Judges 5 · Verse 8

Judges 5:8

They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
Judges 5:8, King James Version

Judges 5:8 in other translations

BSBWhen they chose new gods, then war came to their gates. Not a shield or spear was found among forty thousand in Israel.
WEBThey chose new gods. Then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
ASVThey chose new gods; Then was war in the gates: Was there a shield or spear seen Among forty thousand in Israel?
YLTHe chooseth new gods, Then war is at the gates! A shield is not seen--and a spear Among forty thousand in Israel.
DARBYThey chose newgods; then was war in the gates: Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
BBEThey 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?
WebsterThey chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

What does Judges 5:8 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 5:6-8

6-8. The song proceeds in these verses to describe the sad condition of the country, the oppression of the people, and the origin of all the national distress in the people's apostasy from God. Idolatry was the cause of foreign invasion and internal inability to resist it.

Read the full comment on Judges 5:6-8 →

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 8 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.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Judges 5:6-11

Deborah describes the distressed state of Israel under the tyranny of Jabin, that their salvation might appear more gracious. She shows what brought this misery upon them. It was their idolatry. They chose new gods, with new names. But under all these images, Satan was worshipped. Deborah was a mother to Israel, by diligently promoting the salvation of their souls. She calls on those who shared the advantages of…

Read the full comment on Judges 5:6-11 →

Judges 5:8 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

יִבְחַר֙yiv.Charit choseH977
אֱלֹהִ֣ים'E.lo.HimgodsH430
חֲדָשִׁ֔יםcha.da.ShimnewH2319
אָ֖ז'azthenH227
לָחֶ֣םla.ChembreadH3901
שְׁעָרִ֑יםshe.'a.RimgatesH8179
מָגֵ֤ןma.Gena shieldH4043
אִם\־'im-ifH518
יֵֽרָאֶה֙ye.ra.'Ehit was seenH7200
וָרֹ֔מַחva.Ro.machand a spearH7420
בְּאַרְבָּעִ֥יםbe.'ar.ba.'Imamong fortyH705
אֶ֖לֶף'E.lefthousandH505
בְּיִשְׂרָאֵֽל\׃be.Yis.ra.'Elin IsraelH3478

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Judges 5:8

  • Deuteronomy 32:16-17

    They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.

  • Judges 2:17

    And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so.

  • Judges 2:12

    And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger.

  • Judges 4:3

    And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.

  • 1 Samuel 13:19-22

    Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock. Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads. So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
new gods.
2:12,17; De 32:16,17
was there.
4:3; 1Sa 13:19-22

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Judges 5:7

    The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.

  • Judges 5:8

    They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

  • Judges 5:9

    My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the Lord.

Read all of Judges 5

Judges 5:8 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		En escogiendo nuevos dioses, la guerra estaba á las puertas: ¿se veía escudo ó lanza entre cuarenta mil en Israel?
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		On choisissait de nouveaux dieux, alors la guerre était aux portes! On ne voyait ni bouclier ni pique chez quarante milliers en Israël.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Es erwählte neue Götter; da war Streit an den Toren! Ward wohl Schild und Lanze gesehen unter 40000 in Israel?
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Nova bella elegit Dominus, et portas hostium ipse subvertit: clypeus et hasta si apparuerint in quadraginta millibus Israël.