John Gill Commentary Judges 5

Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam
Deborah is first mentioned, because she was, as Kimchi says, the root or foundation of the work, the chiefperson in it, both in the direction of the war, and in the composition of this song; and indeed, as BenGersom observes, she alone composed it, see (Judges 5:7) ; and the verb is singular: "then sang Deborah";

And after her, and in her words, sung also Barak; he joined with her, not in making the song, but in singingit; and so likewise the people of Israel joined with her in singing it, as they did with Moses at the Redsea; and this song was sung

on that day ;
not on the precise day on which the victory was obtained over Sisera and his army, but on occasion of thatmemorable day, and what followed upon it:

saying ;
the following divine hymn or song, penned by Deborah, under divine inspiration, as the sublimity of thestyle, the fine and noble thoughts and sentiments that are in it, the beautiful and elegant phrases in whichthey are expressed, abundantly show; no Sappho, or any Grecian poetess, nor indeed any poet whatever,uninspired, being equal to the writer of this poem.

Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel
The injuries done to Israel by any of their enemies, and particularly what wrongs had been done them by Jabin, king of Canaan, for twenty years past; though some understand it of the vengeance God took on Israel for their sins; and though praise is not given directly for that, yet inasmuch as, when that was the case, there were some whose spirits were stirred up to engage voluntarily in the deliverance of them from the oppression of their enemies, it was matter of praise:

when the people willingly offered themselves :
to go and fight for Israel against their enemies, particularly those of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, (Judges 5:18); though not excluding others that joined, who could not have been forced to it, had they not freely offered themselves; and which was owing to the secret influence of divine Providence on their hearts, moving and drawing them to this service; and therefore praise was due to the Lord on this account, who works in the hearts of men both to will and to do, as in things spiritual and religious, so in things natural and civil.

Hear, O you kings; give ear, O you princes
Not only the neighbouring ones, but all the kings and princes of the earth, far and near, then and in succeeding ages; Deborah desires and wishes that all potentates might hear of the wonderful works of God done for his people, that they might learn to know there is one that is higher than they, to whom all the amazing things done in the world are to be ascribed; and be cautious how they oppressed the people of God, since sooner or later he would avenge them on them.

The Targum restrains this to the kings that came with Sisera and the governors with Jabin; but if there were any such, as it is not improbable there were, see (Judges 5:19) ; yet it is most likely that they were slain with them: there are some, as Kimchi observes, who think this respects the people of Israel, who were all the sons of kings; but the first sense is best:

I, [even] I, will sing unto the Lord, I will sing [praise] to the Lord
God of Israel :
which are the words of Deborah particularly, and the repetitions serve to express how cordial, earnest, and vehement she was in her praise and thankfulness to God; thereby setting an example to others, encouraging them to the same practice, and directing persons of every rank and quality to give praise only to Jehovah, the self-existing, everlasting, and unchangeable Being; to him who is the Lord and God of Israel in a peculiar manner, and not to any of the gods of the Gentiles.

Lord, when you went out of Seir, when you marched out
of the fields of Edom
Here properly begins the song, what goes before being but a preface to it; and it begins with an apostropheto the Lord, taking notice of some ancient appearances of God for his people, which were always matter ofpraise and thankfulness; and the rather are they taken notice of here, because of some likeness between themand what God had now wrought; and this passage refers either to the giving of the law on Sinai, as the Targumand Jarchi; see (Deuteronomy 33:2); or rather, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and others, to the Lord's goingbefore Israel, after they had encompassed the land of Edom, and marched from thence towards the land ofCanaan, when they fought with Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and conquered them; which struck terrorinto all the nations round about them, and the prophecies of Moses in his song began to be fulfilled, (Exodus 15:14Exodus 15:15); and which dread and terror are expressed in the following figurativephrases:

the earth trembled ;
and the like figure Homer ^F1 uses at the approach of Neptune, whom he calls the shaker of theearth, perhaps borrowed from hence; it may design the inhabitants of it, the Amorites, Moabites, Edomites,Philistines, Canaanites, and others:

and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water ;
which, as it may literally refer to the storm and tempest of rain that might be then as now, see (Judges 4:15), so may figuratively express the panic great personages, comparable to the heavens and the clouds inthem were thrown into, when their hearts melted like water, or were like clouds dissolved into it.

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: (treme d' ourea makra kai ulh) , Iliad. 13. v.18, 34, 44.

The mountains melted from before the Lord
The inhabitants of them, through fear, the Lord going before Israel in a pillar of cloud and fire, and delivering mighty kings and their kingdoms into their hand:

[even] that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel ;
or, "as that Sinai", the note of similitude being wanting; and the sense is, the mountains melted, just as the famous mountain Sinai in a literal sense did, when it trembled and quaked at the presence of God on it; the tokens of it, the fire and smoke, thunders, lightnings, and tempests there seen and heard; and which being observed, would call to mind the benefit Israel then received, which required praise and thankfulness, as well as would serve to express the awe and reverence of God due unto him.