Judges 4:17

JAEL DESTROYS SISERA (Judges 4:17-22)

"Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And he turned in unto her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk; and gave him drink; and covered him. And he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be when any man shall come and inquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No. Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent-pin, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the pin into his temples, and it pierced through into the ground; for he was in a deep sleep; so he swooned and died. And behold as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will show thee the man whom thou seekest. And he came unto her; and behold Sisera lay dead, and the tent-pin was in his temples."

"And she covered him with a rug" (Judges 4:18). "This should be rendered, `with the coverlet,' such as was always at hand in the nomad tent."[19]

"The tent-pin ... and a hammer" (Judges 4:21). It is said that the business of pitching and striking the tent was usually assigned to the women among the nomads, and Jael, therefore, would have been quite skilled in the use of this equipment.

"So he swooned and died" (Judges 4:21). This could not possibly be an acceptable translation of what is said here. "Swooning," that is, "fainting," is not exactly what happens to a man with a tent-pin driven through his temples! The New Revised Standard Version renders this clause simply" " - and he died."

"Evidently, the Canaanites had not oppressed the nomadic Kenites who had moved into their territory from the south, and, since the Kenites had not taken part in the muster of Israel's forces at Mount Tabor, Sisera, from these facts, had reason to believe that he would be SAFE, if he reached the tent of Heber."[20]

Speaking of the morality of this action on Jael's part, what can be said? The falsehood, treachery, deception and cold-blooded murder appearing in this event can only be denounced as sinful, and yet there were surely mitigating circumstances. We can admire Jael's courage, her love of the people of God, and her audacious action in taking the life of their chief enemy. It is nowhere indicated in the Bible that God approved of Jael's behavior in this episode. The prophecy that something like this would surely happen cannot be interpreted as God's approval of how it happened. Still, in the next chapter, Deborah referred to Jael as "blessed"; and Jael herself appeared to be quite happy with her achievement as she showed Sisera's body to Barak.

We are not given any account of how Barak must have reacted to what Jael showed him. In ancient times, it was considered the ultimate dishonor for a brave warrior to be slain by a WOMAN. Barak must have recalled the words of Deborah that prophesied the very thing that he encountered in the tent of Heber the Kenite.