Ministry Matters™ | Articles | Deborah, Barak, and Jael http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/article/entry/3706/deborah-barak-and-jael March 10, 2013 Someone altogether unfamiliar with the Bible, reading the gospels of Matthew and John, would soon realize that two writers are telling the same story in a different way. in the Hebrew Bible, 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles function similarly. As do chapters 4 and 5 of Judges. Here we have two renditions of the same tale, the first in prose and the second in poetry. The Song of Deborah in chapter 5 is regarded as one of the oldest pieces of literature in the Bible.1 And the tale is fascinating. It begins as most of the other stories in Judges do. The Israelites sinned against God and consequently were given into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, who oppressed them for twenty years. A military leader named Barak arose. One expects more of the same kind of story found elsewhere in Judges. What one gets is unique in the Bible. Barak and his story are depreciated fore and aft by two women and their stories: Deborah and Jael. Deborah is variously described by the text as a prophet, a mother in Israel, and either the “wife of Lappidoth” or a “woman of fiery torches” (read “spirited woman”), depending on the translation. She is further a singer of tales and a skilled poet, as we discover in chapter 5. The “mother in Israel” designation is particularly interesting. Deborah is the only biblical woman who did not attain that designation by being the mother of a famous son. We do not even know if she had children. Her accomplishments were counsel, inspiration, and leadership. This description endured even to nineteenth-century America, where significant women were often eulogized as “mothers in Israel.” Deborah is generally viewed positively by everyone except pacifists. Even John Knox, in his venomous First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, said that: God, by privilege, favor, and grace, exempted Deborah from the common malediction given to women in that behalf; and against nature he made her prudent in counsel, strong in courage, happy in regiment, and a blessed mother and deliverer to his people. Deborah is often viewed as an extraordinary, rather than representative, woman, one who was not restricted by patriarchy, but who also did not stand over against it. Others see her as a model of courage and power, a woman who risked her life to do the will of God, who shattered role expectations, and invites all of us to greater freedom. The other primary female character, Jael, has not been viewed so positively. Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, murdered the Canaanite general Sisera when he came to her for sanctuary. While Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Woman's Bible, published in 1898, regarded Deborah as a “wise adviser,” it had no kind words for Jael: The deception and the cruelty practiced on Sisera by Jael under the guise of hospitality is [sic] revolting under our code of morality. To decoy the luckless general fleeing before his enemy into her tent, pledging him safety, and with seeming tenderness ministering to his wants, with such words of sympathy and consolation lulling him to sleep, and then in cold blood driving a nail through his temple, seems more like the work of a fiend than of a woman. Leonard Swidler also calls Jael's act “a deceitful, cowardly assassination.” We shall later take issue with these calumnies and see why we perhaps should not consider Jael's act “under our code of morality.” For now we note that so many of the women in Judges are victims. It is interesting for us here to consider two who face risky situations and, rather than being overwhelmed, take charge of them. From Preaching Classic Texts: Judges, Copyright 2003 Chalice Press..