Jabin

From BibleEncyclopedia.Net

jā´bin (יבין, yābhīn, “one who is intelligent,” “discerning,” "Discerner," "the wise." The word may have been a hereditary royal title among the northern Canaanites. Compare the familiar usage of par‛ōh melekh micrayim):

(1) “The king of Hazor,” the leading city in Northern Palestine, who led an alliance against Joshua, at the time of the entrance of Israel into Canaan (Joshua 11:1-14), whose overthrow and that of the northern chief with whom he had entered into a confederacy against Joshua was the crowning act in the conquest of the land (Joshua 11:21-23; compare Joshua 14:6-15). He was defeated at the waters of Merom, his city was taken and he was slain (Joshua 11:1-9).This great battle, fought at Lake Merom, was the last of Joshua's battles of which we have any record. Here for the first time the Israelites encountered the iron chariots and horses of the Canaanites.

(2) Another king of Hazor, called “the king of Canaan,” that reigned (or had reigned) in Hazor who overpowered the Israelites of the north one hundred and sixty years after Joshua's death, and for twenty years held them in painful subjection. It is not clear whether he dwelt in Hazor or Harosheth, the home of Sisera, the captain of his host at the time of the story narrated in Judges. He oppressed Israel in the days preceding the victory of Deborah and Barak. The whole population were paralyzed with fear, and gave way to hopeless despondency (Judges 5:6-11), till Deborah and Barak aroused the national spirit, and gathering together ten thousand men, gained a great and decisive victory over Jabin in the plain of Esdraelon (Judges 4:10-16; compare Psalm 83:9). This was the first great victory Israel had gained since the days of Joshua. They never needed to fight another battle with the Canaanites (Judges 5:31).

To the Israelites he must have been but a shadowy figure as compared with his powerful captain, Sisera, for the song makes no mention of him and there is nothing to indicate that he even took part in the battle that freed Israel (Judges 4:2, Judges 4:7, Judges 4:17, Judges 4:23, Judges 4:24 bis; Psalm 83:9, Psalm 83:10).