1. Judges 5:11 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is remarkable about the reference to the Israelites as the people of the LORD?

Judges 5:11 (ESV)

11 To the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the LORD, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel. “Then down to the gates marched the people of the LORD.

Here and in Judges 5:13 are the only locations in the entire book where the Israelites are identified as the people of the Lord. This term reflects the ideal established by Yahweh’s covenant with his people at Mount Sinai many years earlier. Yahweh is the patron God of Israel; it is as his people that they volunteer for military service.1