Hakim-hakim 5:2-4

5:2 “When the leaders took the lead ¹  in Israel,

When the people answered the call to war –

Praise the Lord!

5:3 Hear, O kings!

Pay attention, O rulers!

I will sing to the Lord! ² 

I will sing ³  to the Lord God of Israel!

5:4 O Lord, when you departed ⁴  from Seir,

when you marched from Edom’s plains,

the earth shook, the heavens poured down,

the clouds poured down rain. ⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 5:20-22

5:20 From the sky ⁶  the stars ⁷  fought,

from their paths in the heavens ⁸  they fought against Sisera.

5:21 The Kishon River carried them off;

the river confronted them ⁹  – the Kishon River.

Step on the necks of the strong! ¹⁰ 

5:22 The horses’ ¹¹  hooves pounded the ground; ¹² 

the stallions galloped madly. ¹³ 

[5:2]  ¹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew expression בִּפְרֹעַ פְּרָעוֹת (bifroa’ pÿra’ot) is uncertain. Numerous proposals are offered by commentators. (For a survey of opinions, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 223-27.) The next line refers to the people who responded to Barak’s summons to war, so a reference to the leaders who issued the summons would provide a natural poetic parallel. In v. 9 the leaders (חוֹקְקֵי, khoqÿqey) of the people and these same volunteers stand in poetic parallelism, so it is reasonable to assume that the difficult Hebrew term פְּרַעוֹת (pÿra’ot, v. 2a) is synonymous with חוֹקְקֵי (khoqÿqey) of v. 9 (see Lindars, 227).

[5:3]  ² tn Heb “I, to the Lord, I, I will sing!” The first singular personal pronoun is used twice, even though a first person finite verbal form is employed.

[5:3]  ³ tn Or “make music.”

[5:4]  ⁴ tn Or “went out.”

[5:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “water.”

[5:20]  ⁶ tn Or “from heaven.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[5:20]  ⁷ tn The MT takes “the stars” with what follows rather than with the first colon of v. 20. But for metrical reasons it seems better to move the atnach and read the colon as indicated in the translation.

[5:20]  ⁸ tn The words “in the heavens” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[5:21]  ⁹ tn Possibly “the ancient river,” but it seems preferable in light of the parallel line (which has a verb) to emend the word (attested only here) to a verb (קָדַם, qadam) with pronominal object suffix.

[5:21]  ¹⁰ tn This line is traditionally taken as the poet-warrior’s self-exhortation, “March on, my soul, in strength!” The present translation (a) takes the verb (a second feminine singular form) as addressed to Deborah (cf. v. 12), (b) understands נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) in its well-attested sense of “throat; neck” (cf. Jonah 2:6), (c) takes the final yod (י) on נַפְשִׁי (nafshiy) as an archaic construct indicator (rather than a suffix), and (d) interprets עֹז (’oz, “strength”) as an attributive genitive (literally, “necks of strength,” i.e., “strong necks”). For fuller discussion and various proposals, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 270-71.

[5:22]  ¹¹ tc The MT as it stands has a singular noun, but if one moves the prefixed mem (מ) from the beginning of the next word to the end of סוּס (sus), the expected plural form is achieved. Another possibility is to understand an error of scribal haplography here, in which case the letter mem should appear in both places.

[5:22]  ¹² tn The words “the ground” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “galloped, galloped.” The repetition is for emphasis and is more appropriately indicated in English with an adverb.