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Again the people of Israel called out to the Lord, because Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots. He brutally oppressed the people of Israel for twenty years.

Deborah, a woman, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth,[a] was judging Israel at that time. She would sit under the Palm Tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel would come to her for judgment.

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 4:4 The Hebrew word lappidoth, which most translations understand as the name of Deborah’s husband, is a feminine form of a word that means torch. For that reason, some commentators interpret lappidoth as a description of Deborah as a firebrand of a woman. If that is the case, this sentence four times mentions that Deborah was a woman.

Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron(A) and had cruelly oppressed(B) the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.

Now Deborah,(C) a prophet,(D) the wife of Lappidoth, was leading[a] Israel at that time. She held court(E) under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah(F) and Bethel(G) in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 4:4 Traditionally judging