(5) Melted.--Literally, flowed away--a powerful poetic image. (Comp. Isaiah 63:19; Isaiah 64:3; Psalm 97:5--"melted like wax.") Even that Sinai.--Rather, even this Sinai, as though Deborah actually saw the sacred mountain before her. The boldness of the expression leaves no difficulty in supposing the meaning to be that "even as Sinai was moved" (Psalm 68:8), so the mountains of Edom seemed to melt away before the march of Jehovah and the banners of Israel. 5:1-5. No time should be lost in returning thanks to the Lord for his mercies; for our praises are most acceptable, pleasant, and profitable, when they flow from a full heart. By this, love and gratitude would be more excited and more deeply fixed in the hearts of believers; the events would be more known and longer remembered. Whatever Deborah, Barak, or the army had done, the Lord must have all the praise. The will, the power, and the success were all from Him.The mountains melted from before the Lord,.... The inhabitants of them, through fear, the Lord going before Israel in a pillar of cloud and fire, and delivering mighty kings and their kingdoms into their hand:even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel; or, "as that Sinai", the note of similitude being wanting; and the sense is, the mountains melted, just as the famous mountain Sinai in a literal sense did, when it trembled and quaked at the presence of God on it; the tokens of it, the fire and smoke, thunders, lightnings, and tempests there seen and heard; and which being observed, would call to mind the benefit Israel then received, which required praise and thankfulness, as well as would serve to express the awe and reverence of God due unto him. |