But since the days of Deborah and of Barak, Tabor is generally supposed to have witnessed another scene.  The Man of grief, who bore our sins and took upon himself our sorrows, climbed its steep ascent with his favoured disciples—­And Moses and Elias appeared unto him there, and there “they talked with him.”  Of what?  Not of the battle of Deborah and Barak with Sisera—­although they stood where the leaders of Israel had watched the hosts of their enemies encompassing them.  It was a converse of high things, not meet for us to know.  And there he was transfigured before his wondering disciples, and his “raiment became exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them.”  And there was a cloud that overshadowed them, and a voice out of the cloud, This is my beloved Son—­hear him.  Alas! the Divine command has been ill obeyed.  Tabor yet retains the remains of a fortress and preserves the marks of warfare; but no trace of the meeting there of the great lawgiver and reformer of Israel with Him who came both to fulfil and to abolish.  No temples have yet been there erected to Him whose mission was far above all who were sent either to announce or prepare for his forthcoming.

From Mount Tabor the leaders and hosts of Israel watched their enemies gathering from afar and encompassing them.  With the chariots of iron, so much dreaded by the Israelites, came the archers, and the spearmen, and the multitude that were with them—­all assembled to surround and to destroy the allies of Barak.

But when Deborah gave the signal, “Up! for this is the day in the which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hands:  is not the Lord gone out before thee?” Barak went from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men.  The victory was complete—­“Jehovah triumphed, His people were free.”  The hosts of the enemy were vanquished.  The river Kishon, that ancient river, swept them away.  And the victory was celebrated by a song of most triumphant, yet grateful exultation, in a strain of the loftiest, purest poetry, such as the prophets and psalmists of Israel alone could pour forth:—­

      Praise ye the lord for the avenging of Israel,
    When the people willingly offered themselves. 
    Hear, O ye kings! 
    Give ear, O ye princes! 
    I, even I, will sing unto the lord;
    I will sing praise to the lord God of Israel. 
    Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir,
    When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom,
    The earth trembled, and the heavens dropped,
    The clouds also dropped water. 
    The mountains melted from before the lord,
    Even that Sinai from before the lord God of Israel. 
      In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath,
    In the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied,
    And the travellers walked through byways. 
    The inhabitants of the villages ceased,
    They ceased in Israel,
    Until that I Deborah arose,