Jael
Jael's Nationality Kenite
Spouse Heber the Kenite
Contents
1. Name
2. Heber the Kenite
3. Jael in the Book of Judges
4. Extra-biblical reference
5. Commentary
1. Name Jael is the heroine who delivered Israel from the army of King Jabin. After Barak failed to take action at the behest of the prophetess Deborah, God turned Sisera over to Jael, who killed him by driving a tent peg through his skull after entering her tent near the great tree Zaanannim near Kedesh.
• The Hebrew ya'el (Jael) means ibex, a nimble, sure-footed mountain goat native to that region. It translates to "he shall ascend or go up."
• As of 2016, Yael was one of Contemporary Israel's most common female first names.
Jael shows Sisera lying dead to Barak,
2. Heber the Kenite
• The Bible records several Jael has often been understood to be the wife of Heber the Kenite. However, the Hebrew phrase translated this way could also mean "a woman of the group of the Kenites." The Kenites were a nomadic tribe, some of whom lived near the Israelites. Cases of intermarriage; the father-in-law of Moses was a Kenite, but it is not clear whether this was Jethro. The Kenites may have been a part of the Midianite group.
• According to the Book of Judges in the Bible, Heber was a descendant of Reuel the Midianite, the father-in-law of Moses. He had separated himself and his wife Jael from the other Kenites and pitched their tent in the plain of Zaanaim, which is near Kedesh in the tribal territory of Naphtali. Heber lived during the 12th century BC in the Hula Valley (anciently known as Zaanaim) of northern Israel during the time of the Israelite judges. According to one commentator, there are reasons to doubt whether the events narrated in Judges 4 ever occurred.
3. Jael in the Book of Judges
Deborah, a prophetess, and judge, advised Barak to mobilize the tribe of Naphtali and Zebulon on Mount Tabor to do battle against King Jabin of Canaan. Barak objected, saying he would go, provided she would also. Deborah agreed but prophesied that the honor of defeating Jabin's army would then go to a woman. Jabin's army was led by Sisera (Judg. 4:2). The armies met on the plain of Esdraelon, where Sisera's iron-bound chariots became hampered by the mud caused by a downpour during the night that caused the Wadi Kishon to overflow its banks. The Canaanites were defeated, and Sisera fled the scene.
Sisera arrived on foot at the tent of Heber on the plain of Zaandam. Heber and his household were at peace with Jabin, the king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Jael, however, sympathized with the Israelites because of the twenty years of harsh oppression inflicted on them by Jabin, his commander Sisera, and his nine hundred iron chariots. Jael (whose tent would have been separate from Heber's) welcomed Sisera into her tent and covered him with a blanket. Sisera asked Jael for a drink of water; she gave him milk instead. He commanded Jael to watch over the tent and tell any inquirers that no one was there. Quietly, Jael took a mallet and drove a tent peg through Sisera's temple into the ground while he was sleeping, killing him instantly. Jael was then the woman with the honor of defeating Jabin's army, as prophesied by Deborah, and she showed Barak Sisera's dead body in her tent. The "Song of Deborah" (Judg. 5:24–26) relates the episode:
Extolled above women be Jael,
Extolled above women in the tent.
He asked for water; she gave him milk;
She brought him cream in a lordly dish.
She stretched forth her hand to the nail,
Her right hand to the workman's hammer,
And she smote Sisera; she crushed his head,
She crashed through and transfixed his temples.
Scholars have long recognized that the Song of Deborah, based on linguistic evidence (archaic biblical Hebrew), is one of the oldest parts of the Bible, dating back to the 12th century BCE.
4. Extra-biblical references
Jael killing Sisera
Pseudo-Philo refers to Jael in the book Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum:
Now Jael took a stake in her left hand and approached him, saying, "If God works this sign with me, I know that Sisera will fall into my hands. Behold, I will throw him down on the ground from the bed on which he sleeps, and if he does not feel it, I know that he has been handed over." Moreover, Jael took Sisera and pushed him onto the ground from the bed. However, he did not feel it because he was very groggy.
Furthermore, Jael said, "Strengthen in me today, Lord, my arm on account of you and your people and those who hope in you." And Jael took the stake, put it on his temple, and struck it with a hammer.
And while he was dying, Sisera said to Jael, "Behold, the pain has taken hold of me, Jael, and I die like a woman."
And Jael said to him, "Go, boast before your father in hell and tell him that you have fallen into the hands of a woman."
There is also a reference to the story of Jael in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. During the Wife of Bath's Prologue, and whilst discussing her fifth husband's "book of wikked wives," Chaucer mentions some wives who "han drive nailes in hir brain, / Whil that they slepte, and thus they had hem slain."
5. Commentary
Judges 4:17 states that there was peace between the Canaanites and Heber's clan. They were familiar to the Israelites through the connection of Jethro to Moses, and their skill as metalworkers was welcomed wherever they camped. Both sides in the conflict would have considered the Kenites a neutral party. C.E. Schenk notes that Sisera was Jael's guest, "was in the sanctuary of her home, and protected by the laws of hospitality." According to Herbert Lockyer, she may have acted out of practical necessity. Sisera was in flight and Barak in pursuit. It would not have been wise to allow Barak to find Sisera in her tent. She also knew that Sisera would be killed if captured; therefore, she would kill him and thus cement a friendship with the victor. Biblical commentaries have viewed Jael as either a heroine or someone much less so. Newsom and Ringe consider her a survivor caught up in her husband's politics. Parallels between the details of Jael's actions and Ehud's assassination of Eglon have led van Wijk-Bos to propose Jael as killing Sisera like his conquering army's use of rape. Jael, along with Ehud, is an example in Judges of the contrast between marginal heroes and well-armed enemies conquered by wit and stealth. Noting the maternal and erotic undertones of the text and some commentators' qualms about Jael's seductive and violent act, Bachmann points out that the Bible itself has nothing but praise for Jael, called the most blessed of women in the Song of Deborah.
