“The peasantry came to an end, they came to an end in Israel, Until I, Deborah, arose, Until I arose, a mother in Israel.
Parallel translations
- WEB The rulers ceased in Israel. They ceased until I, Deborah, arose; Until I arose a mother in Israel.
- KJV The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.
- BSB Life in the villages ceased; it ended in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose, a mother in Israel.
- NKJV Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel, Until I, Deborah, arose, Arose a mother in Israel.
- NLT There were few people left in the villages of Israel— until Deborah arose as a mother for Israel.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Village life had failed until Deborah arose as a mother in Israel.
Overview
Deborah describes herself as a 'mother in Israel,' a nurturing, protective leader raised up by God. Her emergence reversed the collapse of ordered life under oppression. The image celebrates God's provision of leadership to restore and care for His struggling people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Isa 49:23Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; Then you will know that I am Yahweh; and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed.”
- 2 Sam 20:19I am among those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up Yahweh’s inheritance?”
- Rom 16:13Greet Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
- Judg 4:4–6Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, judged Israel at that time.
- Esth 9:19Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a good day, and a day of sending presents of food to one another.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 5:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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