UTN uW Translation Notes:

Judges 4 General Notes

Structure and Formatting

The place of this story in the book

To this point, after giving an introduction to the stories of the judges (1:1–3:6), the author has briefly described the work of three judges: Othniel (3:7–11), Ehud (3:12–30), and Shamgar (3:31). In this chapter, he describes at more length the work of another judge, Deborah, and the man she called and helped to lead an Israelite army, Barak.

The ending of the story

In verses 23 and 24, the author ends the story with a summary of what happened. He presents the information in a special form called a chiasm, in which the first and last parts match and the middle parts match. These parts match: “So on that day God subdued Jabin, the king of Canaan” and “until that they destroyed Jabin, the king of Canaan.” These parts also match: “to the face of the sons of Israel” and “For going, the hand of the sons of Israel went and became severe against Jabin, the king of Canaan.” You may be able to show this in your translation by using some special formatting. For example:So on that day God subdued Jabin, the king of Canaan to the face of the sons of Israel For going, the hand of the sons of Israel went and became severe against Jabin, the king of Canaanuntil that they destroyed Jabin, the king of Canaan.

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

How had Yahweh already begun to fight Sisera before the Israelites attacked?

In 4:14, Deborah tells Barak that it is time to attack Sisera’s forces because Yahweh has already begun to fight against them. It is not clear from this chapter entirely what this means. But readers learn in the next chapter that there was a great storm on the day of this battle. Deborah says in her song (in 5:4) that when Yahweh marched out, “dark clouds dripped down water” and “the earth shook” (perhaps a reference to thunder). She speaks in 5:21 of the Kishon River flooding. The historian Josephus writes of this battle 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.” With the rain, hail, and flooding, Sisera’s forces were not able to make use of their chariots. Barak was able to lead his troops down from the relative safety of Mount Tabor onto the plain and destroy Sisera’s army and its chariots.

“Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman”

When Deborah tells Barak to raise an army to oppose Sisera, he replies, “If you will go with me, then I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go” (4:8). Deborah agrees to go with him, but she also tells him that the credit and honor for killing Sisera will not go to him but to a woman. Interpreters have many different ideas about what this means. One possibility is that Barak was insisting on having visible, tangible assurance of God’s presence and help in the person of Deborah, who was a prophetess. Deborah graciously agreed to accompany Barak and provide this assurance, but at the same time she indicated to him that God’s power was so great that Barak should not have put this condition on his obedience. God would use a woman, who in this culture would not have been a warrior, to kill Sisera. At this time, great honor came from killing an enemy commander, and this honor would not go to Barak but to this woman and ultimately to God, who would arrange the circumstances for it. However, it is not necessary to resolve the meaning of this exchange in order to translate this passage. You can report the conversation between Deborah and Barak naturally in your translation without adding any interpretation.