Bible Strands
Judges 4:23
On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrative reports a historical military outcome immediately following Jael’s killing of Sisera, marking the moment divine intervention shifts the balance of power against Jabin’s forces.
The words — The verb וַ/יַּכְנַ֤ע (va/yakh.na') literally means "he subdued" or "he brought low," describing God’s direct enforcement of Jabin’s defeat.
The thread — This pattern of divine subduing appears in Nehemiah 9:24, where God subdues the Canaanites before Israel’s ancestors, and in Psalms 18:39 and 18:47, where Yahweh subdues nations and foes beneath the psalmist.
Why it lands — The text first states that God actively subdued Jabin before the Israelites, then requires readers to attribute military success to divine agency rather than human strategy.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.
Cross-references
- Nehemiah 9:24 So their descendants went in and possessed the land; You subdued before them the Canaanites dwelling in the land. You delivered into their hands the kings and peoples of the land, to do with them as they wished.
- Psalms 18:47 the God who avenges me and subdues nations beneath me,
- Psalms 18:39 You have armed me with strength for battle; You have subdued my foes beneath me.
- 1 Chronicles 22:18 “Is not the LORD your God with you, and has He not granted you rest on every side? For He has given the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land has been subdued before the LORD and His people.
- Psalms 47:3 He subdues nations beneath us, and peoples under our feet.
- Psalms 81:14 how soon I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes!
- 1 Corinthians 15:28 And when all things have been subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will be made subject to Him who put all things under Him, so that God may be all in all.
- Hebrews 11:33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,