limbed. Issachar had strength enough, but preferred ease
to exertion.—(
Hebrew characters)] The common interpretation 'sheep-pens'
has no appropriateness here, and may be a conjecture
based on Ju. 516. Equally unsuitable are the renderings of
the old Vns. ('boundaries,' etc.), and the 'fire-places' or
'ash-heaps' which the Heb. etymology would suggest.
The form is dual, and one naturally thinks of the 'panniers'
carried by the ass (v.i.).—15. (Hebrew characters)] A technical term for
the settled, as contrasted with the nomadic, life (Gu.).—a labouring drudge] Lit. 'became a toiling labour-gang'; cf.
Jos. 1610. (Hebrew characters) is a levy raised under the system of forced
labour (corvée). That a Heb. tribe should submit to this
indignity was a shameful reversal of the normal relations
between Israel and the Canaanites (Jos. 1610 1713 [= Ju. 128],
Ju. 130. 33. 35).
The two northern Leah-tribes found a settlement in Lower Galilee,
where they mingled with the Canaanite inhabitants. According to Jos.
1910-16, Zebulun occupied the hills north of the Great Plain, being cut off
from the sea both by Asher and by the strip of Phœnician coast. We
must therefore suppose that the tribal boundaries fluctuated greatly in
early times, and that at the date of the poem Zebulun had access at
some point to the sea. The almost identical description on Ju. 517 is
considered by Gu. to have been transferred from Zebulun to Asher,—a
view which, if it can be substantiated, affords a reliable criterion of the
relative dates of the two oracles. The district of Issachar seems to
have been between the Great Plain and the Jordan, including the Vale
of Jezreel,—a position in which it was peculiarly difficult for a Hebrew
tribe to maintain its independence. The tribe is not even mentioned in
the survey of Ju. 1, as if it had ceased to be part of Israel. Yet both it
and Zebulun had played a gallant part in the wars of the Judges (Ju.
46. 10 514. 18 635 515). The absence of any allusion to these exploits lends
colour to the view that this part of the poem is of older date than the
Song of Deborah.
of sojourners' (unless (Hebrew characters) be an adj. fr. (Hebrew characters)). G (Greek characters)
(= (Hebrew characters): Ginsb. Introd. p. 254); S (Syriac characters), Aq. and V
support on the whole MT.—(Hebrew characters)] Ju. 516† , but cf. Ps. 6814. The
three pass. are somehow interrelated, although no sense will suit them
all. Vns. mostly render 'territories,' or something equivalent, both
here and in Ju. But the (Greek characters) of G in Ju. (see Schleusner) is noteworthy,
and shows that the rendering above has some show of authority.
So the late Gr.-Ven. (Greek characters). For the rest, see Moore on Ju. 516.—15.
(Hebrew characters)] [E] (Hebrew characters).—(Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters) (Ginsb. l.c.).—On (Hebrew characters), see DBD?],
and Moore, Jud. p. 47.
