[27]: The historical reference appears to be to the narrative in the twentieth chapter of Numbers, in which the refusal of Edom to allow the children of Israel to go through their borders is recorded. Some extraordinary circumstances seem referred to, not mentioned in the sacred page, but possibly transmitted by tradition to the times of Deborah. Sen is a mountain of Idumea. The language is highly figurative, and denotes earthquakes and storms. "The mountains melted," that is, part of their surface was carried down, by the force of excessive torrents of rain. [28]: The ass derives its name from a Hebrew word signifying _redness_, the usual colour of this animal, but some are white. The word translated white is _zechorot_, and may, perhaps refer to the _zebra_, which the Ethiopians call _zechora_, and which is generally considered as one of the most beautiful of living creatures. It is sometimes called the wild ass. [29]: "Dr. Shaw mentions a beautiful rill in Barbary, which is received into a large basin, called _shrub we krub,_ (drink and away,) there being great danger of meeting there with rogues and assassins. If such places are proper for the lurking of murderers in times of peace, they must be proper for the lying in ambush in times of war; a circumstance that Deborah takes notice of in her song, Judges v. 11." Harmer. [30]: _Gates_ were anciently the places where they held their courts of judicature. In the towers there were very spacious and handsome state-rooms. [31]: The Vulgate reads, _in the country of Merom,_ alluding to the place where Joshua fought a former king of Canaan. The waters of Merom are supposed to be the same as Kishon. Comp. Josh. xi. 5 Ps. lxxxiii 9. [32]: There is a remarkable alliteration here in the original Hebrew, [Hebrew: _middaharoth daharoth_.] Some have supposed it a poetical imitation of the sound of the trampling of horses, and compare this passage with the celebrated line of Virgil--"Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum." VIRG. Æn. viii. v. 595. [33]: Comp. HARMER'S Observations, volume i. pp. 216 and 445.