Judges 5:7

Life in the villages ceased; it ended in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose, a mother in Israel.

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.

ASV

The rulers ceased in Israel, they ceased, Until that I Deborah arose, That I arose a mother in Israel.

YLT

Villages ceased in Israel--they ceased, Till that I arose--Deborah, That I arose, a mother in Israel.

DBT

The villages ceased in Israel, Ceased until that I Deborah arose, That I arose a mother in Israel.

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Commentary voices

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Voices6

On this verse

(Judges 5:7) However, the strong ones in Israel ceased, they paused until Deborah, a mother in Israel, arose. These strong ones are the learned teachers and preachers of the law, who are said to have paused, that is, to not have been present, until she arose to teach Israel through preaching, exhortation, and counsel, and to deliver them from their enemies. Deborah also provokes these strong ones in the previous verses to bless the Lord together with her, saying: 'You who willingly offered your lives for the peril of Israel, bless the Lord!' (Verse 2).

Jerome· Commentary on the Song of Deborah, 420patristic

Related commentary

The inhabitants of the villages ceased,....

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

Render the word villages (here and in Jdg 5:11) judgment, rule, or judges, rulers. The sense is The princes (or magistrates) ceased in Israel, i. e. there was no one to do justice in the gate, or defend men from their oppressors.

Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)evangelical

The song proceeds in these verses to describe the sad condition of the country, the oppression of the people, and the origin of all the national distress in the people's apostasy from God. Idolatry was the cause of foreign invasion and internal inability to resist it.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed

Ceased - The people forsook all their unfortified towns, not being able to protect them from military insolence. A mother - That is, to be to them as a mother, to instruct, and rule, and protect them, which duties a mother owes to her children.

John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765evangelical

She had been the first wheel in the action, and now is so in the thanksgiving. It was sung on that day, not the very day that the fight was, but on that occasion, and soon after, as soon as a thanksgiving day could conveniently be appointed. When we have received mercy from God, we ought to be speedy in our returns of praise, while the impressions of the mercy are fresh.

Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan

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Cross-references

6 linked verses

The verses this one reaches6

2 Samuel 20:19
I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?”
Isaiah 49:23
Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”
Judges 4:4–6
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.
Esther 9:19
This is why the rural Jews, who live in the villages, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting. It is a holiday for sending gifts to one another.
Romans 16:13
Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me as well.
Judges 5:3
Listen, O kings! Give ear, O princes! I will sing to the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD, the God of Israel.

Cross-references

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The quotation web

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Original language

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Around this verse

Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

Who & where

PersonJudgesDeborahProphetess and judge who held court under her palm tree, summoned Barak against Sisera's iron chariots, and sang the victory — "th…

About this book

The Death of Samson — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Judges — The post-conquest slide into cyclical apostasy. Twelve judges delivering Israel from successive oppressors, a pattern repeating seven times, and an appendix whose violence diagnoses a nation with no king.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Anonymous; rabbinic tradition attributes to Samuel (Bava Batra 14b)
Date: Events c. 1375–1050 BC; compilation during the early monarchy

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Isaiah 49:23
Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD;…
leads to
- Isaiah 60:14
  The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you; all who reviled you will fall facedown at your feet and call you the City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy…
- Isaiah 60:16
  You will drink the milk of nations and nurse at the breasts of royalty; you will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
- Isaiah 60:3
  Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
- Micah 7:17
  They will lick the dust like a snake, like reptiles slithering on the ground. They will crawl from their holes in the presence of the LORD our God; they will tremble in fear of…
- Isaiah 45:14
  This is what the LORD says: “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, along with the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge…
Through
Esther 9:19
This is why the rural Jews, who live in the villages, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting. It is a holiday for sending gifts…
leads to
- Esther 8:17
  In every province and every city, wherever the king’s edict and decree reached, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many of the people of the land themselves…
Through
2 Samuel 20:19
I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?”
leads to
- 1 Samuel 26:19
  Now please, may my lord the king hear the words of his servant: If the LORD has stirred you up against me, then may He accept an offering. But if men have done it,…
Through
Romans 16:13
Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me as well.
leads to
- 1 Timothy 5:2
  older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

The whole web at once: see the Arc.

Where the connections lead

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