Discovery BoxJudges 5:16-18 
Context5:16 Why do you remain among the sheepfolds, 1
listening to the shepherds playing their pipes 2 for their flocks? 3
As for the clans of Reuben – there was intense searching of heart.
5:17 Gilead stayed put 4 beyond the Jordan River.
As for Dan – why did he seek temporary employment in the shipyards? 5
Asher remained 6 on the seacoast,
5:18 The men of Zebulun were not concerned about their lives; 9
Naphtali charged on to the battlefields. 10
1 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word מִשְׁפְּתַיִם (mishpÿtayim) is uncertain. Some understand the word to mean “campfires.”
2 tn Or “whistling.”
3 tn Heb “listening to the pipe playing for the flocks.”
4 tn Heb “lived” or “settled down.”
sn Apparently the people of Gilead remained on the other side of the river and did not participate in the battle.
5 tn Heb “Dan, why did he live as a resident alien, ships.” The verb גּוּר (gur) usually refers to taking up residence outside one’s native land. Perhaps the Danites, rather than rallying to Barak, were content to move to the Mediterranean coast and work in the shipyards. For further discussion, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 262.
6 tn Heb “lived.”
7 tn Heb “lived” or “settled down.”
8 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word מִפְרָץ (mifrats) is uncertain, but the parallelism (note “seacoast”) suggests “harbors.”
9 tn Heb “Zebulun was a people which despised its life even unto death.”
10 tn Heb “Naphtali was on the heights of the field.”
