Judges 4:1-3

As long as Ehud lived he kept Israel faithful to God (Judges 4:1). However after he died, God’s people again turned from the Lord. In discipline God allowed the Canaanites in the North to gain strength and dominate the Israelites for 20 years. Hazor, one of the largest cities in the Promised Land, again became the center of Canaanite power in this area (cf. Joshua 11:1; Joshua 11:10). [Note: See Piotr Bienkowski, "The Role of Hazor in the Late Bronze Age," Palestine Exploration Quarterly 119:1 (January-June 1987):50-61.] It stood on the main road connecting Egypt and Mesopo-tamia. Its king was Jabin (the discerning, lit. he will under-stand), perhaps a title or dynastic name rather than a proper name since the king of Hazor that Joshua defeated was also Jabin (Joshua 11:1). [Note: Kenneth Kitchen, Ancient Orient and Old Testament, p. 68.] Or the Jabin in Judges could have received his name in honor of the Jabin in Joshua. This titulary has a sarcastic ring, however, since he would learn that Yahweh opposes oppressors of His people.

Jabin’s commander-in-chief, Sisera, lived several miles to the southwest of Hazor in Harosheth-hagoyim (lit. the woodlands of the nations). This may have been a term that described the entire upper Galilee region. [Note: Lewis, p. 39.] This suggests that Canaanite influence was extensive throughout northern Israel at this time. Though the location of Harosheth-hagoyim is uncertain, it seems to have been at the western end of the Jezreel Valley. [Note: Dale W. Manor, "The Topography and Geography of the Jezreel Valley as they Contribute to the Battles of Deborah and Gideon," Near Eastern Archaeology Society Bulletin NS28 (Winter 1987):27; and Leon Wood, A Survey of Israel’s History, p. 216, n. 39. ] "Ephraim" here, as well as in other places (e.g., Judges 3:27), may have originally been a geographical rather than a tribal term (cf. Joshua 20:7). [Note: Gray, p. 255.]

The Canaanites’ 900 iron war chariots gave them complete control of the flatter and dryer portions of this area. The Israelites had to live in the hills. These chariots were state-of-the-art weapons at this time. Compare Pharaoh’s chariots in the Exodus account. Chapter 5 also recalls the Exodus.