She lived under Deborah’s palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
Parallel Translations
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She lived under Deborah’s palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
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And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
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And she sat under the palm-tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in the hill-country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Judges 4:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 18:19 Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God.
- Genesis 35:8 Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and its name was called Allon Bacuth.
- Exodus 18:13 On the next day, Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning to the evening.
- Deuteronomy 17:8-12 If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise, and go up to the place which Yahweh your God chooses. You shall come to the priests who are Levites and to the judge who shall be in those days. You shall inquire, and they shall give you the verdict. You shall do according to the decisions of the verdict which they shall give you from that place which Yahweh chooses. You shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you. According to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn away from the sentence which they announce to you, to the right hand, nor to the left. The man who does presumptuously in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. You shall put away the evil from Israel.
- Joshua 16:2 It went out from Bethel to Luz, and passed along to the border of the Archites to Ataroth;
- Joshua 18:22 Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,
- Joshua 18:25 Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,
- 1 Samuel 1:1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
- Jeremiah 31:15 Yahweh says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
- Exodus 18:16 When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.”
- Exodus 18:26 They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
- 1 Samuel 1:19 They rose up in the morning early and worshiped Yahweh, then returned and came to their house to Ramah. Then Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and Yahweh remembered her.
- 1 Samuel 6:16-17 When the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day. These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering to Yahweh: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;
- 1 Samuel 25:1 Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and mourned for him, and buried him at his house at Ramah. Then David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
- 2 Samuel 15:2-6 Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. When any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him, and said, “What city are you from?” He said, “Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel.” Absalom said to him, “Behold, your matters are good and right; but there is no man deputized by the king to hear you.” Absalom said moreover, “Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man who has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice!” It was so, that when any man came near to bow down to him, he stretched out his hand, and took hold of him, and kissed him. Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jdg 4:5 And she dwelt under the palm tree…
Jdg 4:5 And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
Ver. 5. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah.] Or, She sat under the palm tree, as the Septuagint and Vulgate render it. The kings of Persia sat under a golden plane tree, or under a vine of gold, that had bunches of smaragdes and other precious stones, when they sat in judgment {a}
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“ O curas hominum! o quantum est in rebus inane! ”
{a} Athenaeus, lib. xii.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain To have their suits and causes determined by her…
To have their suits and causes determined by her sentence.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah,....…
And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah,.... Her dwelling house was under a palm tree, or rather she sat under one, in the open air, when the people came to her with their cases, and it was called from hence after her name; though some, as Abarbinel observes, think it was so called, because Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, was buried here, and which was near Bethel, one of the places next mentioned, see Gen 35:8,
between Ramah and Bethel in Mount Ephraim; which places were in the tribe of Benjamin in the borders of Ephraim, see Jos 16:2. The Jews conclude, from the situation of her, that she was a very opulent woman; the Targum is,"she was dwelling in a city in Ataroth, Deborah was supported of her own; she had palm trees in Jericho, orchards in Ramah, olives producing oil in the valley, a place of watering in Bethel, and white dust in the kings mountain:"
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and the children of Israel came up to her; from all parts of the land to the mount of Ephraim:
for judgment: to have her advice and counsel in matters of difficulty, and to have causes between contending parties heard and decided by her, so that she might be truly reckoned among the judges.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain And she dwelt - Or, she sat: she had…
And she dwelt - Or, she sat: she had her judgment-seat in the open air, under the shadow of that tree; which was an emblem of the justice she administered there: thriving and growing against opposition, as the palm-tree does under pressures. Came to her - To have their suits and causes determined by her sentence.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. The palm tree of Deborah] It is…
Verse 5. The palm tree of Deborah] It is common for the Hindoos to plant trees in the names of themselves and their friends; and some religious mendicants live for a considerable time under trees. - Ward.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jdg 4:5. And she dwelt — Or, as the…
Jdg 4:5. And she dwelt — Or, as the Septuagint and Vulgate understand it, she sat: she had her judgment-seat in the open air, under the shadow of that tree, which was an emblem of the justice she administered there: thriving and growing against opposition, as the palm-tree does under pressures. Came to her — To have their suits and causes determined by her sentence.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain She dwelt - Rather, “she sat,” namely, to judge…
She dwelt - Rather, “she sat,” namely, to judge the people Jdg 4:10, but not in the usual place, “the gate” Rth 4:1-2; Pro 22:22. It suited her character, and the wild unsafe times better, that she should sit under a palm-tree in the secure heights of Mount Ephraim, between Ramah and Bethel (Jdg 20:33 note). This verse shows that the Judges exercised the civil as well as military functions of rulers 1Sa 7:15-17.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Name. Hebrew, "she dwelt (or sat to judge) under…
Name. Hebrew, "she dwelt (or sat to judge) under the palm-tree of Debbora." "The oak of weeping," allon Bachuth, under which Debbora, the nurse of Rebecca, was interred, was also near Bethel, Genesis xxxv. 8. (Haydock) --- This city was on the confines of the tribes of Ephraim and of Benjamin, over which Debbora chiefly exercised her authority; and here she was consulted by the people. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain she dwelt under the palm tree--or, collectively, "palm-grove." It…
she dwelt under the palm tree--or, collectively, "palm-grove." It is common still in the East to administer justice in the open air, or under the canopy of an umbrageous tree.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. Dwelt under the palm tree — This was…
5. Dwelt under the palm tree — This was her official seat or throne. “She sat under a large palm, public and free, accessible to all; not like the German Velleda, who, according to Tacitus, sat in a tower, and to whom no one was admitted, in order to increase the veneration in which she was held. The palm was the common symbol of Canaan; it adorned the coins of both the Phenicians and the Jews.” — Cassel. From its being the well known place where this prophetess judged, and being popularly called after her, it was still known to the historian as the palm tree of Deborah.
Between Ramah and Beth-el — These cities fell within the territory of Ephraim, and were about six miles apart. The great mountain range in which they lay early acquired the name of Mount Ephraim, from its being largely allotted to that tribe. Joshua 16.
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Came up to her for judgment — They came unto the prophetess as unto a divine oracle, seeking to know the divine will and judgment in cases of difficulty or danger.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah] The…
5. dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah] The marg. sat is better, cf. Jdg_6:11, 1Sa_14:2; 1Sa_22:6, lit. she was sitting, i.e. to declare the divine will in disputes and cases of difficulty; hence, it is implied, the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah (er-Râm) and Beth-el (Beitin), 5 and 12 m. respectively N. of Jerusalem, obtained its name. In the same neighbourhood, and associated with the same name, was the famous tree called Allon-bacuth, ‘tree (?oak) of mourning,’ under which Deborah the nurse of Rachel was buried, Gen_35:8. The conclusion seems to be irresistible that we have here and in Gen_35:8 two different ways of accounting for the name of the same tree. Of the two, that given in Gen. is perhaps preferable; for there is nothing elsewhere in the present narrative to suggest that Deborah’s home was in the S. of the hill country of Ephraim; Jdg_5:15, though it does not speak distinctly, appears to connect her with Issachar; and it is more likely that the deliverer arose where the need was the sorest, rather than from a district outside the area of the oppression. Moreover, Deborah with her head-quarters near Beth-el would have been too far apart from Barak for the conduct of the negotiations in Jdg_4:6-9.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (5) She dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah.—Similarly…
(5) She dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah.—Similarly Abraham is said to have lived under the oak of Mamre (Gen_14:13), and Saul under the pomegranate of Migron (1Sa_14:2). “Such tents the patriarchs loved “(Coleridge). Dean Stanley (Jewish Chron. i. 318) draws a fine contrast between the triumphant “mother of Israel” (Judges 5 under her palm, full of the fire of faith and energy,and Judæa Captiva, represented on the coins of Titus as a weeping woman sitting under a palm-tree, “with downcast eyes and folded hands, and extinguished hopes.” The words “she dwelt” are literally she was sitting, which may merely mean that she took her station under this well-known and solitary palm when she was giving her judgment (comp. Psa_9:3); just as St. Louis, under the oak-tree at Vincennes (Stanley, Jewish Chron. i. 218), and as Ethelbert received St. Austin and his monks under an oak. The tree won its name as the “Deborah palm” from her, and may also have originated the name Baal-Tamar, “the lord of the palm” (Jdg_20:33). Near it was another very famous tree—Allon-Bachuth—the oak or terebinth of weeping; so called from the weeping at the burial of the other Deborah (Gen_35:8), which is alluded to in 1Sa_10:3, if the true reading there be “the oak of Deborah,” and not of Tabor, as Thenius conjectures.
Between Ramah and Beth-el.—Both towns were on the confines of Benjamin and Ephraim (see Jos_18:25; Jos_16:2).
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In mount Ephraim.—The one secure spot in Palestine. (See Note on Jdg_3:27.) The Chaldee prosaically amplifies this into “she lived in Ataroth (Jos_15:2), having independent means, and she had palm-trees in Jericho, gardens in Ramah, olive-yards in the valley, a well-watered land in Bethel, and white clay in the king’s mount.”
Came up.—A technical term for going before a superior (Num_16:12; Deu_25:7). Deborah, unlike the German Veleda—who lived in a tower, in awful seclusion—allowed the freest access to her presence as she sat beneath her palm.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The palm tree of Deborah. The tree, which was…
The palm tree of Deborah. The tree, which was probably still standing in the writer"s time, was known as "the palm tree of Deborah," just as a certain oak tree in the forest of Hoxne, in Suffolk, was known for many hundred years as King Edmund"s oak.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.