Judges 5:17

• These verses honor those who volunteered and shame those who did not.

• Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh (represented by Makir) came from the south. Issachar, where the battle took place, was joined by Zebulun and Naphtali, the two tribes closest to Barak’s home base.

• The tribes that were too hesitant and fearful to join the fight included Reuben, Gad (represented by Gilead), Dan, and Asher.

This song, a victory hymn usually credited to Deborah, offers a poetic version of the battle, adding details to the prose account. It is one of the oldest Hebrew poems. It praises the Lord, the tribes who joined the fight, and Jael. It curses those who stayed home, Sisera, and his mother's followers. It contrasts life before Barak's victory, when the Lord's curse was on the land, with the blessings after the warriors' righteous acts. It ends with a prayer that the Lord's enemies will perish like Sisera (Judges 5:31).

The story of Deborah and Barak, found in both prose (Judges 4) and poetry (Judges 5), describes a major military operation against a significant Canaanite enemy after the initial conquest. Another king named Jabin, who also ruled in Hazor, was defeated earlier by Joshua along with a large northern alliance, and Hazor was burned (see Joshua 11:1–15). Although Joshua 11 and Judges 4–5 are often compared, they have too many differences to be considered accounts of the same battle. Instead, Jabin is likely a dynastic name; it appears in the Mari texts for an even earlier king of Hazor, around 1800 BC.