Week 10 Judges
Jael is part of the Deborah story. I’ve read about her before and it’s easy to come away feeling kind of bleak. I slow down this time; concentrate.
Jael was married to a guy named Heber. Heber was a Kenite who’d cut ties with the Hebrews, left their territory and made an alliance with a Canaanite king named Hazor and his general – Sisera. This made Heber a pro-Canaanite, pro-Sisera guy (which wasn’t too bad a choice if you were choosing up sides).
Eventually Sisera and Barak went to war. Barak’s over-matched force miraculously won the battle. Sisera escaped: (he) ran to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because Heber’s family was on friendly terms with King Jabin of Hazor.
That was a very bad choice for Sisera. Jael disregarded her husband’s treaty; disregarded eastern hospitality. Sisera was an enemy. She killed him.
A reader’s temptation is to see Jael as a treacherous barbaric cunning betrayer and murderer. But I’m not so sure.
Deborah had predicted this: the Lord’s victory over Sisera will be at the hands of a woman. And in Deborah’s Song of Victory Jael is hero-ized as an Israelite champion.
If I was reading the bible with the goal of correcting its un-contemporary-sounding and unsavoury atrociousnesses it would be one thing. Jael might end up a biblical Medusa.
But I’m not. So I won’t be too quick to say she is.
Note: quote from Judges 4:17, 4:9 (NLT), Deborah’s Song is in 5:24-27