193
The term used here is the same as ordinarily employed for the offering of gifts and sacrifices to the Deity.
194
So literally.
195
It was common in antiquity to rise when receiving a direct message from the king. This is the origin of the
liturgical practice of rising when the Gospel is read.
196
The text means only this, and not as in the Authorized Version.
197
Thucyd. vi. 56; Polyb. v. 81; Plut. Caesar, 86; Curtius, vii. 2, 27; comp. Cassel, u.s.
198
Ranke, Franzos. Gesch. 1 p. 171; 473.
199
Ber. Rabba, c. 89.
200
This view is also taken by Jewish interpreters, though not by Josephus.
201
Greek legend has a similar story of Lycurgos chasing Dionysos and the Bacchantes with an ox-goad (Il.
vi. 135). Israel in Canaan.
202
So literally, and very significantly for the history of Israel.
203
For this reason I cannot adopt the localization proposed by Dr. Thomson (Land and Book, ch. 29), north
of the hills that bound the Plain of Jezreel, although the suggestion is supported by Mr. Grove.
204
Although there may be differences as to the mode of its derivation, there is none as to the real import of
the name.
205
The Authorized Version translates "the wife of Lapidoth." The latter word means "torches," and the
meaning, as brought out by Cassel, seems to be "a woman of a torch-like spirit;" the Hebrew for wife and
woman being the same. Jewish tradition has it, that she was the wife of Barak, "lightning," Barak and
Lapidoth being, of course, closely connected terms.
206
The palm-tree was the symbol of Canaan; and the name Phoenician is derived from its Greek equivalent.
207
This is the meaning of the word, as appears from Exodus 12:21.
208
This we infer, as it could not have served any purpose to have gathered the tribes themselves so far
north, while it would certainly have attracted the attention of the enemy.
209
So, and not as the Authorized Version renders it: "he went up with 10,000 men at his feet."
210
So also Josephus (Ant. v. 5, 6).
211
The battle must be read in connection with the song of Deborah (Judges 5), which furnishes its details.
212
They were Midianites, descendafnts of Abraham by Keturah -undoubtedly a Bedouin tribe.
213
For example in the case of Aretaphila in Cyrene (Plutarch, The Virtues of Women, 19).
214
The language is extremely difficult, and the most different interpretations have been proposed. We have
adopted the ingenious view of Cassel, which represents Israel, as it were, taking the Nazarite vow for God
and against His enemies.