Judg 5:21

“Dragged. Protestants, “swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon.” — Cadumim, which the Protestants translate ancient, (Haydock) means also eastern. The former epithet seems very insignificant. Some assert, that the Cison divided its streams about Mount Thabor, and one part ran towards the east into the lake of Genesareth, which is here designated, while the other empties itself above Carmel into the great sea. But there is no proof of this assertion in the Scripture, nor in Josephus. We read (Judith vii. 3,) of a place, which the Syriac properly calls Cadmon, and the Vulgate Chelmon, in this neighbourhood. Instead of Kedumim, Symmachus and Theodotion read Kodssim, which the former translates, “the holy vale.” Many of the army (Calmet) of the kings, and perhaps of Sisara also, (Haydock) endeavouring to make their escape, were drowned in the Cison. (Calmet) Ver 22. Broken ( ceciderunt ) “fell off,” the hoofs being fractured by the hard road, while the riders galloped full speed. (Haydock) — Some translate the Hebrew, “the hoofs of the horses made a sound like that of a hammer beating an anvil, on account of the hurry of the strong ones who push them forward.” Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungulâ campum, as Virgil attempts to imitate the sound in verse. Others, “the hoof….was broken by the precipitation (Calmet) (Protestants, prancings, the prancings of the mighty ones; Haydock) of those who fled.” Formerly, Xenophon observes, the horses were not usually shod with iron. The feet of Bucephalus were consequently much worn. Yet some took the precaution to defend the feet of their horses with brass, (Homer) or iron, in the shape of crescents. (Eustathius) — Nero shod his mules with silver; (Suetonius) and Poppea, his wife, had shoes of gold for her more delicate beasts. Soleas ex auro quoque induere solebat. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxiii. 11.) — Yet many excellent horses in Arabia and Tartary are never shod. (Tavern. T. i. B. ii. 5.)”

“the river of Kishon swept them away--The enemy was defeated near "the waters of Megiddo"--the sources and side streams of the Kishon: they that fled had to cross the deep and marshy bed of the torrent, but the Lord had sent a heavy rain--the waters suddenly rose--the warriors fell into the quicksands, and sinking deep into them, were drowned or washed into the sea [VAN DE VELDE].”

“The kings of Canaan could do nothing against these powers. They were smitten; the brook Kishon washed them (i.e., their corpses) away. The meaning "to wash away" is well established by the dialects and the context, though the verb itself only occurs here. As the battle was fought between Taanach and Megiddo, i.e., to the south of the brook Kishon, and the smitten foe fled towards the north, many of them met with their death in the waves of the brook, which was flowing over its banks at the time. The brook is called קדוּמים נחל, i.e., the brook of the old world or the olden time (according to the lxx Cod. Vat. χειμάῤῥους ἀρχαίων), as the stream that had been flowing from time immemorial, and not, as the Chaldee interprets it, the stream that had been celebrated from olden time on account of the mighty acts that had been performed there. The meaning suggested by Ewald and others, "brook of attacks, or slaughters," is not well sustained, although קדּם is sometimes used to denote a hostile encounter. The last clause interrupts the description of the slaughter and the victory. Borne away by the might of the acts to be commemorated, Deborah stimulates her soul, i.e., herself, to a vigorous continuation of her song. תּדרכי is jussive, and עז an accusative governed by the verb, in strength, vigorously; for she had still to celebrate the glorious results of the victory. This is done in the third part of the song (Jdg 5:22-31), the first strophe of which (Jdg 5:22-24) describes in brief drastic traits the flight of the foe, and the treatment of the fugitives by the people of the land.”