Deborah
and Jael
c. 1200 BC to c. 1124 BC
As it is written in Scripture:
The
Israelites did evil in the eyes of God, so God handed
them over to the Canaanite King Jabin of Hazor to be cruelly
oppressed
for many years.
At that time, the prophet Deborah was judging Israel. She held court
under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country
of Ephraim, where the Israelites went to have their disputes decided. (right)
Sisera, the Canaanite commander, had nine hundred
chariots fitted with iron. Deborah instructed the Israelite commander,
Barak, to take ten thousand men
and lead them up to Mount Tabor. She said God had promised her he would
send Jabin’s army
to the Kishon River where Barak could destroy them.
Barak, however, didn't entirely trust Deborah's plan and wouldn't
agreed to it unless she went with him.
“Of
course I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because you're being
such a pussy about it [Footnote], the
honor of killing Sisera will not be
yours. Instead, the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a
woman.”
Deborah went with Barak to his camp at Kedesh to wait.
The two armies
clashed, and the Canaanites were massacred. Sisera abandoned his
chariot and fled on foot, eventually
arriving at the tent of Heber the Kenite. Because
there was an agreement between King Jabin and Heber's tribe of Kenites,
Heber's wife Jael, went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come,
my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and
she covered him with a blanket.
“I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin
of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
“Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If anyone asks, say
you haven't seen me.”
While he lay fast asleep, exhausted, Jael picked up a
hammer and a tent peg (left)
and tiptoed over to him. She crouched down beside
him and nailed his head to the ground.
Just then
Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet
him. “Come in,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.”
So
he went in with her, and there Sisera lay dead with the tent peg
through his
temple.
Deborah (right) then composed
a song of triumph to celebrate their victory.
Modern scholars consider the Song of Deborah to be the oldest text in
the Bible.