montfort was destroyed by a rock discharged at him by a woman from the walls of Toulouse. But without any weapon, save that of her cold, cheerless household arrangement, and slothful person, any wife may slay all the attractions of a home circle.
Her first duty is faithfulness.
Ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands.
New Testament teaching makes no provision for the so-called innocent flirtations in which some wives delight. Our modern amusements are traps set for the feet of many silly women. If Paul and Peter were alive today, and happened upon one of our 19th century dances, they would wonder whether the wives of many had ever heard of this Scripture, Be in subjection to your own husbands.
Somebody has criticized the old square dance by saying that the only danger from it is that the devil can easily cut the corners off, and make it round, and it is well known that when he has accomplished that, he has laid the dynamite for loosening the foundations of many a happy home. The average play, put before the devotees of the theater, mocks at virtue, sets the social evils in tempting perspective, and sends many a new wife back to her home, half convinced that happiness is to be had by the sale of herself and the deception of him whom she has sworn to love.
It is often remarked that our elite homes are not so happy as those of the commoner classes. The reasons are not far to seek! Chastity is more esteemed by the middle classes than by those that live the lives of butterflies, and the houses of the former have the firmer foundation in consequence.
I am not among those who believe that the world is growing better. I see progress in the Church of Christ, but the gilded vices of the present day give to me no promise of a golden age, save as they suggest that Christ must shortly come. I doubt if there was ever a time when virtue was a thing of commerce as at this present hour. Our social order and our commercial arrangements, just as certainly as our methods of amusement, are tending to the tearing down of the strongholds of womanhood.
Some years ago, Mrs. Henderson, of New York, a young widow, was among the unfortunate women who are thrown absolutely upon their own resources for a living. When she discovered that her salary would not support her in the plainest living, and reached the point where the propositions of her employer must be accepted, or starvation grappled with, she said, I prefer death, and flung herself from the attic window of her lodging house.
They brought up her corpse from the street and buried it, but for every one such there are hundreds of others that love life so tenaciously that they make the greater sacrifice, and instead of casting themselves down three stories to the street below, they plunge into the very pit, destroying the soul to save the body; and to escape a coffin, bury themselves in the shroud of sin and the deepest grave that this world knows.
For some of these one can only feel the profoundest pity, but for the wife whose only temptation to fall is her own lust, one feels contempt instead; and the godless world, in its utter indifference to righteousness, rises with condemnation on its lips; for whatever our philosophies may be, all men feel that faithfulness is a wifes first duty.
The first privilege of a wife is service. One of the temptations to which many of them are peculiarly subjected is selfishness. If I were asked the besetting sin of the sex, among those who are in comfortable circumstances, I would mention selfishness.
The young wife in a comfortable home is related to the other members of the house much as the youngest, prettiest, or weakest child is. Her very sex invites petting and indulgence. If she is wise and energetic, that will only contribute to her character and increase her happiness; but if she is selfish and opinionated, it will tend to turn her head and bring her to believe that she is something special, and a domestic disaster is the consequence.
Little Lucy Grieve, by Mrs. Humphrey Ward, is a fair representation of this class. Lucy loved David, and knew his splendid superiority; and yet she loved herself so well that she was willing to sacrifice his finest feelings, obliterate his spirit of benevolence, and destroy the remnant of affection he bore to his own unfortunate sister, that she herself might be the better dressed, more advanced in society, and the more indulged in selfishness.
Almost daily we see Lucys character illustrated in the conduct of the living.
I have read a good many poems that tenderly plead with men to remember the wifes cares, and be careful not to forget the caress; the wifes labors, and lend her a lift when possible; the wifes weariness, and overcome it by entering the house with a smile. I love all such verses! They strike in my heart a responsive cord!
There is very little danger that the women God has given us will be loved or served too well. But some of these days I intend to turn poet myself, and pen some lines to women about their duties to husbandswho delve eight to sixteen hours a day to dress them elegantly, provide them happy homes, and keep them in continual joy.
A husband gets tired sometimes. A husband meets in business the most vexatious problems, and in recent times many a husband has struggled under loads too heavy to be borne by mortal man. With the casting up of accounts daily, he has seen the fortune that cost him years of ceaseless toil, being cut down, threatened with utter wreck, and himself about to be branded with bankruptcy. I agree with Henry Ward Beecher that there is no suffering out of hell much more difficult to endure than the business mans experience, when a few days sweep from him the fortune won by weary years of labor, or when the position which he has held in honor is about to be taken from him, or the character that he has made by a course of unimpeachable conduct is about to be brought into disrepute. For a woman to come short of sympathy in an hour like that, or to insist upon an expense in excess of the income, or to pack her splendid trunk and take herself to the seaside to sport, while he, who lives for her sake, suffers, is to accept the most devilish suggestion and sell out for a paltry price her part in his affection, who would lay life on the altar of sacrifice in proof of his love.
When I was in Chicago, my brother, Dr. F. T. Riley, told me how he had been called into a home to administer an antidote to a poison a man had just taken.
When he entered the house he found the man hidden in a dark room, with the door locked. At first he refused him admittance, but finally consented to let him come in, and after much persuasion, confessed that he had just taken a half vial of the deadly stuff, and when the doctor attempted to administer the antidote, he fought to such an extent that my brother was compelled to call in several others to assist him. When the emetic had done its work and Dr. Riley asked why he had taken the poison, the man said, I have been out of employment for weeks. For my wife and child I see no prospect of a livelihood. I have an insurance of $3000. I have fixed it so that I am certain that it will come into their possession in the instance of my death, and I would rather die and let them live.
Does the average woman appreciate her husbands lovethe depth of it, the sacrifice to which it calls its subject? Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
If you would be beautiful indeed, if you would be helpmate for your husband, forget yourself; sacrifice for his sake; give him your sympathy in his time of trouble. For the man struggling against adverse circumstances, there is more assistance in the sympathetic manner of an affectionate wife, than any bank beneath Gods stars can bring him. Speak your love in the very hour of his struggle and save him.
It will do no good to weep at his coffin, or cover his grave with the flowers of insurance money. Better one word while he lives than a thousand sobs after he has gone. Better the flowers of your affection for one minute while he is above ground, than perennial roses on his grave.
But the most solemn duty of a wife is to save her husband. Our text says, If any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives (1Pe 3:1).
Of course Peter meant won to Christ! No matter what else you do for him, you have largely failed in the life-effort unless you take him to Heaven with you.
In that task, you must never tire. In that effort, you must never despair. He may be indifferent to Gods Word; then you must be Christs epistle to him. He may hate the preacher; then your life must preach. He may despise the sight of a church-house; then you must make home a sanctuary of Gods presence. Wherever he goes, whatever he is, your prayers must follow him and your faith must prevail.
Years ago, in the city of Chicago, a man gambled away ten thousand dollars in a day on the Chicago Board of Trade, and followed his loss with a stupendous drunk. He sought out an attorney to see if he could not recover this money. The lawyer was a man of God, and cared more to bring this soul to Christ than to get a client for himself. Instead of pleading for him before the judge, he pled with him for Jesus sake. In the course of his conversation he said, I gave my Bible away today, have you one? To which the sobered man answered, Yes, but its down in my trunk somewhere. I have been a bad man, Mr. B–, but God gave me a blessed wife, and in spite of all my indifference and opposition to the truth, she never lets me leave home without packing that Bible into my trunk. The attorney went to the hotel room and fished it out of the trunk and found it a beautiful Book. There were many marked passages in it; perfumed ribbons and pretty pressed flowers between the pages, which that Virginia girl had laid there with her own loving hand. When, after midnight, as the Christian lawyer turned the leaves of that Bible, and read to him the passages which his own wife had marked, the man broke down utterly and said,
Oh, Sir, pray for me! I want to be a Christian. For fourteen years I have despised that Book and treated it with neglect, and also the interest and affection which my wife has evidenced in putting it in my trunk. But now, Sir, I want to be a Christian; I want to be saved!
The Book which her own beautiful hand has prepared shall be a blessed Bible to me!
For fourteen years she had known that he was neglecting it, and yet for fourteen years she had gone right on putting it in his trunk at every departure, marking new places, shedding new tears upon the sacred page and putting up new prayers to God that He would hear.
And lo! at last, in a far city, by a strange hand, God brought that Book forth and opened it before his eyes, and the perfumed leaves and ribbons wafted to him the full story of her love, while the printed words spoke the eternal love of God; and the man who had so long faced toward hell, turned about and faced toward Home and Heavenher Heaven.
THE MODEL MOTHER
A mother in Israel
The first evidence of a model mother is the maternal spirit. That spirit is a virtue today as never before. The generation of women that loved children lived to bear the most of us, but in most instances are not worthily succeeded. The philosophy of the first social circles of today is childlessness, and that wretched philosophy has so far prevailed that children are coming to be regarded as social inconveniences and domestic nuisances. This is not natural, but is a result of the frivolous views society entertains of happiness, and the flippant price it puts upon human life.
Nature looks in the opposite direction, as you may know by beholding the baby girl when she is surrounded by her dolls. And if mothers were either broadminded or warmhearted, and so kept by Godly philosophies as to rightly instruct their daughters, not one in a thousand of young married women would have a spirit averse to maternity. But alas for the wretched philosophy that many, otherwise beautiful, mothers have brought to their own daughtersa philosophy that makes married life itself a thing of unhappy apprehension, that makes Gods best gift to parents an unwelcome arrival, and renders those appointed to handle immortality in its plastic state, unwilling to touch it at all. And this is not the worst; this philosophy goes so far with many a modern woman that there is need that those of us who stand in the pulpit thunder the commandment, Thou shalt not kill, and we might add, Thou shalt not destroy thyself, for infanticide is also matricide.
The model mother must also remember that it is her commission to make character. It is not enough to bring the little life into the world. Beauty must clothe it. When the mother caresses her own baby, she ought to know that she handles precious material in plastic state, and must account for what comes of it.
Life is a cycle and the teaching of today will come back to you in the fixed form of twenty years hence.
Neros mother was a murderess. No wonder at Nero. Byrons mother was proud, ill-tempered, and violent. Therein is the explanation of poor Byron himself. George Washingtons mother was noble and pure. Therein is the explanation of Washingtons graces. Walter Scotts mother loved poetry and painting, and Scotts proudest literary efforts were the result. Wesleys mother was a Godlike woman. No wonder that John and Charles were the Christian men they were. Charles Spurgeons mother was famed for her graces. To such mothers God gives such sons.
In reading Gordons life recently, I came upon that passage wherein he says, in writing to his wife and children, I have spent two days here, much of the time alone in the dear home where mother spent her last years. So far as seeming lonely, I should be glad to spend days here where everything reminds me of the beloved one. I have many times gone into her vacant bedroom, and kneeled where she so often knelt and prayed for her children. Her family was her parish; to them she ministered, and for them she ceased not to pray to the end. A. J. GordonGods first American ministerwas what he was, largely in consequence of that mothers work.
The model mother lives to make character. But, as with the wife, so the model mothers most responsible office is to save.
If you succeed in all else and fail in that, you would not be satisfied, nor would your children call you blessed.
One of the most astonishing things is the circumstance that some women are content to bring mortal souls into the world, and so little concerned to get them home to God. In my work as a pastor, it is not the least unusual to meet mothers that love society above the souls of their own children, that positively oppose their becoming religious, that prefer they should go to the house of mirth rather than the place of preaching, sit before the most questionable theatrical performance, rather than in the sanctuary of the Most High, accept the embraces of lecherous men, in the dance, rather than the love of the Son of God. I know this is severe speech; but I also know that it is none too strong to express the real in life.
Years since, a mother found her boy frequenting the Y. M. C. A., and becoming much interested in the subject of Christianity. She was sorely disappointed at this discovery. She had her heart set on making him a social beau and sending him into what she called the first circles. She rushed him off to Yale, and shortly she had her desire and more, for he was not only a society man, but accepted with it its cigars, social glass, and attendant evils. When she learned that he was drinking heavily, she sought to reclaim him by sending him many letters, but he tore them up without reading them, saying, When I wanted to do right, mother opposed it. I dont know why she should be solicitous now seeing I am going the way that she chose for me. Finally he went away to Chicago and this woman visited Mr. Moody and begged him to seek him out and try to accomplish his salvation. Moody made an appointment with him, but the young man failed to keep it. He says, I tried a good many times to reach him after that, but could not. While I was travelling one day on the New Haven Road, I bought a New York paper and read in great head-lines that he had been drowned in Lake Michigan. His father came on and carried the body back to Boston. The broken-hearted mother, when she saw him lowered into the grave, said in sobs, Oh, if I had only helped him when he wanted to be holy! If I could think now that he was in Heaven, I would have peace. It was my conduct that costs me all this, and my sorrow shall never cease.
There are many mothers who have little disposition to see their children saved, but for their paltry frivolities, pay the price of these mortal souls.
I thank God, on the other hand that there are many mothers who will never be satisfied unless they can bring up the last boy and the last girl God has given them, in the beauty of holiness, into Heaven.
The quaint John Randolph said, When I try to make myself an infidel, I feel the hand of mother on my head, and hear her prayers for my soul, and start back from all infidelity.
One winter, while aiding in a meeting in Illinois, an Englishman told me the story of his conversion, and said, I came away to America a godless boy. One day I got a letter from my brother reporting the news. After having finished it, he added a postscript, Mother is still praying for you. I could visualize her at the bedside on bended knees. From that hour I was under conviction of sin and could not be satisfied until I had found in Jesus my Saviour.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(7) The inhabitants of the villages ceased.The one Hebrew word for the inhabitants of the villages is perzn. The rendering of our version is supported by the Chaldee, and by the meaning of the analogous words in Deu. 3:5.1Sa. 6:18, &c. But this cannot be the meaning in Jdg. 5:11; and it is far more probable that the LXX. (Cod. B) is right in rendering it princes (dunatoi; Vulgate, fortes), though the difficulty of the word is shown by its being simply transliterated (phrazon) in the Alexandrine MS. The meaning probably is warlike chiefs (comp. Hab. 3:14). Luther renders it peasants.
A mother in Israel.For this metaphor, comp. 2Sa. 20:19; Job. 29:16; Gen. 45:8.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Ceased the government During the long period of subjection and disorder just described, there ceased to be any government in Israel worthy of the name. Dominion was in the hands of foreign rulers, and the Hebrew people were shut up in their towns and villages, not daring to go forth; the laws were not observed, and even the work of Shamgar seems to have been only a throwing off of the yoke by one grand feat of strength; and not a government of the people.
They ceased That is, the ruling powers, the civil rulers, which the word government necessarily implies.
Etymologically, there is much reason to cling to the common version, villages, for , which we have rendered government; but the same word occurs again in Jdg 5:11, and in such a connexion as to make no tolerable sense if rendered villages. We therefore give the above explanation, which has the support of the Septuagint, Vulgate, Gesenius, Furst, and many of the best scholars. I,
Deborah
A mother in Israel As a distinguished chieftain, providentially raised up to lead a nation through a revolution, or to throw off a foreign yoke, is called a father of his country, so Deborah arose, a mother in Israel.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“A mother in Israel.” Jdg 5:7 .
We need the womanly element in the Church. The mother is the soul of the family. We cannot live upon hard law and severe discipline; there must always be a tender element in our education, for we are weak, and need the ministry of compassion and love. We speak much about the fathers of the Church, and the fathers of the nation, and are apt to forget that the “mothers in Israel” have often been more heroic than the fathers, and that their very gentleness has become their strength in time of danger. Whilst discouraging some aspects of what are termed sisterhoods, and whilst deprecating what is known as the worship of the Virgin Mother, we should seek for the truth which underlies all this womanly ministry. Many could serve the Church by miracles of love, patience, compassion, and encouragement, whose voice could never be heard on public questions. Every woman can at least be “a mother in Israel” within the limits of her own family. She is not called upon to be a theologian, a scholar, a pedant, a source of alarm to the ignorant and the incompetent, but she is called upon to be compassionate, sympathetic, and encouraging. It is a mistake to suppose that the Church is either a drill-ground or a school alone. It is a house, a home, a nursery; it is a place of healing, education, and comfort; many a strong man would be the better if to all his strength he added a touch of tenderness. Beautiful is the service of mothers in the Church of Christ. They can speak with an influence all their own, absolutely indisputable, even by the most learned and eloquent men. They know how to whisper to sorrow, how to touch weakness without burdening it, how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. All womanly influence in the Church and in the family should be abundantly and gratefully encouraged.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Jdg 5:7 [The inhabitants of] the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.
Ver. 7. The inhabitants of the villages ceased. ] As now they do in Hungary, where the Turk wasteth at pleasure. They want but another Hunniades at the heels of them, who fought five times upon one day with the Turks, and five times foiled and put them to flight: and at that famous battle of Vascape, with fifteen thousand soldiers, he overthrew Abedin Bassa with fourscore thousand fighting men.
Until that I Deborah arose.
That I arose a mother in Israel.
a Camden’s Elisab., 205.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The inhabitants. Why not supply the Figure of speech Ellipsis (App-6) by the words “the women”, considering the objects of Jabin’s oppression? see notes on Jdg 4:4, Jdg 4:17; Jdg 5:7, Jdg 5:11, Jdg 5:24, Jdg 5:30.
ceased = ceased [to be]. Same word as “unoccupied” in Jdg 5:6.
I arose. Figure of speech Epizeuxis.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the villages: Est 9:19
a mother: Jdg 4:4-6, 2Sa 20:19, Isa 49:23, Rom 16:13
Reciprocal: Deu 28:19 – General Jdg 5:3 – even I Jdg 5:11 – villages Jer 6:25 – Go not Eze 35:7 – passeth Zec 8:10 – neither
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jdg 5:7. The inhabitants of the villages ceased The people forsook all their unfortified towns, not being able to protect them from military insolence. A mother That is, to be to them as a mother, to instruct, and rule, and protect them, which duties a mother owes to her children.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5:7 [The inhabitants of] the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a {c} mother in Israel.
(c) Miraculously stirred up by God to pity them and deliver them.