As – The Fourth Cycle: Deborah 4: 1-24

The Fourth Cycle: Deborah
4: 1-24

The fourth cycle: Deborah DIG: What familiar cycle is repeated here? What were the characteristics of Deborah and Barak? Do the Scriptures condone everything that it records? Why? Why not? In what sense was Deborah a judge? What are the reasons for Deborah being considered as a Judge of Isra’el? What are the reasons for Barak being the deliverer of Isra’el? Why did Ja’el assassinate Sisera?

REFLECT: Has there been a time in your life when you have had a sense of God’s timing (as Deborah did)? How does God used such people in the Church today? Where in your life do you wish you had Deborah’s certainty and confidence? If ADONAI were to tell you something about the future, what one thing would you like him to tell you? How do you feel about Deborah as a leader? Would you follow her?

Deborah didn’t function in the same role as the other judges, and so no number of years of her judgeship is given. The forty years in 5:31 is attributed to God and Isra’el’s military strength in 4:23-24, not to Deborah. However, Deborah was a judge in the traditional role of helping to settle disputes. She was a prophetess, and so she received direct revelation from ADONAI, but she was not the savior of Isra’el, as was the case with the other judges. The savior, in this case, was actually Barak.

In contrast to the one-verse report of Shamgar’s contribution to Isra’el’s survival (to see link click Ar – The Third Cycle: Shamgar) in the south against the Philistines, we now have a much longer account of the battle against the Canaanites and their allies in the north for control of the strategic Jezreel Valley. Furthermore, and this is unique in Judges, this time we have two accounts of the crucial events: the first is a prose narrative (Chapter 4), and the second is a poem (Chapter 5), or, to put the matter more simply, a story and a song.⁸⁶

Here is the list of characters in this story: Jabin: King of Hazor in Canaan, a tyrant; Deborah: a Jewish judge, a woman of faith and courage; Barak: a reluctant Jewish general; Sisera: the general of Jabin’s army; Heber: a Kenite neighbor, on friendly terms with King Jabin; Ja’el: wife of Heber and handy with a hammer; ADONAI-Tzva’ot: The LORD of heaven’s angelic armies (Joshua 5:13-15; 2 Kings 19:31; Psalm 24:10; 2 Cor 6:18).⁸⁷

Rebellion (4:1-2): After Ehud died (see Aq – The Second Cycle: Ehud) the Israelites once more did evil in the eyes of ADONAI. Not when Shamgar was dead, but when Ehud was dead, again implying that the Shamgar judgeship was within the judgeship of Ehud. This circumstantial clause means that it was Ehud who kept Isra’el from idolatry, but now that he was dead, all restraints were gone. So Ha’Shem sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Jabin was a dynastic name for the king of Hazor; and, for that reason, the same name appears in the book of Joshua. Hazor was located north of the Sea of Galilee at the south end of the Hulah Valley, a strategic city along the Via Maris, which was the most important trade route of ancient times. Hazor was the leader of the northern alliance against Joshua (see the commentary on Joshua Bm – Conquest of Northern Canaan). Joshua had destroyed the city, but Isra’el didn’t occupy it. Consequently, the Canaanites had come back and rebuilt that very strategic city. While Jabin was the king, Sisera was the general of his army. Sisera was not a Canaanite name, but a Hurrian or a Hittite name, or he was a mercenary of the nationality in the service of Jabin. His palatial residence was in Harosheth-hagoyim, located in Galilee (4:1-2 NIV).

Repentance (4:3): And the Israelites cried out to ADONAI for help because of the strength of the Canaanites. Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots. This many chariots were not unusual, for in the inscriptions of Thutmose III (the Napoleon of Ancient Egypt) he states that he captured nine hundred and twenty-four chariots from the Canaanites in the Battle of Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley which plays a role in the battle recorded in Chapters 4 and 5. For twenty years he cruelly oppressed the Israelites (4:3 NIV). On the human side, the Canaanite ability to oppress Isra’el for so long was due to their chariot strength. On the divine side, it was God’s discipline due to Isra’el’s spiritual adultery, chasing after foreign gods.

Retribution (4:4-10): As Arnold Fruchtenbaum relates in his commentary on Judges and Ruth, Verse 4 introduces the key person. Now Deborah was a prophetess. The name Deborah, which means bee, has been encountered once before in Genesis 35:8, where it identifies Rachael’s nurse. The Hebrew literally means a woman of prophecy. It is used of two other women: Miriam the sister of Moses (Exodus 15:20) and Huldah the prophetess (Second Kings 22:14). Deborah was the wife of Lappidoth, and she was judging Isra’el at that time (4:4 ESV). However, there are those who contend that Barak was the one who delivered Isra’el? That he was actually the judge of Isra’el.

There are five reasons why Deborah (rather than Barak) was the one who delivered Isra’el. First, the Bible says that she judged Isra’el, and that should be taken as Deborah having led Isra’el. Second, in Judges 5:6-8, she is connected to the security of Isra’el. Third, she was involved in marshaling the troops. Fourth, in 5:1, her name appears before Barak’s, which suggests that she should receive primary credit for the victory. Fifth, the parallels with Sisera, who sits or rules (Hebrew: yashav), with Deborah who sits and rules (again yashav), under a palm tree suggests that she is the equal of Sisera. These five reasons may support the fact that she was actually delivering Isra’el; and, in that sense, she was the judge.

But there are thirteen reasons against this view that Deborah was Isra’el’s deliverer. First, the word judge (Hebrew: shophet) allows for a variety of meanings like leader, ruler, deliverer, or champion, even within the book of Judges itself, and is used in more than one way. Second, Deborah is not introduced as the one “whom ADONAI raised up.” Third, there is no reference to her being empowered by the Spirit of God. Fourth, she needed Barak to accomplish the deliverance. Fifth, the verb yashav is never really applied to her in the sense of ruling. Sixth, she states that YHVH will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman, but she doesn’t say “into my hands.” Seventh, the text states that she went up with Barak, but doesn’t say that she actually led the troops. Eighth, she states that God will deliver Sisera into your hands (meaning Barak’s hands), not into “my hands” (meaning Deborah’s hands). Ninth, she is totally absent from the description of the actual battle, and she never encounters either Jabin or Sisera. Tenth, she is referred to as the mother of Isra’el, never as the “savior” of Isra’el. Eleventh, the human author doesn’t use the term kum (meaning to raise up) or state that God is the cause of Deborah’s prominence. Twelfth, in later lists of deliverers of Isra’el, it’s Barak’s name that appears, not Deborah’s (First Samuel 12:9-11; Hebrews 11:32). Finally, in this passage, she functions in the traditional role as a judge in settling disputes, not in the sense of delivering Isra’el from the Canaanites.

She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, to hold court, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment (4:5 ESV). There, the Israelites come to her for judgment. They were not coming to her asking her to save Isra’el from the Canaanites; they were coming to her asking her to solve their legal disputes. This showed that the people had lost confidence in the priesthood to provide spiritual direction. The focus now shifts away from Deborah to Barak to deal with the military crisis. Barak is both commissioned to attack and is promised success. One day she sent for Barak son of Abinoam, who lived in Kedesh in the land of Naphtali. She said to him, “This is what ADONAI, the God of Isra’el, commands you: Call out 10,000 men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun (because Naphtali was Barak’s tribe in whose tribal territory the city of Hazor was located). After Barak fulfilled the human condition by responding to the call to arms, then Ha’Shem’s roll would be: And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will deliver him into your hands (4:6-7 Hebrew). This is an example of ADONAI’s sovereignty in action without eliminating human responsibility.

Then Barak said to Deborah, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go” (4:8 NIV). The plea of Barak was not due to cowardice, for he was no coward as the context proves. His plea was due to his desire to be assured of the Presence of God in the war. Barak recognized Deborah’s prophetic status. Her response was a promise and a prophecy. First the promise: Very well, she replied: I will go with you. Then the prophecy: But you will receive no honor in this battle, for ADONAI will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman. The assumption may have been that Deborah was that woman, but it will turn out to be another woman altogether. So Deborah went up with Barak to Kedesh. There Barak called together the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, and 10,000 men followed him, and Deborah went with him (4:9-10 Hebrew). She was present as promised, though she did not take part in the battle nor lead any of the troops.⁸⁸

Restoration (4:11-24): The restoration of Isra’el by Barak and Ja’el can be seen by some as a dilemma. But it is important to remember that we must distinguish between what the Bible reports and what it recommends, between what the Bible says and what it supports. For example, the Bible may report that David had multiple wives (Second Samuel 3:2-5), but it doesn’t thereby recommend or authorize that men do likewise. In Ja’el’s case, the Bible doesn’t specifically condemn her act. The problem is that the Bible seems to approve of it.⁸⁹

The Movement of Heber the Kenite (4:11): The Kenites were a branch of the Midianites that had sided with the Israelites. From that tribe came Moses’ wife, brother-in-law, and father-in-law; and this was the clan that had settled in the Negev in 1:16. The Kenites were normally pro-Isra’el, but Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the pro-Isra’el Kenites, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh (4:11 ESV). This would have placed him in close proximity with King Jabin and Hazor. The purpose of this verse is to set the stage for the death of Sisera. Heber’s position would allow him to observe the troop movements of Barak and report them to Jabin and Sisera. Heber would have assumed he was doing the Canaanites a favor; but in reality, he was, by God’s sovereignty, working to bring about the Canaanites’ defeat.

The Defeat of the Canaanites (4:12-16): When Heber told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, Sisera called for all nine-hundred of his iron chariots and all of his warriors, and they marched from Harosheth-hagoyim to the Kishon River. But Sisera had no idea that Ha’Shem was luring him to his death. Then Deborah said to Barak, “Get going! This is the day when ADONAI-Tzva’ot will deliver Sisera into your hands! ADONAI has gone out ahead of you” (4:12-14a. Hebrew).

The battle is then described. Sisera and the Canaanites were by the Kishon River, located at the western end of the Jezreel Valley. So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten-thousand men following him at the eastern end of the same valley (4:14b Hebrew). And ADONAI’s role is spelled out: He routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak. What else God did and what other means He used will be revealed in Chapter 5. The effect on Sisera was immediate, he leaped down from his chariot and fled on foot. But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, killing all of Sisera’s warriors. Not a single one was left alive (4:15-16 NLT). The victory was total.

The Death of Sisera (4:17-22): Meanwhile, Sisera fled away on foot in the opposite direction of his defeated army so as to elude pursuit, and went to the tent of Ja’el, the wife of Heber the Kenite. The name Ja’el, means mountain goat. Sisera was obviously on his way back to Hazor, and that would lead him past the place where Heber had pitched his tent. The Kenites were nomadic, and their tradition was that whenever a stranger was admitted into the tent as a guest, his claim to be defended or concealed from his pursuers would be honored. This was probably the reason why Sisera would specifically seek refuge into her tent. Another reason Sisera felt safe in her tent was because Heber’s family was on friendly terms with King Jabin of Hazor. Ja’el took the initiative and went out to meet Sisera. She said to him, “Come into my tent, sir. Come in. Don’t be afraid.” So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a rug (4:17-18 NLT). He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” Another point concerning nomadic tradition was that whoever ate or drank anything in the tent was presumed to receive the peace of the tent; therefore, he felt that he could relax inside the tent. Sisera may have asked for just a little water in order to establish this bond. So Ja’el opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him up again.⁹⁰

But then Sisera made a mistake when he asked her to lie: If anyone asks you, “Is there a man here,” say No (4:19-20 Hebrew). At that moment, she quickly concluded that Sisera was fleeing the battlefield, which meant that the Israelites had won the battle and the Canaanite grip on the land had been broken. If she protected Sisera, she’d endanger her own life, and pit herself against her own relatives. No doubt somebody was chasing Sisera, and whoever it was wouldn’t be satisfied until he was dead. So, initially, she was merely thinking only of her own survival. Sisera had no reason to suspect danger. Nevertheless, what he didn’t know was that Ha’Shem had promised that a woman would take his life (4:9). Her identity is delayed as long as possible in the story to enhance the impact when revealed. The irony was that God’s choice was not merely a woman, nor even an Israelite prophetess, but Ja’el, the wife of Heber!⁹¹

But then Ja’el thought more about her situation and she changed her loyalty. When Sisera fell into a deep sleep from exhaustion, Ja’el quietly crept up to him with a hammer and a tent peg in her hand. She drove the tent peg through his temple and into the ground, and he died. Her ability to do this corresponded with the fact that, among the nomads, the erection of tents was done by the tribal women. So she was well-trained in the use of the hammer and the tent peg. Thus, Deborah’s prophecy about Sisera being delivered into the hands of a woman was fulfilled. Because Sisera fell into a deep sleep, he never realized what was happening until it was too late. Pursuing the runaway Canaanite, complete victory almost within his grasp, he was unexpectedly met by Ja’el who emerged from her tent. Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Ja’el went out to meet him. She said matter-of-factly: Come, and I will show you the man you’re looking for. So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera dead with the tent peg climatically through his temple (4:21-22 NIV).⁹² The ironic contrast of the victor (Barak) and the vanquished (Sisera) in the same tent is significant. Ja’el had conquered them both: Sisera, by literally assassinating him, and Barak, by depriving him of receiving any honor (4:9) that would have been his as the chosen deliverer of Isra’el.

The similarities between Ja’el’s assassination of Sisera and Ehud’s assassination of Eglon are striking. Both narratives feature a murder scene followed by a discovery scene. Both Ehud and Ja’el use false premises to set up the assassination (Ehud’s claim to have a message from Elohim and Ja’el’s seeming assurance of asylum). Ehud assassinated Eglon and the king’s servants discovered their dead master; Ja’el assassinated Sisera and Barak discovered the dead Canaanite general. In both stories, the murder and discovery scenes play much more significant roles than the battle scenes themselves. In the Ehud story, the assassination takes place before the battle; in the Barak story, it happens after.⁹³

Should we bless or blame Ja’el for what she did? She invited Sisera into her tent, treated him kindly, and told him not to be afraid; so she was deceitful. The Kenites were at peace with Jabin, so she violated a treaty. She gave Sisera the impression that she would guard the entrance to her tent, so she broke a promise. She assassinated a defenseless man who was under her protection, so she was a murderer. Yet Deborah sang: Most blessed among women is Ja’el, the wife of Heber the Kenite. May she be blessed above all women who live in tents (see Ax – Blessed by Ja’el).

To begin with, all this took place during the Dispensation of Torah (see the commentary on Exodus Da – The Dispensation of Torah). So let’s not read back into the era of the judges, the spiritual standards taught by Yeshua and His apostles. Also, let’s keep in mind that the Israelites had been under terrible bondage because of Jabin and Sisera, and it was God’s will that the nation be restored. Both Jabin and Sisera had been guilty of mistreating the Jews for twenty years, and if the Canaanite army had won the battle, untold numbers of Jewish girls and women would have been captured and raped (5:30). Ja’el not only helped restore the nation of Isra’el from bondage, but she also helped to protect Jewish girls and women from the most vicious brutality. Consequently, it turned out that she wasn’t a Semitic “Lady Macbeth” who murdered her guest for her own personal gain. There was a war going on, and this courageous woman, unlike her husband, stopped looking out only for herself, but took her stand with the people of God.⁹⁴

The Defeat of Jabin (4:23-24): So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the Israelites (4:23 NIV). The defeat of Sisera in the Jezreel Valley didn’t mean the immediate defeat of Hazor, or the other cities who were still under Canaanite control. So there were several smaller victories. But from that time on Isra’el became stronger and stronger and the Canaanites grew weaker and weaker until they finally destroyed Jabin, king of Hazor (4:24 NLT).⁹⁵ Consequently, the repetition of King Jabin of Hazor stresses the magnitude of the victory over the oppressor. Without his general Sisera, Jabin was no threat and quickly subdued. So the land flowing with milk and honey was saved by a “Mountain Goat” and a “Bee.”⁹⁶

Dear heavenly Father, praise You ADONAI-Tzva’ot, The LORD of heaven’s angelic armies, for helping Isra’el to conquer her enemies, both in times past and today! You can even use a Mountain Goat and a Bee! Like Barak, help me to desire Your Presence in my daily life. There is nothing more comforting than having the Presence of the King of kings (Revelation 19:16) who rules over all the world living within me (Dani’el 7:14). Your love, Adonai, is in the heavens, Your faithfulness up to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like the great deep. You preserve man and beast, ADONAI. How precious is Your love, O God! The children of men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings (Psalms 36:5-7). Comfort can be found from Your steadfast love even in the midst of trials, as David felt your steadfast love when he had to flee into the wilderness. Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. (Psalms 63:3). Thank You for being such a wonderful heavenly Father and for Your Presence to live within those who believe in You (Jn 14:23)! To the One who sits at Your Right Hand. Amen