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(^209) So, and not as the Authorized Version renders it: "he went up with 10,000 men at his
feet."
(^210) So also Josephus (Ant. v. 5, 6).
(^211) The battle must be read in connection with the song of Deborah (Judges 5), which
furnishes its details.
(^212) They were Midianites, descendafnts of Abraham by Keturah -undoubtedly a Bedouin
tribe.
(^213) For example in the case of Aretaphila in Cyrene (Plutarch, The Virtues of Women,
19).
(^214) The language is extremely difficult, and the most different interpretations have been
proposed. We have adopted the ingenious view of Cassel, which represents Israel, as it
were, taking the Nazarite vow for God and against His enemies.
(^215) Comp. Psalm 2:2 - these, of course, are kings and princes of the heathen.
(^216) Always used of sacred song with instrumental accompaniment.
(^217) Deborah begins with the record of God's great doings of old in the wilderness, the
later parallel being in Psalm 68:7, 8. Comp. here especially Exodus 19 and
Deuteronomy 33:2, and for the expressions, Psalm 47:5; 114:7; Isaiah 63:12; 64:2;
Jeremiah 10:10; Joel 3:16.
(^218) Here the first stanza of the first division of this song ends. There are in all three
sections, each of three stanzas. The reader will have no difficulty in marking the
progress of thought.
(^219) Cassel, as I think fancifully, regards "Jael," not as referring to the wife of Heber, but
as a poetic name for Shamgar or Ehud.
(^220) Or were deserted.
(^221) That is, the country with open villages and towns, in opposition to walled cities.
(^222) That is, "shield and spear were not seen." So low had the fortunes of Israel fallen
before their enemies.
(^)