Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 5:16

"Why sattest thou among the sheepfolds, To hear the pipings for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben There were great searchings of heart." — Judges 5:16 (ASV)

Sheepfolds: Literally, hurdles (mishpethaim), the dual form resulting from some method of their construction. Thus, the Vulgate renders it inter duos terminos.

The bleatings of the flocks: Rather, the sounds of shepherds’ flutes or pastoral pipings (“Shepherds delighting in syrinx-pipes,” Homer, Iliad 18.525). There is a contrast between these peaceful flutings and the battle-horns to which they should have been listening. It is as though Deborah would say to Reuben—

“Sound, sound the clarion, shrill the fife;
To all the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.”

For the divisions: It should be, as before, “By the streams of Reuben.”

Searchings of heart: Reuben sent magnanimous debates and promises, but they only ended in sloth and vacillation. They decided to go, and—stayed at home.