Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Deborah addresses the assembled tribes of Israel during her victory song, recounting the national condition before her leadership rose. She speaks to the people about the direct consequences of their spiritual apostasy.
The words — יִבְחַר (yivChar) translates literally as "it chose," and מָגֵן (maGen) means "a shield." These terms anchor the verse’s plain claim that idolatry directly caused the loss of Israel’s defensive capability.
The thread — The pattern of trading Yahweh for foreign deities recurs in Judges 2:12, Judges 2:17, and Deuteronomy 32:16. Each reference documents how covenant unfaithfulness precedes national vulnerability.
Why it lands — The text demands a clear-eyed assessment of how personal or collective allegiances determine practical security. It requires the reader to identify what they have chosen to protect and to recognize the resulting exposure.
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
They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 32:16 They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.
- Judges 2:12 Thus they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed after various gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down to them and provoked the LORD to anger,
- Judges 2:17 Israel, however, did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their fathers, who had walked in obedience to the LORD’s commandments; they did not do as their fathers had done.
- 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.
- 1 Samuel 13:19 And no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “The Hebrews must not be allowed to make swords or spears.”