Judges 4, Deborah and Jael

After Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar, we now hear of a fourth judge, a woman, Deborah.

Judges 4: 1-3, Jabin of Hazor

After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.

The early Iron Age impinges on Israel.  After twenty years of oppression, the Israelites cry out.

Judges 4: 4-7, Deborah

Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided. She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: `Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.'"

The woman Deborah is a well-known judge in central Israel.  She holds court under a palm tree apparently named after her.  Already recognized as a leader of the nation, she has a plan for Barak, from the northern tribe of Naphtali (upper Galilee.) He is to raise an army from Naphtali and neighboring Zebulun.

Judges 4: 8-10, Barak is timid

Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go."

"Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman." 

So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh, where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.

Deborah has to convince timid Barak. He will only go to war if she joins him.  Deborah agrees but warns him that the honor of victory will then go to woman! The reader assumes that the female hero will be Deborah, but a second woman will step up to finish Sisera!

Judges 4: 11-13, Sisera gathers his chariots

Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh. When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.

(NIV footnotes: Hobab could be Moses' father-in-law.) The Kenites are friendly with the people of Hazor. As it turns out, Heber not so much.

Once again, in this dry land, a "great tree" is a landmark. 

Kedesh is in Naphtali. (Kedesh is now a tell, an ancient mound and archeological site, Tel Kedesh. It is not far from another tell, Tel Hazor.) Mount Tabor is south of Kedesh. The Kishon River lies south and west of Mount Tabor, maybe 20 miles.

Judges 4: 14-16, "Barak, go!"

Then Deborah said to Barak, "Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?" So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men.

At Barak's advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.

Sisera is bringing his feared iron chariots! But YHWH is on Barak's side and so the army of Naphtali-Zebulun is successful and routs the army of Sisera. This passage gives little information about the rout, but the song of Deborah in the next chapter will described the flooded Kishon River sweeping the enemies away.

Although the enemy army has been routed, its general, Sisera, is still at large.

Judges 4: 17-20, The tent of Jael

Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite. 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 put a covering over him.

"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 someone comes by and asks you, `Is anyone here?' say `No.'"

Sisera seeks refuge in the tent of a Kenite.  But Heber is not a friend.  And there is another woman around....

Judges 4: 21, A tent peg and a hammer

But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

Jael takes advantage of Sisera's fatigue to brutally kill him.  Two women, Deborah and Jael, bring down this powerful man.

Judges 4: 22-24, Barak shown the body of Sisera

Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. "Come," she said, "I will show you the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple--dead.

On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites. And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him.

Jael shows Barak the body of Sisera.  All of this has God's blessing in the background. The judge, Deborah, has, with support from YHWH, again freed the people of Israel.