Biblical Literacy #8: Mother’s Day With the Warrior Mom Deborah
The most important least talked about mom in the Bible
“Mother in Israel,” prophetess, and general over a united army of tribes — It is a wonder that Deborah is one of the least talked about women in the Bible (Judges 4–5). Unlike many of the notable women and mothers in the Bible — Sarah, Rebekah, or Rachel, and others — Deborah is not known primarily as the wife of her husband. Her husband Lapiodoth is mentioned, but some have speculated that “Lapiodoth” — which means “torches” — is not the name of a person. In this case, Deborah is the “wife of torches,” which is to say that she has a fiery spirit. However, as with many interpretations in the Bible, the answer to whether or not Lapiodoth is her husband or a saying about her character could be both. What matters is that Deborah is known for her own sake.
A Canaanite king named Jabin in the large city state of Hazor in northern Israel is oppressing the tribes of Israel (Judges 4). Hazor was the largest and most powerful city in that region west of Galilee in the Late Bronze Age (~1550 to 1200 BCE). The 12 tribes of Israel have no king at this point, and they seek a leader to unite their armies against King Jabin and Hazor. (Hazor was supposedly destroyed a couple generations earlier by Joshua, so it is somewhat of a contradiction for there to be a strong king there now, but that is another matter) Everyone is too afraid to stand up to Hazor, which has iron chariots. Iron chariots would have given Hazor quite a technological military advantage at that time.
Deborah is a prophetess who sits under “the palm of Deborah” in an area that is in the northern West Bank today. She calls for a leader in Israel named Barak son of Abinoam, and Deborah says that God commands him to gather an army to fight against the armies of Hazor, which were commanded by a general named Sisera. However, Barak (which stems from the word “blessing” in Hebrew and Arabic today) says that he will only go if Deborah comes with him. Deborah agrees to go and lead the army, but she says,
“the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.”
Deborah leads Barak and the united army of tribes up to Hazor, and they utterly defeat the general Sisera and his armies even though the Israelites have no chariots. Deborah is also the first person to lead a united group of Israelite tribes after Joshua. She is the first Judge in the Book of Judges to lead multiple tribes. This story would be remarkable enough, but there is another powerful woman after the battle.
After his army is slaughtered, the general Sisera flees on foot. He comes to the tent of a nomadic pastoralist woman named Jael. Jael is a Kenite. You would not know it from the English translation, but the Kenites are supposedly descended from Cain — the same Cain who kills his brother Able in the book of Genesis in the first murder in the Bible. You may ask yourself, “How are there any descendants of Cain if there was a flood that destroyed the world and none of Noah’s children are Kenites?” The answer again is that the Bible contains a conglomeration of stories, and they do not always fit together perfectly, but this is the final product as it was preserved in ancient Israelite religious traditions. By the time we get to the Book of Judges and Deborah we are transitioning more and more from the deep mythology in Genesis into actual history, which makes sense because much of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament was produced in the Iron Age II during the time of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah (~1000 to 587 BCE).
This pastoral woman Jael welcomes the general Sisera into her tent. Her husband Heber is also mentioned but otherwise unknown. Jael seems to know that Sisera is fleeing from Deborah after he was defeated. She offers him a bowl of milk, and he passes out from exhaustion. While he is asleep she commits one of the more gruesome acts in the Hebrew Bible. She grabs a metal spike and a hammer, puts the spike up to his skull, and rams it through his head.
Right after she kills Sisera the general Barak arrives looking for him. Jael shows him the dead general, and the story ends with a song of praise for both Deborah and Jael (Judges 5). The song / poem about Jael and Deborah was probably written first, and the story was constructed around it, but either way it is a unique part of the Bible where two women and mothers are featured as the heroes.
Mothers are usually seen as nurturing in the Bible, but this story offers a contrast. They are also violently protective, and if someone threatens their children — whether their actual children or the metaphorical children of their nation — they will fight to defend them. The lesson seems pretty clear. Don’t mess with moms. Happy Mothers Day
