Rotation.org Writing Team

DEBORAH

BIBLE BACKGROUND

Passage

Bible Story: Judges 4:1 -- 5:31

Key/Memory Verse: Judges 5:31 -- “So perish all your enemies, O Lord! But may your friends be like the sun as it rises in its might. And the land had rest forty years.” (NRSV)

Objective(s) for rotation

At the end of this rotation, participants will be able to:

Locate the story in the Bible; identify the book of Judges as an Old Testament book of history.

Recognize the characters in the story and know something about them -- Deborah: a judge, obedient to God, confident in her faith; Barak: military leader summoned by Deborah; Sisera: enemy general; Jael: a woman who hid Sisera but then killed him.

Explain the role and meaning of a judge in Old Testament times.

Examine the cyclical structure of the background to this story: people go astray, there is suffering, the people ask God for help, God sends a judge who delivers, then the deliverer dies -- and the cycle begins again. Discover a foreshadowing of the need for a leader who wouldn’t die -- Jesus.

Judge the actions of the characters in the story based on their obedience to God; extrapolate this to making judgments about our own choices.

Summary

The story of Deborah is a deceptively simple (albeit gory) one, if one merely reads the story and does not bother to look further. Things seem to be pretty straightforward. Deborah, a leader of the Israelites, summons her chief warrior, Barak, and gives him his marching orders from God to go to battle against the chief warrior, Sisera, of the Canaanite king, Jabin. Barak balks, telling Deborah he will only go if she goes with him. She agrees but warns him that his hesitation will cost him full victory. That honor will go to another … a woman, no less. There is indeed a battle between the armies of Sisera and Barak. The Israelites are the winners. Sisera fleas and finds refuge in the tent of Jael, the wife of a man sympathetic to both the Israelites and the Canaanites. After offering him her hospitality, Jael then kills Sisera by driving a tent peg through his skull as he sleeps. Barak arrives at the same tent and Jael shows him what she has done. All is as God said it would be. The Israelites are delivered from oppression under Jabin and Barak’s victory is trumped by a relatively unknown woman. Deborah then retells the tale in song.

If one stops here, much is missed. In order to gain a fuller understanding of the text, a broader understanding of the context of the book of Judges, and its cyclical and dualistic nature must be explored.

Context

K. Lawson Younger, Jr. writes:

"The English title of the book of Judges derives from the Latin Liber Juticum. The Latin stems from the Old Greek (LXX) Kritai ('Judges'). The English term judges implies the notion of individuals who adjudicate legal disputes … But it is apparent that such was not their primary task. … the judges are viewed as both 'deliverers' or 'saviors' of their people from their enemies and 'instigators,' 'catalysts,' or 'stimuli' for godly living … the name of the book is better rendered 'The Book of Tribal Rulers'."

Younger goes on to explain that the success of each judge in the book is measured by how well he or she delivers the people AND how well he or she sets an example for a proper relationship with God. Each judge, then, also symbolizes an aspect of Israel. Each has a particular weakness or quality that relates to the nation as a whole, and reflects how God relates to both them individually and the nation. The primary message of the book deals with the consequences of disobedience to God and his law, by detailing the moral decline that took place in the nation during this part of its history.

Throughout the book, the people turn away from God (usually embracing the gods of their Canaanite neighbors), lose favor and freedom, become oppressed by their gentile neighbors, cry out to God for deliverance, are delivered and repent for a short time, live in peace and prosperity before beginning the cycle again. Each time the cycle repeats, however, the moral fiber of the nation (and thus its judges) becomes more worn, until (by the end of the book) it is worn away. Throughout the book, Israel’s initial struggle (remaining faithful to God, unified and apart from its gentile, non-believing neighbors) slowly transforms until it becomes a degenerate nation at war with itself. (The tribe of Benjamin is nearly annihilated, and becomes the “black sheep” of the tribes.)

The story and song of Deborah falls early in what is known as “the cycles section” of the book. This entire section begins with 3:7 and ends at 16:31. Using the stories of six major judges (Deborah being one) and various other minor judges, the cycle and process outlined in the preceding paragraph plays out. Younger makes the point that although the judges (especially the best known Samson and Gideon) are often held up as examples for Christian behavior, this really is not the intent of the book. In fact, it is pointed out that there is actually a reverse logic in the writing pattern. The more that is written about a particular judge, the less spiritual or moral is his or her behavior. The implied message then seems to be that the more we look to human beings to act as our deliverer, rather than to God, the more lost we become.

Younger also points out how this pattern plays out in the male/female relationships within the book. There is a gradual deterioration of the moral character of the women in Judges, that also has a direct impact on male/female relationships. The one-ups-personship that occurs in our story (Jael tricking then killing Sisera, then using that to show up Barak and securing a place for herself forever in Deborah’s song of praise) gradually transforms into the even more degenerated version we find in Delilah tricking and betraying her own husband for her own gain and the downfall of Israel.

The stories in Judges are particularly gory and bloody. The book relates tales of great battles, with Israel either conquering and totally annihilating its enemies or being oppressed by them. Younger explains that the gruesomeness, what we have come to call “holy war”, actually reflects a political, not just a religious practice, and one that is not peculiar to Israel at the time. All nations perpetrated this kind of “holy war” on others. The Hebrew word for this is transliterated as charam (khaw –ram), meaning to totally devote or destroy. It implies that all things on the “enemy” side should be totally devoted (to whoever’s god was worshipped by the conquerors), without the possibility of redemption. Charam, then, is really more than “holy war.” When applied to people, it meant “total destruction,” of the kind we find in our story of Barak’s army totally annihilating Sisera’s troops. It also explains why Sisera could have had no other fate. He could not have been spared. Also out of this practice comes the taboo about marrying outside one’s culture and faith. It is from this that the prohibition of Hebrew-Canaanite marriages comes. (And it is through disobedience/rejection of this taboo that Israel gets itself into big trouble!)

Younger points out that one of the signature literary devices in Judges involves dualities. Introductory material is always revisited, in a slightly new form, in a conclusion. Each character in the story has a counterpart (Deborah/Jabin, Barak/Sisera, and so forth), each with elements of the other’s “shadow” nature. Each story has elements of a nation’s victory over its enemy/oppressor, while also revealing the moral decline of the nation and its people. Our story takes this dual presentation business a step further by providing both a “literal” (logical) account of events (chapter 4) and a “figurative” (poetic) version (chapter 5).

What’s in a Name?

It might be helpful (and fun!) to take a look at our characters and the meanings of their names. In ancient Israel, names held great meaning, and spoke volumes about a person, their life circumstances, and helped shape the course of their lives. In keeping with the “dual” nature of our text, we’ll do this using two sources: Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries, and Hitchcock’s Bible Name”.

Deborah

• Strong’s: the bee (from it’s systematic instincts); derived from another Hebrew word that means “orderly motion”
• Hitchcock: word; thing; a bee

Jabin:
• Strong’s: (yaw-bene') intelligent
• Hitchcock: he that understands building

Barak:
• Strong’s: (baw-rawk') a gleam; flashing sword; glitter; lightning
• Hitchcock: thunder, or in vain

Sisera:
• Strong’s: (see-ser-raw') unknown derivation; one of the Nethinim (temple servants of the Levites, slaves gained from conquer of enemy nations )
• Hitchcock: that sees a horse or swallow

Jael:
• Strong’s: (yaw-ale') an ibex or mountain goat; derived from another Hebrew word that means “to ascend, be valuable/useful, do good”
• Hitchcock: he that ascends; a kid

Heber (Jael’s husband):
• Strong’s: (kheh'-ber) community; derived from another Hebrew word that means “society; a charmer”
• Hitchcock: one that passes; anger

Lapidoth (Deborah’s husband):
• Strong’s: (lap-pee-doth') to shine; lamp or flame
• Hitchcock: enlightened; lamps

Playing with these metaphors adds some interesting details to our characters and their story. Deborah, the orderly (queen?) bee is married to the enlightened Lapidoth. Contrast those images with Jael, the social climbing (her actions secured her a higher place in the conquering Israeli social system) wife of a charmer (Heber was able to play both sides of the Israeli/Canaanite conflict). Jabin certainly was intelligent and nation building savvy enough to employ Sisera, along with his 900 horse drawn iron chariots. And for all his flash and thunder, Barak’s efforts ultimately all do seem to be in vain, as ultimate glory evades him at Jael’s hand.

Conclusions

After considering this background, it would seem that any presentation of this material that glamorizes or promotes any of the characters involved as absolute models of Christian virtue is flawed and misinformed. All are frail human beings, with human flaws, that ultimately perpetuate, if not promote, the separation from God we seek to bridge. Even Deborah, the prophetess, ultimately betrays herself (and God). In her “song” she praises God and blesses Jael on the same level, and calls for all people to do the same, by invoking the same Hebrew word for both. Jael’s “blessing” stems from an act of treachery and deception, a true case of “the ends justify the means.”

The real miracle here, now as ever true as then, is that God remains faithful in his love for human beings, as flawed and fickle as we are. Even as the Israelites continued to betray and forsake Him, God remained faithful to them, continuing to provide deliverers, until it became abundantly clear that no mere human deliverer would do. When we look to human beings, rather than to God through Christ, to act as our deliverer, we are as misguided as the people were in the days of the Judges, and just as susceptible to falling into disobedience and oppression.

References

Younger, K. Lawson, Jr. The NIV Application Commentary: Judges/Ruth. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002.

Rick Meyer’s “e-Sword.” 2005 -- www.e-Sword.net.
Sources used in this program:
Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries
Hitchcock's Bible Names
Fausett’s Bible Dictionary

CONTRIBUTOR: Ruth Wilcox