Judges 5:8
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
American King James Version (AKJV)
They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
American Standard Version (ASV)
They chose new gods; Then was war in the gates: Was there a shield or spear seen Among forty thousand in Israel?
Basic English Translation (BBE)
They had no one to make arms, there were no more armed men in the towns; was there a body-cover or a spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel?
Webster's Revision
They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
World English Bible
They chose new gods. Then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
English Revised Version (ERV)
They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
Clarke's Judges 5:8 Bible Commentary
They chose new gods - This was the cause of all their calamities; they forsook Jehovah, and served other gods; and then was war in their gates - they were hemmed up in every place, and besieged in all their fortified cities; and they were defenseless, they had no means of resisting their adversaries; for even among forty thousand men, there was neither spear nor shield to be seen. The Vulgate gives a strange and curious turn to this verse: Nova bella elegit Dominus, et portas hostium ipse subvertit; "The Lord chose a new species of war, and himself subverted the gates of the enemy." Now, what was this new species of war? A woman signifies her orders to Barak; he takes 10,000 men, wholly unarmed, and retires to Mount Tabor, where they are immediately besieged by a powerful and well-appointed army. On a sudden Barak and his men rush upon them, terror and dismay are spread through the whole Cannanitish army, and the rout is instantaneous and complete. The Israelites immediately arm themselves with the arms of their enemies, and slay all before them; they run, and are pursued in all directions. Sisera, their general, is no longer safe in his chariot; either his horses fail, or the unevenness of the road obliges him to desert it, and fly away on foot; in the end, the whole army is destroyed, and the leader ingloriously slain. This was a new species of war, and was most evidently the Lord's doings. Whatever may be said of the version of the Vulgate, (and the Syriac and Arabic are something like it), the above are all facts, and show the wondrous working of the Lord.
Barnes's Judges 5:8 Bible Commentary
The "war in the gates" describes the hostile attacks of the Canaanites, which were the punishment of the idolatry of the Israelites (compare the marginal references), and the reduction of Israel to an unarmed and unresisting state under the Philistine dominion. See Judges 3:31 note.
Wesley's Judges 5:8 Bible Commentary
5:8 Chose - They did not only submit to idolatry when they were forced to it by tyrants, but they freely chose it. New gods - New to them, and unknown to their fathers, and new in comparison of the true and everlasting God of Israel, being but of yesterday. The gates - That is, in their walled cities, which have gates and bars; gates are often put for cities; then their strong holds fell into the hands of their enemies. Was there a shield - There was not, the meaning is not, that all the Israelites had no arms, but, either they had but few arms among them, being many thousands of them disarmed by the Canaanites and Philistines, or that they generally neglected the use of arms, as being without all hope of recovering their liberty.