Bible Strands
Judges 5:6
In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were deserted and the travelers took the byways.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Deborah includes this line in her victory song to mark the era of severe insecurity that preceded her own leadership. The text describes a period when open travel routes became so dangerous that people avoided them.
The words — The Hebrew חָדְלוּ (cha.de.Lu) means "they ceased," paired with אֳרָח֑וֹת ('o.ra.Chot) for "roads," indicating a complete halt in open highway use.
The thread — This description of abandoned roads echoes Judges 3:31, where Shamgar's leadership temporarily restored safety, and anticipates Isaiah 33:8, which uses identical imagery of deserted highways to depict covenant judgment.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that political and spiritual instability directly disrupts daily commerce and personal safety, forcing communities into hidden, dangerous routes.
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
In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.
Cross-references
- Judges 3:31 After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath. And he too saved Israel, striking down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.
- Isaiah 33:8 The highways are deserted; travel has ceased. The treaty has been broken, the witnesses are despised, and human life is disregarded.
- Leviticus 26:22 I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.
- Lamentations 1:4 The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.
- Judges 4:17 Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.
- 2 Chronicles 15:5 In those days there was no safety for travelers, because the residents of the lands had many conflicts.
- Psalms 125:5 But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.
- Lamentations 4:18 They stalked our every step, so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end drew near, our time ran out, for our end had come!
- Micah 3:12 Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.