Judges 4 Study Notes

4:1-3 A new cycle is introduced with the standard formula of Israelite rebellion (cp. 3:7,12). In this instance the enemy was Jabin, a Canaanite king from Hazor, in the north of Israel. An earlier Jabin had been defeated by Joshua at Hazor about a century earlier (Jos 11:1-15); this suggests that “Jabin” may have been a dynastic name. Hazor was destroyed by Joshua, but as was the case with Jerusalem in Jdg 1:8, the destruction did not prevent some form of reoccupation at a later date. Israel’s failure to complete the occupation of the land once again came back to haunt them. The source of Jabin’s strength, humanly speaking, lay in his nine hundred iron chariots. These gave him an enormous technological edge over the Israelites on flat ground. But his real power over Israel lay in the fact that the Lord, seeking to punish his people, had sold them to him.

4:4-5 Given their patriarchal culture, it is a measure of the poor state to which Israel had been reduced that they were being judged by a woman—a point emphasized in the Hebrew text, which piles up four feminine nouns at the beginning of the sentence (Deborah, a woman who is a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth). She could be found seated under the palm tree of Deborah, a location that may reflect a connection with her earlier namesake, Rebekah’s nurse (Gn 35:8).

4:6-7 As God’s appointed representative, Deborah summoned Barak to take the lead in the fighting. She also gave him the Lord’s plan of battle, deploying ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun on Mount Tabor, a strategic location at the northeast corner of the Jezreel Valley. Further, she assured him of the Lord’s victory over Israel’s enemies.

4:8-10 Although the name Barak means “lightning,” his response was slow. Deborah agreed to accompany him to Kedesh as a sign that the Lord was indeed with him, and he successfully raised an army of ten thousand men. As the story unfolds, the men will have less to do with the victory than a single woman.

4:11 What seems at first sight to be an irrelevant note introduces the key character in what follows. Heber the Kenite was descended from Moses’s father-in-law, who were mentioned in 1:16 as settling among the people. In keeping with the prominent role of women in this chapter, the key character is not Heber, whom we never meet, but his wife Jael, who has not yet been mentioned.

4:12-16 Sisera responded to Barak’s movements by summoning his entire force of nine hundred iron chariots to the Wadi Kishon, the exact place where the Lord had earlier promised to lure him. This was the signal for Israel to prepare for action, a call that significantly came from Deborah rather than Barak. Barak responded to the Lord’s call and found that the Lord had gone in front of him, just as he had done with the Egyptian forces at the time of the exodus (Ex 14:24). All that was left for Barak to do was the mopping-up operation.

4:17-21 Sisera himself fled on foot. Since Heber had allied himself to Jabin, his camp should have been a place of safety for Sisera. However, he had reckoned without Jael, Heber’s wife. Her approach seemed innocent enough. She went out to greet Sisera, welcomed him in with words of peace and safety, and brought him milk, like a mother caring for a small child (vv. 19-20). But once Sisera fell asleep, Jael drove a tent peg through his temple . . . into the ground, just as Ehud had driven his dagger into Eglon’s belly (3:21).

4:22-24 When Barak finally arrived, Sisera was already dead. Jael’s own rationale for her actions is not clear. Jael’s murder of Sisera was in violation of her husband’s treaty with Jabin, as well as normal standards of ancient Near Eastern hospitality. She was not a member of the Israelite community. Perhaps the only explanation for her actions was the Lord’s sovereign will to hand Sisera over to a woman.