The Bible Quotes Pagan Myths About the Stars

We read from the Book of Judges, Chapter 5:

19 “Kings came, they fought. Then the kings of Canaan fought in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. They took no small amount of silver. 20 They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

21 The river Kishon swept them away, the river of the falls, the river Kishon. Thrash, O my soul, with strength.”

And in the King James Version:

They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera .

The Bible here states that the stars or planets fought Sisera and his Canaanite army against Barak and his army of the children of Israel. The interpreters of the Bible were perplexed by this mysterious number, the context of which seems illogical, so they invented interpretations that are neither fattening nor satisfying, for which there is not a single piece of evidence. Some of them said that the planets (or stars) are a metaphor for the forces of nature, such as the winds, and some of them interpreted the stars as angels, and there is no evidence for all of this, but rather it is fabrications and speculations, and there is no linguistic evidence for the occurrence of such a metaphor.

The truth is what some references have acknowledged, which is that the descent of the stars and their participation in the battle or their influence on the battle was a widespread belief among some peoples of the Near East .

We read from The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament page 252 in the interpretation of Judges 5 ( ( 5:20

. the third millennium, Sargon’s texts refer to the sun dimming and the stars going forth against the enemy. The Gebal Barkal stela of Thutmose III also mentions the aid of stars *****ing from the sky to confuse and decimate his Hurrian enemies (see the use of stars and scepters in Num 24:7 It should be noted, however, that the stars in the Judges passage have no personalities connected to them and serve simply as Yahweh’s).

Messengers and tools, not as personified deities. See further the comments on Joshua 10:12-13

We read from MacLaren’s Expositions

Jdg 5:20. - Job 5:23.

These two poetical fragments present the same truth on opposite sides. The first of them comes from Deborah’s triumphant chant. The singer identifies God with the cause of Israel, and declares that heaven itself fought against those who fought against God’s people. There may be an allusion to the tempest which Jewish tradition tells us burst over the ranks of the enemy, or there may be some trace of ancient astrological notions , or the words may simply be an elevated way of saying that Heaven fought for Israel. The silent stars, as they swept on their paths through the sky, advanced like an avenging host embattled against the foes of Israel and of God. All things fight against the man who fights against God. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/judges/5-20.htm