Deborah and Jael, who broke the mold

Naming the “first woman” to have had an idea, discovered something, or opened a new path is necessarily a difficult topic. The problem is particularly acute when the topic is women of the Bible. Lost to history are the numerous stories of women who may have had the same idea, made the same discovery, or forged the same path. While Judges 4-5 provide the Bible’s first and only mention of a woman judge, Deborah, there may have been other women judges. And while these chapter provide the first instances of a woman assassin, Jael, there may also have been other women who murdered, and whose motives remain unknown. Their stories set the pattern for women’s collaboration and leadership demonstrated not by physical strength but by wisdom and courage and stealth.

In Judges 5.7, Deborah names herself a “mother in Israel.” The designation is a metaphor for her protection of her people: she has no biological children (as far as we know), and she may also lack a husband. She sets the model for women who serve as mothers – life-givers, protectors, teachers and healers – to anyone in need. While most translations identify Deborah as the “wife of Lappidot” (4.4), the Hebrew word for “wife” can also mean “woman,” and Lappidot is the Hebrew word for “flames” or “torches.” Thus, Deborah may be a “woman of flames,” a judge independent of husband and children; a judge who brings light to issues of justice; a judge who burns with righteousness.

According to Judges 4.7, Deborah informs the Israelite general Barak: “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you, ‘Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun.” Deborah is not only judge, but she is also military commander-in-chief.  

Deborah is the second woman to be called a “prophet.” Preceding her is Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron (Exodus 15.20); following are Huldah (2 Kings 22.14; 2 Chron. 34:22), Noadiah (Nehemiah 6.14), the nameless “prophetess” who may have been Isaiah’s wife (Isaiah 8.3); Anna (Luke 2.36), other women followers of Jesus (Acts 1.14; 2.17; Acts 21.9; 1 Corinthians 11.5), and “Jezebel,” the name John gives to a woman whose teaching he rejects (Revelation 2.20).

Deborah does not work alone. Whereas the Bible frequently depicts women as rivals (Sarah and Hagar [Genesis 16], Rachel and Leah [Genesis 30], Hannah and Peninah [1 Samuel 1], Mary and Martha [Luke 10]; Euodia and Syntyche [Philippians 4]), Deborah sings the praises of Jael, the woman who assassinates the enemy general Sisera. When Barak, hesitant to engage the battle, tells Deborah, “If you will not go with me, I will not go” (Judges 4.8). Deborah agrees to join him (thus giving precedent for women in military service!), but she also prophecies, “The road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera (the commander of the enemy forces) into the hand of a woman” (Judges 4.9).

The woman is Jael, the “wife of Heber the Kenite” (Judges 4.17). However, Heber never appears, and his fate remains a matter of speculation. When Sisera, seeking protection, arrives at her tent (note: her tent, not the tent of her husband), “Jael came out to meet Sisera, and said to him, ‘Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear’” (Judges 4.18). He is the one who should be afraid. Jael gives him warm milk and covers him with a blanket.  Sisera tells her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if anybody comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say ‘No’” (Judges 4:20). Rather than protect her guest, “Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, until it went down into the ground—he was lying fast asleep from weariness—and he died” (Judges 4:21). The text gives her no motive. In the replay of this prose narrative in Judges 5, the Song of Deborah, Jael does not kill a sleeping man. Judges 5.26-27 describes him as he falls:      

She put her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet; she struck Sisera a blow, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple.

He sank, he fell, he lay still at her feet; at her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell dead.

Jael sets the pattern for other biblical women. On the one hand is Delilah, whose betrayal of Samson in Judges 16 may have been a matter of self-protection (the Philistines know where she lives) or of greed (the Philistines offer her money). In her case as well, motive is suppressed. On the other hand, Jael together with Deborah provides the model for Judith. Like Deborah, Judith directs and protects her people. Like Jael, Judith makes the enemy general Holofernes comfortable, and then when he is asleep, decapitates him.

Deborah’s Song in Judges 5 is likely to be one of the Bible’s oldest passages; we can only wonder what other songs have not been preserved, and what other songs are yet to be sung.