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“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
(Romans
8:2)
Jael –
Heroine – Wikipedia
Jael
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jael
Known for Defeating
Sisera
Spouse Heber
the Kenite
Jael (/ˈdʒeɪəl/)
or Yael (/ˈjeɪəl/; Hebrew: יָעֵל, romanized:
Yāʿēl) is a heroine of the Bible who
aids the Israelites in their war with King Jabin of
the city of Hazor in Canaan by killing Sisera, the
commander of Jabin's army. This episode is depicted
in chapters 4 and 5 of the Book of Judges. According to that account, after Sisera's defeat by the Israelite leader Barak in the Battle
of Mount Tabor, he seeks refuge in the tent of Jael, who kills him by driving a
tent peg through his skull (Judges 4:17–21) near the great tree in Zaanaim near Kedesh.
Name
The Hebrew ya'el means ibex, a
nimble, sure-footed mountain goat native to the Levant region.[1]
As of 2018, Yael was one of the most common female first names in contemporary Israel.[2]
Family
Jael has often been understood to be the wife of Heber the
Kenite.[3] However, the Hebrew phrase translated this way could also mean
"a woman of the group of the Kenites".[4] The Kenites were a nomadic
tribe—possibly a subset of the Midianites—some of whom lived in close proximity
to the Israelites. The Hebrew Bible records a number of cases of intermarriage
between the Kenites and the Israelites.
Heber the Kenite
Heber the Kenite (חבר
הקיני) was, according
to the Book of Judges, a descendant of Jethro 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 territory of the Tribe of
Naphtali.[5]
Jael in the Book of Judges
Deborah, a prophetess and judge, advised Barak to mobilize
the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon on Mount Tabor to do battle against King Jabin of Canaan. Barak demurred, 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
(Judges 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.[3]
Sisera
arrived on foot at the tent of Heber on the plain of Zaanaim.
Heber and his household were at peace with Jabin, the
king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor (Judges 4:17). Jael (whose tent would have
been separate from Heber's)[6] 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.[7][3] 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.[7]
The "Song of Deborah" (Judges 5:24–26) recounts:
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.
Composed in archaic biblical Hebrew, the Song of Deborah
has been traditionally identified as among the oldest texts of the Bible, and
perhaps even the earliest example of Hebrew poetry.[8] Although some scholars
claim a date as early as the 12th century BC,[9] others claim it to be as late
as the 3rd century BC (i.e., the Second Temple period). Based on its language
and content, the current consensus is that the song was written no earlier than
the 7th century BC.[10]
In ancient and medieval literature
Now Jael took a stake in her left hand and approached him,
saying, "If God will work 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." And Jael took Sisera
and pushed him onto the ground from the bed. But he did not feel it, because he
was very groggy.
And 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 and put it on his temple and struck it with a hammer.
And while he was dying, Sisera
said to Jael, "Behold 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."[11]
According to the Talmud, Jael engaged in sexual intercourse
with Sisera seven times, but because she was
attempting to exhaust him in order to kill him, her sin was for Heaven's sake
and therefore praiseworthy.[12] The significance of that exact number of
coituses and the meaning of the multicoital nature of
Jael and Sisera's encounter has been discussed in the
scholarship, along with an alternate view in rabbinic literature that assert
quite to the contrary that Jael never engaged in sex with Sisera.[13]
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 wicked wives", Chaucer
mentions some wives who "had driven nails in his brain, / While they slept,
and thus they had him slain."[14]
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."[15][16]
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.[17] 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.[18]
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
in a manner similar to his conquering army's use of rape.[19] Jael, along with
Ehud, is an example in Judges of the contrast between marginal heroes and well-armed
enemies conquered by wit and stealth.[7] Albert Barnes conjectures that Jael
sympathized with the Israelites because of the twenty-year period of harsh
oppression inflicted on them by Jabin.[6] 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 most blessed of women in the Song of
Deborah.[4] Christian moral theorists during the Renaissance extensively
referred to Jael as an example of tyrannicide.
Artistic depictions of Jael
Jael and Sisera, by Artemisia
Gentileschi
Medieval images of Jael, mostly in illuminated manuscripts,
depicted her as both a defender of Israel and a prefiguration of the Virgin
Mary.[20]
In Renaissance works the subject is one of the most
commonly shown in the Power of Women topos, with
other biblical women who triumphed over men, such as Judith or Delilah.[21]
Here she was used to show the risk for men in following women, in groupings
including positive figures and scenes such as Judith beheading Holofernes, but
mostly ones with females depicted as over-powerful, such as Phyllis riding
Aristotle, Samson and Delilah, Salome and her mother Herodias and the Idolatry
of Solomon. More positively, Jael was included in sets of the female Nine
Worthies, such as the prints by Hans Burgkmair.[22]
Ladies sometimes chose to have their portraits painted as Jael, a
transformation achieved by holding a hammer and spike.[23]