Judg 5:11

“Battle formations. Menachem interprets "strategists, military tactitians." He relates this to "The locust has no king, yet he advances entirely 'in formation'." The meaning is 'battle formations." Another interpretation, Concerning the clatter of pebbles amidst the watering places. When you would walk amidst the watering places to draw water, you were terrified by the clatter of the pebbles smoothed by the stream, "cailloux" in old French. When stepped on, they emit a noise, and you were afraid that your presence would be sensed by your enemies. Now, however, such fears are baseless, and this is why you are commanded to offer thanks to His Name. Pebbles. This refers to pebbles smoothed by a stream, as in "He ground with pebbles."”

“Choaked in the waters of the Cison, and of Mageddo, ver. 19, 21. Hebrew is very obscure: “from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water, there shall they relate the justices of the Lord, the righteous acts of his villages, ( or brave men) then shall the people of the Lord go down to the gates,” where the courts of judicature are held. The peaceful inhabitants shall be no more disturbed with the shouts of archers, but rehearsing what obligations they are under to the Lord, the warriors of Barac, they shall pursue their usual employments without fear. (Haydock) — Septuagint, You shall make your voices heard, playing on instruments, Calmet. ( anacrouomenón, pulsantium. ) — Among those who rejoice, there shall they give righteous deeds to the Lord: they have wrought justice in Israel, &c. (Haydock) — If we neglect the points, we may render the Hebrew more agreeably to the Vulgate. “At the voice of those who are pierced with arrows in the midst of those who draw water (or are drowned) there they shall publish,” &c. (Calmet) — And obtained. This is not in Hebrew expressly; but it is added to shew that the people could now act as a free nation, having cleared their country of its enemies. (Haydock)”

“The wells which are at a little distance from towns in the East, are, in unsettled times, places of danger. But in peace they are scenes of pleasant and joyous resort. The poetess anticipates that this song may be sung, and the righteous acts of the Lord rehearsed at these now tranquil "places of drawing water." Deborah now rouses herself to describe, in terms suitable to the occasion, the preparation and the contest, and calls in a flight of poetic enthusiasm on Barak to parade his prisoners in triumphal procession. Then follows a eulogistic enumeration of the tribes which raised the commanded levy, or volunteered their services--the soldiers of Ephraim who dwelt near the mount of the Amalekites, the small quota of Benjamin; "the governors," valiant leaders "out of Machir," the western Manasseh; out of Zebulun.”

“The whole nation had good reason to make this reflection, as the warriors, having returned home, were now relating the mighty acts of the Lord among the women who were watering their flocks, and the people had returned to their towns once more. This is in all probability the idea of the obscure verse before us, which has been interpreted in such very different ways. The first clause, which has no verb, and cannot constitute a sentence by itself, must be connected with the following clause, and taken as an anakolouthon, as יתנּוּ שׁם does not form a direct continuation of the clause commencing with מקּול. After the words "from the voice of the archers," we should expect the continuation "there is heard," or "there sounds forth the praise of the acts of the Lord." Instead of that, the construction that was commenced is relinquished at יתנּוּ שׁם, and a different turn is given to the thought. This not only seems to offer the simplest explanation, but the only possible solution of the difficulty. For the explanation that מן is to be taken as signifying "away from," as in Num 15:24, etc., in the sense of "far from the voice of the archers, among the watering women," does not suit the following word שׁם, "there," at all. It would be necessary to attribute to מן the meaning "no more disquieted by," a meaning which the preposition could not possibly have in this clause. מחצצים are not sharers in the booty, for חצץ simply means to cut, to cut in pieces, to divide, and is never applied to the sharing of booty, for which חלּק is the word used (vid., Jdg 5:30; Psa 68:13; Isa 9:2). מחצּץ is to be regarded, as the Rabbins maintain, as a denom. from חץ, to hold an arrow, signifying therefore the shooter of an arrow. It was probably a natural thing for Deborah, who dwelt in Benjamin, to mention the archers as representatives of warriors generally, since this was the principal weapon employed by the Benjaminites (see Ch1 8:40; Ch1 12:2; Ch2 14:7; Ch2 17:17). The tarrying of the warriors among the drawers of water, where the flocks and herds were being watered, points to the time of peace, when the warriors were again occupied with their civil and domestic affairs. יתנּוּ is a simple aorist. תּנּה, lit. to repeat, then to relate, or praise. "The righteousness of Jehovah," i.e., the marvellous acts of the Lord in and upon Israel for the accomplishing of His purposes of salvation, in which the righteousness of His work upon earth was manifested (cf. Sa1 12:7; Mic 6:5). פּרזונו צדקות has been rendered by modern expositors, either "the righteous acts of His guidance or of His decision" (Ewald and Bertheau), or "the righteous acts of His commanders," or "the benefits towards His princes (leaders) in Israel" (Ros. and others). But neither of these can be sustained. We must take פּרזון here in just the same sense as in Jdg 5:7; the country covered with open towns and villages, together with their inhabitants, whom Jehovah had delivered from the hostile oppression that had rested upon them, by means of the victory obtained over Sisera. After that victory the people of the Lord went down again to their gates, from the mountains and hiding-places in which they had taken refuge from their foes (Jdg 5:6, Jdg 5:7), returning again to the plains of the land, and the towns that were now delivered from the foe.”