שופטים, פרק ד׳, פסוק ב׳

After suffering periods of oppression under foreign powers like Aram and Moab, the Israelites face a shift in their struggles. God hands them over to an ancient, internal enemy: the Canaanites. This development fulfills an early warning that the remaining nations in the land would become a trap for them, as these inhabitants harbor a deep, historic grudge against the Israelites [מלבי״ם]. God places them under the power of Jabin, the Canaanite king who rules in Hazor, a major royal city located in the Upper Galilee [ביאור שטיינזלץ].

The emergence of Hazor presents a historical puzzle, as Joshua had previously conquered and destroyed this very city. To resolve this, some explain that while Joshua destroyed the physical city, he allowed its king to go free, and this ruler simply relocated to govern from a different area [מצודת דוד]. Another perspective suggests that Joshua did indeed kill the original monarch, but remnants of the royal family managed to escape and settle in a new location. In this scenario, the current ruler is named Jabin in honor of the first king of that ongoing dynasty [רד״ק].

The military power of this Canaanite threat is concentrated under the army commander, Sisera, whose base of operations is Harosheth Hagoyim. The nature of this location is understood in several distinct ways. It may have been a dominant military and political center [רש״י], built through the joint efforts of multiple nations specifically to serve as an imposing fortress against Israel [רלב״ג], or perhaps it was an entire network of heavily fortified cities [רד״ק]. Alternatively, the location might have been a massive industrial hub, gathering skilled craftsmen from various nations to produce goods like woven textiles, embroidery, and polished copper and iron [רלב״ג, מצודת דוד]. Another approach views the area not as a traditional city, but as a vast, dense forest equipped with strong towers, providing a secure refuge for the surviving Canaanites [רד״ק, רלב״ג]. Ultimately, this stronghold may not have been just one isolated city, but a broad region containing numerous cities where a coalition of kings ruled together [רלב״ג, ביאור שטיינזלץ].