Bible Strands
Judges 4:3
Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he had harshly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Israelites cry out to Yahweh after twenty years of harsh oppression under King Jabin of Canaan and his commander Sisera.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַ/יִּצְעֲקוּ (va/yits'aku) denotes a desperate cry for help, while the numeral phrase תְּשַׁ֨ע מֵא֤וֹת (tesha me'ot) literally counts nine hundred.
The thread — The pattern of oppressed Israel crying to Yahweh appears in Judges 3:9 and is echoed in Psalms 106:42, while Judges 1:19 notes the military limitation that precedes such crises.
Why it lands — The text records a specific historical crisis to show that Israel’s appeal to Yahweh was triggered by prolonged military subjugation, requiring the reader to track the cause-and-effect structure of covenant failure and deliverance.
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
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.
Cross-references
- Judges 1:19 The LORD was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the plains because they had chariots of iron.
- Psalms 106:42 Their enemies oppressed them and subdued them under their hand.
- Judges 3:9 But when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, He raised up Othniel son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz as a deliverer to save them.
- Deuteronomy 28:29 and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.
- Deuteronomy 28:33 A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
- Deuteronomy 28:47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance,
- Joshua 17:16 “The hill country is not enough for us,” they replied, “and all the Canaanites who live in the valley have iron chariots, both in Beth-shean with its towns and in the Valley of Jezreel.”
- Judges 3:15 And again they cried out to the LORD, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjamite, as their deliverer. So they sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.
- Judges 5:8 When they chose new gods, then war came to their gates. Not a shield or spear was found among forty thousand in Israel.
- Judges 10:16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD, and He could no longer bear the misery of Israel.