General Deborah and Jael the Assassin
Judges 4The children of Israel again did whas was evil in YHWH’s sight, after Ehud died. YHWH sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The captain of the army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles. The children of Israel cried to YHWH, because he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he mightily oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years. Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She lived under Deborah’s palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. She sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh Naphtali and said to him, “Hasn’t YHWH, the God of Israel, commanded, ‘Go and lead the way to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the children of Naphtali and the children of Zebulun? I will lure Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, to the river Kishon, with his chariots and his multitude, and I will give him into your hand.’”
Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go. But if you won’t go with me, I will not go.”
She said, “I will indeed go with you. But the journey that you take won’t be for your honor. YHWH will sell Sisera into a woman’s hand.” Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.
Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah went up with him. Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, even from the children of Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh. They told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles, to the river Kishon.
Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day in which YHWH has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not YHWH gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him. YHWH confused Sisera, all his chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled away on his feet. But Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth of the Gentiles, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. There was not a man left.
However Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Come in, my lord, come in with me. Don’t be afraid.” He came in to her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.”
She opened a bag of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him.
He said to her, “Stand in the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man here?’ you must say, ‘No.’”
Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand and went quietly to him while he was asleep from exhaustion. She drove the pin into his temple and it pierced through to the ground, and he died. Just then, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, “Come and I will show you the man whom you seek.” He came to her, and there Sisera lay dead, with the tent peg in his temples. So God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel on that day. The hand of the children of Israel prevailed more and more against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.