She is shown here in a stained glass window by the Russian-Jewish artist Marc Chagall. The two chapters show her exemplary moral character and indicate the people gave her great love and respect. Like Moses before 3 and David afterward , she fused in herself the roles of prophet, national leader, and military commander.
Thought to be an Ephramite because she resided in Ephraim , Deborah judged and led Israel for 60 years in the 12th century B. She judged under a palm tree—a setting, rabbinic tradition maintains, that validated her fairness, openness, and refusal to show partiality. Deborah is introduced, as are the other 11 judges in the Book of Judges, without fanfare. The Bible records no dissent or rebellion against her. Leadership resides not in gender but in character and gifting. Her name means bee or even honeybee.
Judges 4—5 is unusual in that it chronicles a slice of biblical history first in narration and subsequently in poetry. The chapters complement each other, fitting together details, insights, and judgments. Put another way, the people sinned, learned from hardship, repented, and cried out to the Lord. The Lord responded with a plan of deliverance.
The chapters present the possibility of three war zones: the initial battleground of Mount Tabor and the Jezreel Valley ; Tanaach ; and the gates of Hazor and other Canaanite cities.
Because the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, the Lord sells them into the hand of Jabin, a king in Canaan —2. Confined to the unproductive hilltops and denied commercial access on the highways, the Israelites suffer economic hardship under the Canaanites Deborah summons Barak from Kadesh in Naphtali; she tells him the Lord commands him to position himself at Mount Tabor and bring in 10, from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon —6.
Chapter 4 highlights the conflict between the Israelites and Canaanites. Sisera hears and takes his chariots to the Wadi Kishon — Making good his word, the Lord throws Sisera and his forces into panic Seeing that the battle goes against the Canaanites, Sisera flees on foot.
She brings him milk, covers him with a rug, and while he sleeps, hammers a tent peg through his head —21! The assassination incorporates multiple erotic images. As Sisera sleeps, Jael calmly and quietly hammers a tent peg into his temple, in this painting by Italian Renaissance artist Artemisia Gentileschi. Photo: Szepmuveszeti Museum, Budapest, Hungary. The poetry in Chapter 5, the Song of Deborah, smacks of realism and emphasizes the role of women.
Like the Book of Lamentations and the Gospel of Mark , it leaves a reader feeling breathless. One easily imagines Deborah strumming and beckoning Barak to walk and sing with her among their victorious countrymen. Her leadership style favors a team approach; she willingly recognizes those who joined and served. Deborah sings about the Lord but to the Israelites. Indeed, the stars in heaven fought against the doomed Sisera and the Canaanites In an age when women were largely subordinate to men, it undoubtedly took a remarkable woman to win the respect and admiration of so many.
Deborah must have been a very strong and reassuring presence for Barak to demand her company as he went into battle. She must have possessed profound wisdom to draw Hebrews from all over Israel for her judgments. Even her song of victory reflects greatness—it is considered by many as one of the finest specimens of ancient Hebrew poetry in existence.
My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel Who offered themselves willingly among the people; Bless the Lord! Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys, You who sit on rich carpets, And you who walk by the way. Hear the sound of musicians at the oases, There they repeat the triumphs of the Lord, The triumphs of his peasantry in Israel. God is not prejudiced regarding gender, age or race. He will accomplish His purposes through men, women, or even children.
Deborah made herself available to God and God used her to achieve great things. Christendom is not to be characterized by gender wars and dog-eat-dog ambition. Simply offer your abilities to God and, as He did with Deborah, He will give you a mission to accomplish whether you are male or female, young or old, one race or another.
However, she is a key literary figure with a rich afterlife in Jewish interpretation. The only female judge, the only one to be called a prophet, and the only one described as performing a judicial function, Deborah is a decisive figure in the defeat of the Canaanites. This is a victory told in two accounts, a prose narrative in Judges 4 and a poem, known as the Song of Deborah, in Judges 5. Many scholars have argued, based on its linguistic features, that the poetic account is earlier than the prose version, and in fact that the Song of Deborah may be one of the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible.
However, concrete dating has proven slippery. If Lappidoth is a person, he is an otherwise unknown figure in the Hebrew Bible. All other judges in the book appear to be military leaders, so we can assume Deborah is as well.
The text does not describe her actually wielding weapons, though it also does not mention Barak doing so, and interpreters uniformly assume he did. The reader naturally assumes that the woman will be Deborah.
The Song of Deborah, preserved in Judges 5 , tells more about this final battle. Quite the contrary—she portrays her as the quintessential enemy woman, already anticipating the riches that the fighters will bring as spoil when they return.
The battle is between Israelites and Canaanites, and each set of women aligns solidly with its own group. Perhaps the character is meant to be a biological mother, but no children are mentioned in the text.
More likely, the phrase indicates that her arbitration powers as judge were parental, even maternal—though hardly in a tender, nurturing sense. Deborah is described with motherhood language, despite the lack of children in her story, as a way of making her seem less threatening. As a respected politico-judicial authority, Deborah has a counterpart in the wise woman of Abel , who speaks for and rescues the city of Abel where, she says, the people of Israel bring their disputes to be settled 2 Sam — Neighboring cultures also apparently considered prophecy to be open to women; far more female prophets are attested in ancient Near Eastern cuneiform literature than in the biblical texts.
However, it is important to note that there may have been more female prophets in ancient Israel than just those mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The rabbis acknowledged Deborah as a prophet but, due to their discomfort with women leaders, blunted her impact by speculating about her husband, reading her self-identification at the beginning of the Song of Deborah in Judges 5 as hubris, and minimizing her role as judge.
Ackerman, Susan. New Haven: Yale University Press, Bal, Mieke. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Bronner, Leila Leah. Louisville, Ky.
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