Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he had harshly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for helpThis phrase marks a recurring theme in the Book of Judges, where the Israelites, after falling into sin and idolatry, find themselves oppressed by foreign powers. The Hebrew root for "cried out" is "זָעַק" (za'aq), which conveys a deep, desperate plea for deliverance. This cry is not merely a request but a heartfelt appeal to God, acknowledging their dependence on Him. Historically, this reflects the cyclical pattern of sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance that characterizes the period of the Judges. It serves as a reminder of the Israelites' covenant relationship with God, who is always ready to respond to genuine repentance. because Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots
The mention of "nine hundred iron chariots" highlights the formidable military power of Jabin, the Canaanite king. In the ancient Near East, chariots were the pinnacle of military technology, providing a significant advantage in battle. The use of "iron" suggests advanced metallurgy, indicating a well-equipped and powerful army. This detail underscores the seemingly insurmountable odds faced by the Israelites, emphasizing their need for divine intervention. Archaeologically, the presence of iron chariots aligns with the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age transition, reflecting the historical context of technological advancements during this period. and he harshly oppressed them for twenty years
The phrase "harshly oppressed" translates from the Hebrew "לָחַץ" (lachats), meaning to press or squeeze, indicating severe and relentless pressure. This oppression lasted "twenty years," a significant period that suggests prolonged suffering and subjugation. Historically, this oppression would have affected every aspect of Israelite life, from economic hardship to social instability. Scripturally, this period of oppression serves as a backdrop for God's deliverance through Deborah and Barak, illustrating the theme of redemption and the faithfulness of God to His covenant people despite their repeated failures. Persons / Places / Events 1. IsraelitesThe chosen people of God, who are in a cycle of sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance during the time of the Judges. 2. JabinThe king of Canaan who ruled in Hazor, oppressing the Israelites with his military might, symbolized by his nine hundred iron chariots. 3. Iron ChariotsRepresent the formidable military power of Jabin, highlighting the Israelites' helplessness and need for divine intervention. 4. The LORDThe covenant God of Israel, to whom the Israelites cry out for deliverance from their oppression. 5. Twenty Years of OppressionA significant period during which the Israelites suffered under Jabin's harsh rule, leading them to seek God's help. Teaching Points The Cycle of Sin and DeliveranceThe Israelites' repeated cycle of sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance serves as a warning and a lesson for believers today to remain faithful and avoid complacency in their spiritual walk. The Power of Crying Out to GodThe Israelites' cry to the LORD demonstrates the importance of turning to God in times of trouble. Believers are encouraged to seek God earnestly, trusting in His power to deliver. God's Sovereignty Over Human PowerDespite Jabin's military strength, God's sovereignty is evident. This teaches believers that no earthly power can withstand God's will and that He is the ultimate deliverer. The Importance of RepentanceThe Israelites' cry implies a turning back to God, highlighting the necessity of repentance in restoring one's relationship with God and experiencing His deliverance. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the oppression faced by the Israelites under Jabin reflect the consequences of turning away from God, and how can this be applied to our lives today? 2. In what ways can we identify and break the cycle of sin and repentance in our own spiritual journey, as seen in the book of Judges? 3. How does the Israelites' cry to the LORD in Judges 4:3 encourage us to approach God in our times of need, and what other biblical examples support this practice? 4. What does the presence of Jabin's iron chariots teach us about the challenges we face in life, and how can we rely on God's strength to overcome them? 5. How can the account of the Israelites' deliverance in Judges 4 inspire us to trust in God's timing and sovereignty, even when facing prolonged difficulties? Connections to Other Scriptures Exodus 2:23-25Similar to the Israelites' cry in Egypt, their cry in Judges 4:3 reflects a pattern of seeking God in times of distress. Psalm 34:17This verse emphasizes that the righteous cry out, and the LORD hears and delivers them from their troubles, paralleling the Israelites' experience. 1 Samuel 7:8-9The Israelites' plea for Samuel to intercede with God mirrors their cry in Judges 4:3, showing a consistent reliance on divine intervention. People Abinoam, Barak, Deborah, Ehud, Heber, Hobab, Israelites, Jabin, Jael, Kenites, Lapidoth, Naphtali, Sisera, ZebulunPlaces Bethel, Canaan, Harosheth-hagoyim, Hazor, Kedesh, Kedesh-naphtali, Kishon River, Moab, Mount Tabor, Ramah, ZaanannimTopics Chariots, Cried, Cruel, Cruelly, Cry, Hundred, Iron, Israelites, Mightily, Nine, Oppressed, Prayer, Severely, Sons, Twenty, War-carriagesDictionary of Bible Themes Judges 4:3 5230 beggars
8610 prayer, asking God
8792 oppression, God's attitude Judges 4:1-3 8739 evil, examples of Judges 4:1-6 5208 armies Judges 4:1-10 6634 deliverance Judges 4:2-3 4303 metals
5824 cruelty, examples Library Sin Slain
I want to picture to you to-night, if I can, three acts in a great history--three different pictures illustrating one subject. I trust we have passed through all three of them, many of us; and as we shall look upon them, whilst I paint them upon the wall, I think there will be many here who will be able to say, I was in that state once;" and when we come to the last, I hope we shall be able to clap our hands, and rejoice to feel that the last is our case also, and that we are in the plight of the …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 6: 1860Whether the Grace of the Word of Wisdom and Knowledge is Becoming to Women?
Objection 1: It would seem that the grace of the word of wisdom and knowledge is becoming even to women. For teaching is pertinent to this grace, as stated in the foregoing Article. Now it is becoming to a woman to teach; for it is written (Prov. 4:3,4): "I was an only son in the sight of my mother, and she taught me [*Vulg.: 'I was my father's son, tender, and as an only son in the sight of my mother. And he taught me.']." Therefore this grace is becoming to women. Objection 2: Further, the grace …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica The First Blast of the Trumpet
The English Scholar's Library etc. No. 2. The First Blast of the Trumpet &c. 1558. The English Scholar's Library of Old and Modern Works. No. 2. The First Blast of the Trumpet &c. 1558. Edited by EDWARD ARBER, F.S.A., etc., LECTURER IN ENGLISH LITERATURE, ETC., UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. SOUTHGATE, LONDON, N. 15 August 1878. No. 2. (All rights reserved.) CONTENTS. Bibliography vii-viii Introduction …
John Knox—The First Blast of the Trumpet A Nation's Struggle for a Home and Freedom.
ISRAEL'S VICTORIES OVER THE CANAANITES.--Josh. 2-9; Judg. 1, 4, 5. Parallel Readings. Hist. Bible II,1-4.1. Prin. of Politics X. That the leaders took the lead in Israel, That the people volunteered readily, Bless Jehovah! Zebulun was a people who exposed themselves to deadly peril, And Naphtali on the heights of the open field. Kings came, they fought; They fought, the kings of Canaan, At Taanach by the Waters of Megiddo, They took no booty of silver. Prom heaven fought the stars, From their …
Charles Foster Kent—The Making of a Nation Gamala. Chorazin.
These things determine the situation of Gamala:--1. It was "in lower Gaulon," in which, as we have seen, Bethsaida was. 2. It was "upon the lake [of Gennesaret]." 3. It was "over-against Tarichee." Compare the maps, whether in their placing of it they agree with these passages. Here was Judas born, commonly called 'Gaulanites,' and as commonly also, the 'Galilean.' So Peter and Andrew and Philip were Gaulanites; of Bethsaida, John 1:44; and yet they were called 'Galileans.' While we are speaking …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. )
Ver. 20. "And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted vineyards."--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain, too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By this remark, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Beth-El. Beth-Aven.
Josephus thus describes the land of Benjamin; "The Benjamites' portion of land was from the river Jordan to the sea, in length: in breadth, it was bounded by Jerusalem and Beth-el." Let these last words be marked, "The breadth of the land of Benjamin was bounded by Jerusalem and Beth-el." May we not justly conclude, from these words, that Jerusalem and Beth-el were opposite, as it were, in a right line? But if you look upon the maps, there are some that separate these by a very large tract of land, …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica A Cloud of Witnesses.
"By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when his end was nigh, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.... By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been compassed about for seven days. By faith Rahab the harlot perished not with them that were disobedient, …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews The Mountainous Country of Judea.
"What is the mountainous country of Judea? It is the king's mountain." However Judea, here and there, doth swell out much with mountains, yet its chief swelling appears in that broad back of mountains, that runs from the utmost southern cost as far as Hebron, and almost as Jerusalem itself. Which the Holy Scripture called "The hill-country of Judah," Joshua 21:11; Luke 1:39. Unless I am very much mistaken,--the maps of Adricomus, Tirinius, and others, ought to be corrected, which have feigned to …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica The Country of Jericho, and the Situation of the City.
Here we will borrow Josephus' pencil, "Jericho is seated in a plain, yet a certain barren mountain hangs over it, narrow, indeed, but long; for it runs out northward to the country of Scythopolis,--and southward, to the country of Sodom, and the utmost coast of the Asphaltites." Of this mountain mention is made, Joshua 2:22, where the two spies, sent by Joshua, and received by Rahab, are said to "conceal themselves." "Opposite against this, lies a mountain on the other side Jordan, beginning from …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica He Does Battle for the Faith; He Restores Peace among those who were at Variance; He Takes in Hand to Build a Stone Church.
57. (32). There was a certain clerk in Lismore whose life, as it is said, was good, but his faith not so. He was a man of some knowledge in his own eyes, and dared to say that in the Eucharist there is only a sacrament and not the fact[718] of the sacrament, that is, mere sanctification and not the truth of the Body. On this subject he was often addressed by Malachy in secret, but in vain; and finally he was called before a public assembly, the laity however being excluded, in order that if it were …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh Miscellaneous Subjects.
Woman's Freedom. The Scriptural right for women to labor in the gospel as exhorters, teachers, preachers, etc., is questioned by many. To deny women such a privilege is contrary to the Christian spirit of equality, and a serious obstruction to pure gospel light. We (male and female) are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:28. In the kingdom of grace man and woman are on an equal footing so far as concerns the work of God. To explain some texts that seem to prohibit women from laboring in the gospel …
Charles Ebert Orr—The Gospel Day Judges
For the understanding of the early history and religion of Israel, the book of Judges, which covers the period from the death of Joshua to the beginning of the struggle with the Philistines, is of inestimable importance; and it is very fortunate that the elements contributed by the later editors are so easily separated from the ancient stories whose moral they seek to point. That moral is most elaborately stated in ii. 6-iii. 6, which is a sort of programme or preface to iii. 7-xvi. 31, which constitutes …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Judges 4:3 NIVJudges 4:3 NLTJudges 4:3 ESVJudges 4:3 NASBJudges 4:3 KJV
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