The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.
It is part of the song of Deborah and Barak memorializing Israel's triumph and deliverance from Jabin king of Canaan after twenty years of oppression. Sisera came up the Kishon valley with nine hundred chariots of iron against Barak's small force come down from Mount Tabor, and Jehovah intervened with rain that made the chariots a hindrance, so the swollen waters swept away his army and chariots as they fled toward Harosheth, leaving not a man, while Sisera himself fled on foot to be slain in Jael's tent. The song ascribes all the glory of that deliverance to God and not to men or idols, showing that warfare with Jehovah is most unequal strife in which those who oppose His appointed purpose perish by stern judgment. That overthrow effectually subdued the Canaanites so the land had peace forty years, yet prosperity did not bring Israel nearer to God. The battle at Megiddo stands as an object lesson for the final gathering of the nations at Armageddon under the sixth and seventh plagues, while the Kishon as a rushing torrent that sweeps all before it and then subsides warns that bursts of sensational zeal are not holiness, for true holiness is constant persevering obedience like a steadily flowing stream.
Setting in Deborah's Song
The verse stands in the song of Deborah and Barak in Judges 5:1-31, a sublime and impassioned song whose words and music were composed to memorialize Israel's triumph and national deliverance from Jabin king of Canaan after twenty years of oppression, including Jael's part in that deliverance. It is the earliest poetry of Israel, rising among the hills of Galilee when Barak of Naphtali triumphed over the Canaanites. That poetry proves the intellectual vigor and mental freshness and force of the Galilean people, and it is an expression of the individual and national life of God's chosen people, not copied or borrowed from the nations around them.
It belongs to the composite record of Judges 3 to 17 of backsliding from God followed by suffering, oppression, captivity and servitude, then returning to God with forgiveness and deliverance. That record displays the perversity and unbelief of the people and the long-suffering and goodness of God toward them amid awful moral surroundings and the demoralizing influences of the tribes they permitted to remain in the land of promise. Its immediate historical setting is Sisera's oppression of Israel with nine hundred chariots of iron, overcome by Israel under Deborah and Barak through faith. Jehovah's intervention is pictured as rain that drives horsemen and charioteers into flight, showing God's mighty deliverance of His people.
Barak with his small force came down from Mount Tabor from the north while Sisera brought his idolatrous host with nine hundred chariots of iron up the Kishon valley to the foothills a few miles south and west of Tabor, where the ground made the chariots a hindrance instead of a strength. The fight began on the territory of Issachar, and the charioteers retreated down the Kishon valley toward Harosheth of the Gentiles with Barak pursuing them. The chariots were driven down the river in the attempt to escape, and the waters swept away Sisera's army and chariots and forces. The whole host fell by the sword with not a man left, while Sisera himself fled on foot over or around Tabor and was killed in Jael's tent.
The Kishon is that ancient or old river running in the valley below Nazareth and forming part of the wide view to be seen from the top of Nazareth hill, where the sea shines clear and broad and mountains stand round about, with Tabor showing its round top and Carmel running seaward with wooded sides. The battle belongs to Barak's victory over the Canaanites and Deborah's winning of the Esdraelon plain from the Canaanites for Israel. By it Israel first gained possession of the Plain of Jezreel, one of the great battles associated with Megiddo. The battlefield is the great triangular plain lying between the hills of Samaria and those of Galilee, with its natural entrances at the pass of the Kishon at Tel el-Kasis, the glen between Tabor and Nazareth, and the valley south of En-gannim, with the entrance from the Jordan Valley at Jezreel and that from Sharon at Megiddo. The plain is extremely fertile but boggy and almost impassable in winter, and it has never had towns upon it and only one or two villages, showing its defencelessness, and it continued to be traversed by foreign war and traffic as the classic battlefield of Bible history to the end.
God's Deliverance and Judgment
The song gives all glory for rescue from Sisera to God and calls the people to praise Him for His wonderful works, warning the kings and princes of the surrounding nations by what He had done for Israel not to harm them. Honor and power are shown to belong to God and not to men or to their idols, with the awful exhibitions of divine power and majesty displayed at Sinai portrayed before the hearers. Israel's helpless and distressed condition under oppression is set forth, and the history of their deliverance is related in glowing language.
The destruction of Sisera and his forces effectually subdued the Canaanites, and afterward the land had rest for forty years, yet prosperity did not bring Israel nearer to God. The sweeping away of the fleeing Canaanite fugitives by the old river Kishon was one part of the overthrow of the nations of Canaan in their controversy with Almighty God, in which all elements combined for their destruction, together with the receding Jordan, the fall of Jericho, the standing still of sun and moon, hail from heaven, the fighting stars, and the exterminating sword.
God's providence moves on the appointed path of divine purpose and promise, and those who oppose it oppose to their own destruction, the controversy closing not by submission, arbitration, or accommodation but by stern judgments punishing the rejection of mercies and the prostitution of blessings. Warfare with Jehovah is a most unequal strife, man must submit to the divine will or perish in disobedience, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The record is of a crisis in the work of the Lord in which those who discerned the importance of the time rose up, justified God, and brought salvation to themselves and to the people, while those who could not discern His providence and did not believe His testimony brought a curse upon themselves. Jael, though tender-hearted and friendly to the enemy, defended the cause of God, Zebulun and Naphtali jeoparded their lives unto death in the high places of the field, and Meroz was cursed bitterly for not coming to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
Prophecy and Christian Application
The battle to which the sweeping of the ancient river belongs is that at Megiddo, and it stands as an object lesson for the final gathering of the nations to Armageddon. That gathering comes under the sixth plague, and the lesson extends to the events of the sixth and seventh plagues. The song in which the river is celebrated, Judges 5:1-31, shows that God has used women in a public capacity in all ages to His glory.
The Kishon in its flood is a rushing torrent that sweeps everything before it and then subsides, picturing intense resolve and occasional, sensational zeal that bursts forth with great force for a moment and then fades. Such short-lived rushing is not holiness, for true holiness is constant, persevering obedience like a steadily flowing stream, like the steady flow of Siloa's waters. The river sweeping away Sisera's forces celebrates the defeat of Israel's enemy as part of God's delivering His people. That same picture of the enemy swept away is seen again when the attackers of the Waldenses perish in a torrent during their retreat.
It is part of the song of Deborah and Barak memorializing Israel's triumph and deliverance from Jabin king of Canaan after twenty years of oppression. Sisera came up the Kishon valley with nine hundred chariots of iron against Barak's small force come down from Mount Tabor, and Jehovah intervened with rain that made the chariots a hindrance, so the swollen waters swept away his army and chariots as they fled toward Harosheth, leaving not a man, while Sisera himself fled on foot to be slain in Jael's tent. The song ascribes all the glory of that deliverance to God and not to men or idols, showing that warfare with Jehovah is most unequal strife in which those who oppose His appointed purpose perish by stern judgment. That overthrow effectually subdued the Canaanites so the land had peace forty years, yet prosperity did not bring Israel nearer to God. The battle at Megiddo stands as an object lesson for the final gathering of the nations at Armageddon under the sixth and seventh plagues, while the Kishon as a rushing torrent that sweeps all before it and then subsides warns that bursts of sensational zeal are not holiness, for true holiness is constant persevering obedience like a steadily flowing stream.
Setting in Deborah's Song
The verse stands in the song of Deborah and Barak in Judges 5:1-31, a sublime and impassioned song whose words and music were composed to memorialize Israel's triumph and national deliverance from Jabin king of Canaan after twenty years of oppression, including Jael's part in that deliverance. It is the earliest poetry of Israel, rising among the hills of Galilee when Barak of Naphtali triumphed over the Canaanites. That poetry proves the intellectual vigor and mental freshness and force of the Galilean people, and it is an expression of the individual and national life of God's chosen people, not copied or borrowed from the nations around them.
It belongs to the composite record of Judges 3 to 17 of backsliding from God followed by suffering, oppression, captivity and servitude, then returning to God with forgiveness and deliverance. That record displays the perversity and unbelief of the people and the long-suffering and goodness of God toward them amid awful moral surroundings and the demoralizing influences of the tribes they permitted to remain in the land of promise. Its immediate historical setting is Sisera's oppression of Israel with nine hundred chariots of iron, overcome by Israel under Deborah and Barak through faith. Jehovah's intervention is pictured as rain that drives horsemen and charioteers into flight, showing God's mighty deliverance of His people.
Barak with his small force came down from Mount Tabor from the north while Sisera brought his idolatrous host with nine hundred chariots of iron up the Kishon valley to the foothills a few miles south and west of Tabor, where the ground made the chariots a hindrance instead of a strength. The fight began on the territory of Issachar, and the charioteers retreated down the Kishon valley toward Harosheth of the Gentiles with Barak pursuing them. The chariots were driven down the river in the attempt to escape, and the waters swept away Sisera's army and chariots and forces. The whole host fell by the sword with not a man left, while Sisera himself fled on foot over or around Tabor and was killed in Jael's tent.
The Kishon is that ancient or old river running in the valley below Nazareth and forming part of the wide view to be seen from the top of Nazareth hill, where the sea shines clear and broad and mountains stand round about, with Tabor showing its round top and Carmel running seaward with wooded sides. The battle belongs to Barak's victory over the Canaanites and Deborah's winning of the Esdraelon plain from the Canaanites for Israel. By it Israel first gained possession of the Plain of Jezreel, one of the great battles associated with Megiddo. The battlefield is the great triangular plain lying between the hills of Samaria and those of Galilee, with its natural entrances at the pass of the Kishon at Tel el-Kasis, the glen between Tabor and Nazareth, and the valley south of En-gannim, with the entrance from the Jordan Valley at Jezreel and that from Sharon at Megiddo. The plain is extremely fertile but boggy and almost impassable in winter, and it has never had towns upon it and only one or two villages, showing its defencelessness, and it continued to be traversed by foreign war and traffic as the classic battlefield of Bible history to the end.
God's Deliverance and Judgment
The song gives all glory for rescue from Sisera to God and calls the people to praise Him for His wonderful works, warning the kings and princes of the surrounding nations by what He had done for Israel not to harm them. Honor and power are shown to belong to God and not to men or to their idols, with the awful exhibitions of divine power and majesty displayed at Sinai portrayed before the hearers. Israel's helpless and distressed condition under oppression is set forth, and the history of their deliverance is related in glowing language.
The destruction of Sisera and his forces effectually subdued the Canaanites, and afterward the land had rest for forty years, yet prosperity did not bring Israel nearer to God. The sweeping away of the fleeing Canaanite fugitives by the old river Kishon was one part of the overthrow of the nations of Canaan in their controversy with Almighty God, in which all elements combined for their destruction, together with the receding Jordan, the fall of Jericho, the standing still of sun and moon, hail from heaven, the fighting stars, and the exterminating sword.
God's providence moves on the appointed path of divine purpose and promise, and those who oppose it oppose to their own destruction, the controversy closing not by submission, arbitration, or accommodation but by stern judgments punishing the rejection of mercies and the prostitution of blessings. Warfare with Jehovah is a most unequal strife, man must submit to the divine will or perish in disobedience, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The record is of a crisis in the work of the Lord in which those who discerned the importance of the time rose up, justified God, and brought salvation to themselves and to the people, while those who could not discern His providence and did not believe His testimony brought a curse upon themselves. Jael, though tender-hearted and friendly to the enemy, defended the cause of God, Zebulun and Naphtali jeoparded their lives unto death in the high places of the field, and Meroz was cursed bitterly for not coming to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
Prophecy and Christian Application
The battle to which the sweeping of the ancient river belongs is that at Megiddo, and it stands as an object lesson for the final gathering of the nations to Armageddon. That gathering comes under the sixth plague, and the lesson extends to the events of the sixth and seventh plagues. The song in which the river is celebrated, Judges 5:1-31, shows that God has used women in a public capacity in all ages to His glory.
The Kishon in its flood is a rushing torrent that sweeps everything before it and then subsides, picturing intense resolve and occasional, sensational zeal that bursts forth with great force for a moment and then fades. Such short-lived rushing is not holiness, for true holiness is constant, persevering obedience like a steadily flowing stream, like the steady flow of Siloa's waters. The river sweeping away Sisera's forces celebrates the defeat of Israel's enemy as part of God's delivering His people. That same picture of the enemy swept away is seen again when the attackers of the Waldenses perish in a torrent during their retreat.