Judges 4:24

And the hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) The hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed.—Literally, as in the margin, The hand. . . . going went, and was hard—i.e., “became heavier and heavier in its pressure.” The battle of the Kishon was the beginning of a complete deliverance of Israel from the yoke of the Canaanites.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:17-24 Sisera's chariots had been his pride and his confidence. Thus are those disappointed who rest on the creature; like a broken reed, it not only breaks under them, but pierces them with many sorrows. The idol may quickly become a burden, Isa 46:1; what we were sick for, God can make us sick of. It is probable that Jael really intended kindness to Sisera; but by a Divine impulse she was afterwards led to consider him as the determined enemy of the Lord and of his people, and to destroy him. All our connexions with God's enemies must be broken off, if we would have the Lord for our God, and his people for our people. He that had thought to have destroyed Israel with his many iron chariots, is himself destroyed with one iron nail. Thus the weak things of the world confound the mighty. The Israelites would have prevented much mischief, if they had sooner destroyed the Canaanites, as God commanded and enabled them: but better be wise late, and buy wisdom by experience, than never be wise.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the margin. The meaning is, that Barak's great victory was the beginning of a successful resistance to Jabin, by which the Israelites recovered their independence, and finally broke the Canaanite power. Accordingly, we hear no more of Canaanite domination in the Book of Judges.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. Then Jael took a nail of the tent—most probably one of the pins with which the tent ropes are fastened to the ground. Escape was almost impossible for Sisera. But the taking of his life by the hand of Jael was murder. It was a direct violation of all the notions of honor and friendship that are usually held sacred among pastoral people, and for which it is impossible to conceive a woman in Jael's circumstances to have had any motive, except that of gaining favor with the victors. Though predicted by Deborah [Jud 4:9], it was the result of divine foreknowledge only—not the divine appointment or sanction; and though it is praised in the song [Jud 5:24-27], the eulogy must be considered as pronounced not on the moral character of the woman and her deed, but on the public benefits which, in the overruling providence of God, would flow from it.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the hand of the children of Israel, prospered and prevailed against Jabin, the king of Canaan,.... They continued their wars with him, in which they were successful:

until they had destroyed Jabin, king of Canaan; took him, and put him to death, and took his cities, and destroyed the inhabitants of them, and so acted more agreeably to the declared will of God, that they should not spare the Canaanites, but destroy them.

Geneva Study Bible

And the hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Judges 4:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"So God subdued at that time Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel; and the hand of the Israelites became heavier and heavier in its pressure upon him, until they had destroyed him." וקשׁה הלוך ... יד ותּלך, "the hand ... increased more and more, becoming heavy." הלך, used to denote the progress or continual increase of an affair, as in Genesis 8:3, etc., is connected with the infinitive absolute, and with the participle of the action concerned. קשׁה is the feminine participle of קשׁה, like גּדל in Genesis 26:13 (see Ges. 131, 3, Anm. 3). The overthrow of Jabin and his rule did not involve the extermination of the Canaanites generally.