Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JAEL

(Heb. yāʿēl)

The Kenite woman, wife of Heber, who cunningly set up Sisera, the exhausted Canaanite commander, by catering to his needs after his defeat at the hands of the Israelites and who then treacherously killed him after he had come to trust her (Judg. 4:17-22; 5:24-27). The details of this event differ in the two accounts: in Judg. 4 she slays the sleeping, exhausted Sisera by staking his head to the ground, while in the poetry of Judg. 5 she bashes in his skull while he is drinking curds from a bowl. In both accounts, however, it is quite clear that Jael is the means used by the writer to depict Sisera’s total humiliation. For a warrior to die at the hands of a woman was humiliation enough, but for the warrior also to be drawn into the woman’s web of deceit made the humiliation even more enjoyable to his enemies (cf. the story of Judith and Holofernes).

Jael and Deborah are the clear protagonists in this story of Israelite victory, and they stand in sharp contrast to the annihilated Sisera and the reluctant Israelite warrior Barak. Judg. 4:9 is clearly intended as a foreshadowing of Jael’s ravaging of Sisera, an act which is denied Barak. It is especially noteworthy that in Judg. 5:24-26 we have the cathartic moment of the Song of Deborah, in which each blow rained down upon Sisera’s head by Jael allows the Israelites to savor again the crushing of this hated Israelite enemy. In short, as Sisera falls, so fall the Canaanites, and his protracted demise embodies their defeat.

Bibliography. A. J. Hauser, “Judges 5: Parataxis in Hebrew Poetry,” JBL 99 (1980): 23-41.

Alan J. Hauser

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JAEL

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)