Differences In The Song Of Deborah And Barak

In the book of Judges, chapters four and five both tell the story and account of Deborah. Even though they both are about the same set of events, there are still very glaring differences in them. The first is that they are different types of literary genre. Chapter four is merely a retelling of the story of Deborah, while chapter five is “The Song of Deborah and Barak.” They both tell the story of what happened, they just have different literary styles of doing so. Also, the song of Deborah is incredibly poetic in nature and it even contains some rhyming patterns as well. The next difference that can be found in these two passages is the background information of Deborah, the deliverer of Israel. In chapter four, it tells who Deborah’s husband
The next difference that can be spotted is the blessings that are given to God. The phrase, “Bless the Lord,” can be occurs several times in Judges five, while it does not occur once in chapter four. Similarly, another difference that occurs is the curse in chapter five. In Judges 5:23, God is cursing Meroz and its inhabitants because they did not come out to fight the enemy and help the Lord. Chapter four makes no references to curses whatsoever. The next difference is the account of numbers in the text. Chapter four refers many times to precise numbers. In verses three and thirteen it says that Sisera had nine hundred chariots of iron. Also verses six, ten and fourteen say that Deborah took with her ten thousand men. Concurrently, Judges chapter five only makes such a reference once. The final difference in the two passages is the reference to the ranks in the army. In chapter five, verses thirteen and fourteen, it references the commanders and those who bear the lieutenant’s