Men. In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath,
In the days of Jael,
The highways were unoccupied,
And the travellers walked through byways;
The rulers ceased in Israel,
They ceased—
Women. Until that I, Deborah, arose,
That I arose a mother in Israel.
They chose new gods;
Then was war in the gates:
Was there a shield or spear seen
Among forty thousand in Israel?
Men. My heart is toward the governors of Israel—
Women. Ye that offered yourselves willingly among the people—
All. Bless ye the Lord!
Men. Tell of it, ye that ride on white asses,
Ye that sit on rich carpets,
And ye that walk by the way:—
Women. Far from the noise of archers,
In the places of drawing water:—
All. There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord,
Even the righteous acts of his rule in Israel.
II. The Muster.
All. The people of the Lord went down to the gates—
Men. Awake, awake, Deborah,
Awake, awake, utter a song:—
Women. Arise, Barak,
And lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoan.
All. Then came down a remnant of the nobles,
The people of the Lord came down for me against the Mighty.
Women. Out of Ephraim came down they whose root is in Amalek—
Men. After thee, Benjamin, among thy peoples—
Women. Out of Machir came down the governors—
Men. And out of Zubulum they that handle the marshal's staff—
Women. And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah—
Men. So was Issachar, so was Barak:
All. Into the valley they rushed forth at his feet.
Men. By the water courses of Reuben
There were great resolves of heart.
Women. Why satest thou among the sheepfolds,
To hear the pipings for the flocks?
Men. At the watercourses of Reuben
There were great searchings of heart!
Women. Gilead abode beyond Jordan—
Men. And Dan, why did he remain in ships?
Women. Ashur sat still at the haven of the sea,
And abode by his creeks.
Men. Zubulum was a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death,
And Naphtali upon the high places of the field.
III. The Battle and the Rout.
Men. The kings came and fought;
Then fought the kings of Canaan,
In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo:—
They took no gain of money.
Women. They fought from heaven,
The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
The river Kishon swept them away,—
That ancient river, the river Kishon!
Men. O my soul, march on with strength!
Then did the horsehoofs stamp
By reason of the prancings,
The prancings of their strong ones.
Women. Curse ye, Meroz, said the angel of the Lord,
Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof;
Because they came not to the help of the Lord,
To the help of the Lord against the mighty!
IV. The Retribution.
Men. Blessed above women shall Jael be the wife of Heber the Kenite,
Blessed shall she be above women in the tent!
He asked water, and she gave him milk;
She brought him butter in a lordly dish.
She put her hand to the nail,
And her right hand to the workman's hammer;
And with the hammer she smote Sisera.
She smote through his head,
Yea, she pierced and struck through his temples.
At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay:
At her feet he bowed, he fell:
When he bowed, there he fell down dead!
Women. Through the window she looked forth, and cried,
The mother of Sisera, through the lattice,
"Why is his chariot so long coming?
Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?"
Her wise ladies answered her,
Yea, she returned answer to herself,
"Have they not found,
Have they not divided the spoils?
A damsel, two damsels to every man;
To Sisera a spoil of divers colors,
A spoil of divers colors of embroidery,
Of divers colors of embroidery on both sides, on the necks of the spoil!"
All. So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord:
But let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might!
Having overcome the Canaanites, the Israelites were not destined to long enjoy peace. Their own kinsmen, the Ammonites and Moabites looked with envy upon their good fortune in winning such desirable land and tried now to rob them of it. Notwithstanding the fact that the Israelites, Moabites and Ammonites had all a common ancestry, they were never on that account restrained from plundering one another's territories. Forced to take a definite stand against them, the Hebrews cast about for a leader. Jephthah was named. He was an outlaw, a bold border man, who belonged to the Hebrew race, and his bravery was unquestioned. When besought, he agreed to drive out the Ammonites on one condition only: that he be acknowledged chieftain after the battle. This being conceded, he led the Hebrew forces. It was in keeping with his rough, reckless nature that he should vow to sacrifice the first living thing he met upon his return were he victorious. The Ammonites were defeated and to Jephthah's utter consternation, his daughter, his only child, rushed forth to meet him. We are told that his vow was kept, and thus we know that human sacrifices were sometimes offered to Jahweh.
During the era of the Judges, the Philistines on the southwest began to expand, upon land already settled by the Israelites. They overran the Plain of Sharon, and the Hebrews who had peopled the plain were driven into the hills. This crisis brought forth Samson, one of the chiefs who essayed to stay the power of these new enemies. He was a simple child of nature—a giant in strength, a weakling in steadfast purpose. He lacked the capacity to plan a campaign and execute it. The stories of his prodigious power, his feats pf physical endurance, are too well known to require repetition. They were lauded by his admirers and delighted in by the Israelites when directed against their enemies, but his blows were invariably given to avenge personal wrongs, and he left his people no farther on their way against the Philistines than he found them.
The great difficulty during this period was that there was no tendency to hold long together. "Israel had within itself the worst of enemies and a germ of destruction. This was the proud sense of independence and the strongly-developed family feeling of the nomad, which did not immediately vanish from the national character with the surrender of the nomadic fashion of life. After the united effort under Joshua had but barely laid the foundation, the people again broke up into tribes and clans, which now aimlessly sought new places of settlement, each on its own account and unmindful of its neighbors."[1]