“You who ride white donkeys,sitting on soft saddle-blankets,
and you walking on the road,
talk about it!”
-Judges 5:10
We continue on with our verse-by-verse journey through the Song of Devorah.
Next up is verse 10 which calls out three different classes of people.
Those who ride on white donkeys.
Those who sit on soft saddle blankets.
And those who walk on roads.
Keep in mind this list isn’t comprehensive nor was the idea to limit the classes of people to just these 3.
What’s being communicated here is the same idea like when we say “from A to Z”.
In other words, mention of these 3 classes was a reference to ALL layers of society from the richest to the poorest.
The first class spoken of were those who rode on white donkeys.
A white donkey was as rare as hen’s teeth.
Well not that rare but nevertheless was greatly prized.
That’s why only royalty rode on white beasts of burden.
Which means when Yeshua rode on a donkey into Jerusalem it had to have been a white-colored donkey.
How do we know this?
Because of how angry both the Romans and Jewish elite were when they saw him riding on that white donkey.
It was well understood Yeshua was making it clear he was a king.
Here’s a verse from Tanakh prophesying this monumental event.
“…your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey”
-Zechariah 9:9
Onward.
Next we have those who sat on soft saddle blankets.
This represented the rich class who stood below the royalty class.
Soft and cushiony saddle blankets were luxuries only the aristocracy and the rich could afford.
So whenever a person was seen sitting atop one of these colorful saddle blankets while riding on his or her beast of burden, one instantly knew that person belonged to the privileged class.
Finally, we have those who walked on roads.
This obviously represented the poor or common class.
Because this third class of people couldn’t afford to purchase their own beasts of burden to ride on yet alone buy decorative accessories like soft saddle seats.
Again, the point Devorah wanted to drive home here is that all the societal classes are being represented.
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