Judges 4:2

Jabin. Following the 80 years of peace that ensued after Ehud broke the Moabite oppression, the Israelites grew careless in their spiritual life and again forsook their God. To awaken His people, the Lord allowed the Canaanite ruler commanding the strong chain of fortresses in northern Palestine to oppress the northern Hebrew tribes for a period of 20 years. The story of how this yoke of oppression was broken by Deborah and Barak is told twice, once in prose form in ch. 4 and again in poetic form in ch. 5.

The book of Joshua mentions a Jabin as king of Hazor (Joshua 11:1-9). The city was captured by the Israelites at that time, but it had probably since been retaken by the Canaanites before the Israelites could consolidate their position in this region. Another Jabin, possibly the grandson of the king Joshua had destroyed, now held a loose suzerainty over the entire Canaanite forces of northern Palestine.

Sisera. From this point onward in the narrative we hear no more of Jabin, except for a brief mention in v. 23. He had turned supervision of his forces over to a field commander by the name of Sisera. This general may have been a king in his own right, ruling over the city in which he dwelt. Harosheth was 16 mi. northwest of Megiddo, where the plain of Jezreel narrows down before joining the coastal plain of Acre. The plain represented a natural terrain for Sisera’s formidable task force of 900 chariots of iron (ch. 4:3). Against such a threatening foe the Israelites, in their state of sinful rebellion, could not stand, and they were soon overcome and forced to pay tribute.

Harosheth. Tell Amr, on the Kishon.