CHAPTER 5 Jun. 8 
The Song of Deborah
Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang this song: 2Because the leaders took the lead in Israel, because the people offered themselves willingly, blessed be Yahweh! 3Hear, you kings! Give ear, you princes! I, even I, will sing to Yahweh. I will sing praise to Yahweh the God of Israel. 4Yahweh, when You went forth out of Seir, when You marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens poured. Yes, the clouds poured down water. 5The mountains melted at the presence of Yahweh, even Sinai at the presence of Yahweh the God of Israel. 6In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were deserted, the travellers walked through byways. 7The rulers ceased to rule in Israel. They ceased until I, Deborah, arose; until I arose, a mother in Israel. 8They chose new gods, therefore war came to the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel? 9My heart is with the governors of Israel, who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless Yahweh! 10Speak, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets and you who walk by the way. 11Far from the noise of archers, in the watering places, there they will recite the righteous acts of Yahweh, the righteous acts of His rule in Israel. Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates. 12‘Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, sing a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam’. 13Then a remnant of the nobles and the people came down. Yahweh came down to me against the mighty. 14Those whose root is in Amalek came out of Ephraim after you, Benjamin, among your peoples. Governors came down out of Machir. Those who handle the writer’s quill came out of Zebulun. 15The princes of Issachar were with Deborah. As was Issachar, so was Barak. They rushed into the valley at his feet. By the watercourses of Reuben there were great divisions of heart. 16Why did you sit among the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben there was much searching of heart. 17Gilead remained beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan remain in ships? Asher remained still at the haven of the sea, and lived by his creeks. 18Zebulun was a people that jeopardized their lives to the death; Naphtali also, on the high places of the field. 19The kings came and fought, then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. They took no plunder of silver. 20From Heaven the stars fought. From their courses they fought against Sisera. 21The river Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. My soul, march on with strength. 22Then the horse hoofs stamped because of the prancing, the prancing of their strong ones. 23‘Curse Meroz’, said the angel of Yahweh. ‘Curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they didn’t come to help Yahweh, to help Yahweh against the mighty’. 24Jael shall be blessed above women, the wife of Heber the Kenite; blessed shall she be above women in the tent. 25He asked for water and she gave him milk. She brought him butter in a lordly dish. 26She put her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer. With the hammer she struck Sisera. She struck through his head. Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples. 27At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. At her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell down dead. 28Through the window she looked out and cried; Sisera’s mother looked through the lattice. ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the wheels of his chariots delay?’ 29Her wise ladies answered her, yes she answered herself: 30‘Have they not found, have they not divided the spoil? A girl, two girls for every man; to Sisera a spoil of dyed garments, a spoil of dyed garments embroidered, of dyed garments embroidered on both sides, on the necks of the spoil?’ 31So let all Your enemies perish, Yahweh, but let those who love Him be as the sun when it rises forth in its strength. Then the land had rest forty years.

Commentary

5:2 The examples of leaders amongst God’s people can influence the flock positively or negatively- when the leaders “offered themselves willingly”, so did the people (:9).
5:4 As so often in the Psalms, God’s people see the deliverances He works in this life as repeating in essence the great deliverance at the Red Sea and His entering covenant with His people, which things represent our baptism and deliverance from this world (1 Cor. 10:1,2).
5:5: The mountains melted- to a distant onlooker, the water flowing down the mountains gave the impression that they themselves were melting; not, of course, that they actually were. The Bible sometimes speaks of things as they appear to human eyes; hence the use of the language of ‘demon possession’ in the New Testament. Demons don’t exist, but the miracles of healing mental illness are described from the viewpoint of a human observer. This principle must be remembered when reading the account of creation.
5:6 This was the first time in which the curses of Lev. 26 and Deut. 28 began to be realized upon Israel. "Your highways shall be desolate" (Lev. 26:22) is alluded to here.
5:11 His rule in Israel- Israel at this time were the Kingdom of God on earth, a Kingdom which was overthrown when they repeatedly refused His Kingship over them (Ez. 21:25-27) and which will be re-established at Christ’s return (Acts 1:6). 
5:13 The coming down of Yahweh is paralleled with the coming down of His willing people. One theme of this victory is that God’s people on earth acted in tandem with the Angelic movements in Heaven above.
5:14 Barak’s victorious warriors were civil servants and writers, not military men; in the same way as God used goldsmiths and traders to do the work of builders and engineers to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls at the time of Ezra. God often uses those not suited to a particular job to do it, because the victory must always be of Him and not of human ability.
5:19,20 The reference is to the Angels fighting on Israel’s behalf. If we walk in step with the Angels, success is assured. Here, Israel’s fighting is paralleled with the Heavens and stars [=Angels, Rev. 1:20] fighting for them. The Lord of Hosts of Angels was working in tandem with the hosts of Israel. And it’s the same for the new Israel. Heb. 12:22 speaks of how we, the hosts of the church, are paralleled with hosts of Angels.
5:20 The Hebrew for 'courses' is almost identical with that for 'ladder' in the account of Jacob's vision of a ladder of Angels; it strictly means a 'staircase'. See on 4:14; 5:19,20.
5:23 To help Yahweh- The fact that God so loves us is itself a limitation to Him. Because in any relationship, one person usually loves more than the other. And the one who loves the most- which is unquestionably God- has the least power. This is why He, the more powerful in physical terms, speaks with such language of limitation. In a sense God requires not help from man; and yet in another sense He has delegated His work to us, and limits His achievements according to what we are willing to do.
5:24 Blessed above women- Lk. 1:28,42 alludes here, as if Mary was already as Jael who had killed Sisera, an incident typical of the Christ’s destruction of sin with the hammer of God's word. Mary is tied up with her son's victory- for He was part of her.