Judges 4:5

And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah,.... Her dwelling house was under a palm tree, or rather she sat under one, in the open air, when the people came to her with their cases, and it was

And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. She dwelt under the palm tree - or, collectively, a palm grove.

To have their suits and causes determined by her sentence.

Judges 4:5 And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.Ver. 5. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah.] Or, She sat under the palm tree, as the Septuagint and Vulgate render it. The kings of Persia sat under a golden plane tree, or under a vine of gold, that had bunches of smaragdes and other precious stones, when they sat in judgment “ O curas hominum! o quantum est in rebus inane! ” Athenaeus, lib. xii.

(5) She dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah.—Similarly Abraham is said to have lived under the oak of Mamre (Genesis 14:13), and Saul under the pomegranate of Migron (1 Samuel 14:2). “Such tents the patriarchs loved “(Coleridge). Dean Stanley (Jewish Chron. i. 318) draws a fine contrast between the triumphant “mother of Israel” (Judges 5 under her palm, full of the fire of faith and energy,and Judæa Captiva, represented on the coins of Titus as a weeping woman sitting under a palm-tree, “with downcast eyes and folded hands, and extinguished hopes.” The words “she dwelt” are literally she was sitting, which may merely mean that she took her station under this well-known and solitary palm when she was giving her judgment (comp. Psalms 9:3); just as St. Louis, under the oak-tree at Vincennes (Stanley, Jewish Chron. i. 218), and as Ethelbert received St. Austin and his monks under an oak. The tree won its name as the “Deborah palm” from her, and may also have originated the name Baal-Tamar, “the lord of the palm” (Judges 20:33). Near it was another very famous tree—Allon-Bachuth—the oak or terebinth of weeping; so called from the weeping at the burial of the other Deborah (Genesis 35:8), which is alluded to in 1 Samuel 10:3, if the true reading there be “the oak of Deborah,” and not of Tabor, as Thenius conjectures. Between Ramah and Beth-el.—Both towns were on the confines of Benjamin and Ephraim (see Joshua 18:25; Joshua 16:2). In mount Ephraim.—The one secure spot in Palestine. (See Note on Judges 3:27.) The Chaldee prosaically amplifies this into “she lived in Ataroth (Joshua 15:2), having independent means, and she had palm-trees in Jericho, gardens in Ramah, olive-yards in the valley, a well-watered land in Bethel, and white clay in the king’s mount.” Came up.—A technical term for going before a superior (Numbers 16:12; Deuteronomy 25:7). Deborah, unlike the German Veleda—who lived in a tower, in awful seclusion—allowed the freest access to her presence as she sat beneath her palm.

Verse 5. The palm tree of Deborah] It is common for the Hindoos to plant trees in the names of themselves and their friends; and some religious mendicants live for a considerable time under trees. - Ward.

5. dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah] The marg. sat is better, cf. Judges 6:11, 1 Samuel 14:2; 1 Samuel 22:6, lit. she was sitting, i.e. to declare the divine will in disputes and cases of difficulty; hence, it is implied, the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah (er-Râm) and Beth-el (Beitin), 5 and 12 m. respectively N. of Jerusalem, obtained its name. In the same neighbourhood, and associated with the same name, was the famous tree called Allon-bacuth, ‘tree (?oak) of mourning,’ under which Deborah the nurse of Rachel was buried, Genesis 35:8. The conclusion seems to be irresistible that we have here and in Genesis 35:8 two different ways of accounting for the name of the same tree. Of the two, that given in Gen. is perhaps preferable; for there is nothing elsewhere in the present narrative to suggest that Deborah’s home was in the S. of the hill country of Ephraim; Judges 5:15, though it does not speak distinctly, appears to connect her with Issachar; and it is more likely that the deliverer arose where the need was the sorest, rather than from a district outside the area of the oppression. Moreover, Deborah with her head-quarters near Beth-el would have been too far apart from Barak for the conduct of the negotiations in Judges 4:6-9.

She dwelt - Rather, “she sat,” namely, to judge the people Judges 4:10, but not in the usual place, “the gate” Rth 4:1-2; Proverbs 22:22.

5. Dwelt under the palm tree — This was her official seat or throne.