Bible study · Judges 5:1-31
Judges 5: Deborah and Barak sang
Read Judges 5:1-31 before you meet.
In a few lines
The song tells chapter 4's day differently: more tribes, stars that fought, the Kishon sweeping the enemy away, and never Jabin's name (5:14-21). It has two mothers, with one Hebrew word for both: Deborah, "a mother in Israel" (5:7), and Sisera's mother at the window, picturing the plunder being divided (5:28-30), as the enemy did in the song at the sea (Exodus 15:9).
The verse to carry
““So let all your enemies perish, LORD, but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises in its strength.” Then the land had rest forty years.”
Judges 5:31
To talk about
1. The song blesses the LORD "because the people offered themselves willingly" (5:2). What have you offered yourself for willingly, and what made it willing rather than dutiful?
2. At the watercourses of Reuben "there were great searchings of heart", and the song asks, "Why did you sit among the sheepfolds?" (5:16). When have you thought hard about stepping in and stayed where you were? What would have helped you come?
3. The song pictures people at the places of drawing water telling over "the LORD’s righteous acts" (5:11). Where in an ordinary week could you tell someone something the LORD has done?