Today we begin Judges Chapter 4.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click HERE.
For the King James version, click HERE.
Okay, up until this point in the Book of Judges, we’ve been dealing with the southern tribes of Israel.
However, the scene now shifts to the tribes in the northern regions of Canaan.
We’re told a bad dude called “Yavin, King of Hatzor” was ruling with a brutal hand over the tribes in the north.
Alrighty, let’s pause right here for a second.
Remember how in the past I told you that ABIMELECH was not a king’s personal name, that it was just a title?
Kind of like saying the “President of the United States”?
Well, the same thing goes for Yavin.
Yavin is not a personal name.
It’s a title given in succession from a dynastic line of kings who ruled the area of Hatzor.
Got it?
In fact, check out this verse from Joshua Chapter 11.
“When Yavin king of Hatzor heard of it, he informed Yovav king of Madon; the king of Shimron; the king of Akhshaf; the kings to the north, in the hills, in the ‘Aravah south of Kinn’rot, in the Sh’felah and in the regions of Dor on the west;”-Joshua 11:1
Here we see another Yavin king of Hatzor rallying a group of gentile armies to fight against Joshua and his men.
And then later on in the very same Joshua chapter 11, we’re told this:
“Then Y’hoshua turned back and captured Hatzor, striking its king dead with the sword; for in time past Hatzor had been the head of all those kingdoms.”-Joshua 11:10
This happened about 150 years earlier.
So it can’t be the same king homies.
Here’s another thing.
Although Joshua was victorious over the king at Hatzor at that time, he and his men did NOT inhabit the area.
As result, a few years later, Hatzor was rebuilt and the descendants of the same royal family reassumed their places of power ruling over the Canaanites.
However, remember that “Canaanites” is just a general term referring to any gentile group that was living in Canaan at the time.
So Yavin didn’t necessarily rule over all the Canaanites.
That would have been quite impossible.
To make things clear, Yavin was king but his general was called Sisera.
And we’re told that Sisera dwelled in a place call Harosheth HaGoyim.
Don’t laugh but this literally means the “Forest of the Gentiles”.
I guess that was an appropriate title if you consider the fact the area was indeed inhabited by gentiles.
Where was Hatzor located?
It was located north of the Sea of Galilee at the southern tip of the Hulah Valley and was considered a very important location because it was situated on a major trade highway called Via Maris.
In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say Via Maris was the most important trade route of the era .
It started in Egypt and stretched all the way into Western Asia.
Hatzor was considered the big dog nation amongst an alliance of other Canaanite nations who had grouped together in the north.
Hatzor would take on this top dog role quite frequently over the centuries.
This makes sense, because Hatzor was geographically speaking huge.
It was a whopping 200 acres of square feet and some scholars estimate their population was about 40,000 people.
Likewise, Sisera’s army was quite big.
And not just big, but well-equipped.
We’re told he had 900 iron chariots at his command.
Keep in mind, in the Biblical era, iron chariots were considered to be the most formidable and devastating weapons of their time.
They were the equivalent of our modern day nuclear missiles.
It was because of weapons like these that Yavin and his alliance of gentile kings were able to keep the northern tribes of Israel under control for more than 20 years.
But that control was about to come to an end.
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