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Judges 5 · a question people ask

"Curse Meroz" (5:23). Who were they, and what had they done?

In the text

The song is all there is. Meroz is named only here in the Hebrew Bible, and the song doesn't say where it was or who lived there. It gives one reason for the curse: "because they didn’t come to help the LORD, to help the LORD against the mighty" (5:23). The words are given to "the LORD’s angel" (5:23); chapter 2's honest question looks at who the LORD's angel is, and it isn't asked again here. Of the tribes, the song asks, "Why did you sit among the sheepfolds?" between two lines about Reuben (5:15-16), and "Why did Dan remain in ships?" (5:17), and it says Asher "sat still" (5:17). But it curses only Meroz. It doesn't say why Meroz alone, and nothing is told of what became of it.

The verses

“‘Curse Meroz,’ said the LORD’s angel. ‘Curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they didn’t come to help the LORD, to help the LORD against the mighty.’”
Judges 5:23 · World English Bible
“The princes of Issachar were with Deborah. As was Issachar, so was Barak. They rushed into the valley at his feet. By the watercourses of Reuben, there were great resolves of heart. Why did you sit among the sheepfolds? To hear the whistling for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben, there were great searchings of heart. Gilead lived beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan remain in ships? Asher sat still at the haven of the sea, and lived by his creeks.”
Judges 5:15-17 · World English Bible
“The LORD’s angel came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to give your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.”
Judges 2:1 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Judges 5

Judges 5: Deborah and Barak sang

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).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions