Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, Blessed above women in the tent!
Deborah's song has just cursed the town of Meroz for staying home. Now it turns and crowns a woman who was not even an Israelite — so why does the song's highest praise go to an outsider?
The song sets Jael directly opposite the town that failed. One writer marks the reversal: the town with a plain duty did nothing, while the woman with every excuse acted:
In contrast with the curse upon Meroz, we have next the blessing upon Jael, where the iron warrior lies in utter collapse at the feet of a woman. Meroz had failed in the plain path of duty. But Jael, who might have been excused, forgets her womanhood and her foreign birth. She forgets the ordinary claims of hospitality and the pity given to someone in distress, and strikes for the Lord and for His people.
The verse blesses her among women who live in tents. One writer sets that tent against the cedar palaces of Meroz:
Put side by side the mighty cedar temple palaces of Meroz, and the lowly tent of Jael. A cedar palace and a curtain! Oh, how many of God's people have brought a curse upon themselves for having a cedar palace which stole their heart away from Christ. On the other hand, the tent of a pilgrim and its pin — those are things that can serve in victory... it is a blessed truth that those who are Jaels, who take their place on God's side and His work — their name will not be missing from that song of triumph on the day of the Lord's celebration, in glory.
Jael was not an Israelite, yet the song gives her the highest praise. One writer notes she is not the first stranger God has honoured:
Next, in Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, we see the stranger again made illustrious. It was by her hand, in a very special way, that God subdued the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.
The verse names her as the wife of Heber. Heber had made his own peace with Israel's enemy, which makes her choice sharper:
Heber's act does not seem to have been one of faith. He kept apart from the people in their low estate, to free himself from the responsibility of Israel's sad condition. What is more, he was at peace with the open enemy of his people, and he had arranged things so that Jabin would not trouble him. But a weak woman lived under Heber's tent. She refused safety at such a price, and would not own any alliance with the enemy of her nation. Israel had undivided possession of her heart.
So what is the song blessing? Not her love for a country — one writer names the reason:
Like Meroz, she had a golden opportunity that would never come her way again. She seized it with both hands — literally: one hand holding the tent peg, the other swinging the hammer. It was not a natural action for a woman, but it was an act of faith. Faith controlled the feelings of nature and showed her what to do to help deliver God's people. It was not merely an act of patriotism: it was an act of faith... The claims of God must come before the feelings of nature or the claims of men.
Readers stumble at a blessing on a killing that broke the claims of hospitality. One writer answers from the story around it:
People have shown great indignation at this act of Jael, and even Christians have blamed her severely. But it was foretold that the LORD would "sell Sisera into the hand of a woman," and right after the deed we read, "So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel." ... The song makes clear that Sisera was an enemy not only of God's people, but of the Lord Himself. So God empowered Jael to take his life... Where an act carries out God's righteous judgement, it rises far above what would be right under the ordinary rules of hospitality or war. Of course in some cases the thing done may be according to the will of God, but not the way in which it is done.
- Curse answered. The song sets the blessing on Jael against the curse on Meroz. Meroz had a plain duty and refused it; Jael had every excuse and acted.
- Tent over palace. Meroz had cedar palaces; Jael had a curtain and a tent peg. A cedar palace can steal the heart from Christ; a pilgrim's tent and its peg serve in victory.
- Stranger honoured. Jael was a stranger to Israel, yet God subdued Canaan's king by her hand.
- Undivided heart. Her husband bought safety by keeping peace with Israel's enemy; she refused safety at that price.
- Faith, not feeling. Her act came from faith, not patriotism or natural feeling — and the song of triumph keeps her name.
He asked water, she gave milk; In the nobles' bowl she brought forth cream.
Deborah's song pauses at a tent door, where a beaten general asked for water and Jael handed him milk in a nobleman's bowl. Commentators read that small detail as the measure of Jael's heart, and as a pattern for treating a thirsty enemy.
Older translations say Jael brought "butter in a lordly dish." The ESV calls it curds in a noble's bowl. It was not the butter we spread on bread today.
This was curdled milk. Genesis 18:8; Deuteronomy 32:14. Jael brought Sisera "butter" to drink, Judges 5:25... Curdled milk is a common drink in the East, and mixed with honey it tastes very good.
He asked for water. She brought out the best thing she had, and served it in a way that honoured his rank.
When the enemy of the people of God comes to her, this woman shows grace. She brings out the best thing she has in her tent to honour Sisera's rank. She hands him the drink in a bowl fit for a nobleman. Is this not the very opposite of contempt? Should we not act this way towards the enemies of God, giving them more than they ask for their thirst and their food? God's witnesses go on with grace beyond the worst enemies of Christ.
Two lines later, the hands that carried the bowl take up a hammer. One writer follows a single thread through both scenes.
When Sisera asked for water, she gave him milk, a picture of giving the simple, elementary truth of God even to an enemy (v. 25). But Sisera pictures one who does not respond to the truth, and grace refused results in judgment. The tent peg also stands for the truth of God, which supports the believer's pilgrim character, because it keeps the tent in place... She illustrates the faith that is willing to use the truth, whether in grace or in judging for God.
Her husband Heber chose safety. Jael refused it.
He was at peace with the open enemy of his people... But a weak woman lived in Heber's tent. She refused safety at that price, and she would not accept an alliance with the enemy of her nation. Israel had undivided possession of her heart... Jael hides him. He asks for a drink of water, and she gives him something better, milk. She does not treat him at first as an enemy, but with pity. Yet when the enemy of her people stands in front of her, she becomes pitiless. The only weapons she had were the tools of a woman who keeps the tent.
One writer turns Jael's order — listen first, act after — into a rule for meeting people who argue against God.
A man comes to you with all his arguments. You do not agree with them, but you listen to him. That is how you catch him in his own cleverness. I will gladly welcome a man who denies God, if I can put an end to his unbelief. If I can get the nail of pilgrim truth through his head, then I am willing, dear friends, to sit and hear him argue his unbelief.
Not every writer reads the song's praise as approval of all Jael did. One warns against a further step, while still crediting her faith.
We must be careful not to treat these deeds as carrying God's approval, above all the detail of what Jael did. It was an act of courage and of faith. Faith moved her, and that faith led her to kill Sisera, the enemy of Israel.
Jael had no sword. One writer names what she did have, and what God did through it.
Sisera, thirsty and worn out, looked for shelter in Jael's tent. She killed him by driving a tent peg through his head with a hammer. This shows how God can strengthen a feeble instrument to work out His deliverance.
- Asked — He asked for water. Curdled milk was an ordinary Eastern drink, and it is what she poured out for him.
- Given — She gave more than the request and served it in her finest bowl. That is the opposite of contempt, and the pattern for how God's witnesses treat His worst enemies.
- Refused — The milk pictures the simple truth of God offered even to an enemy. Sisera pictures the man who will not respond. Grace refused ends in judgment.
- Undivided — Her kindness was not compromise. Her heart already belonged to God's people. So she could show pity first and strike after.
- Feeble — A tent, a bowl, a peg and a hammer were all she had. God delivers through instruments that look useless. Commentators differ over how much of the deed itself God approved.
She put her hand to the tent-pin, And her right hand to the workmen's hammer; And she smote Sisera, she struck through his head, Shattered and pierced through his temples.
Deborah's song slows down and lingers on one moment. A woman's two hands, one on a tent peg, the other on a workman's hammer. Israel's oppressor lies dead on the floor of her tent. Two questions follow. Why did God choose so small a weapon? And why does a song celebrate a killing?
The tools named here are not military. They belong to the woman who pitches and strikes a tent, and the tent is where she wins.
The instrument she used for Israel's deliverance was even more worthless than Shamgar's. The only weapons she had were the tools of a woman who keeps the tent. With them she deals the fatal blow to the head of the enemy. Jael, like Deborah and every woman of faith, does not go at all beyond her sphere. She carries out her work of vengeance inside her dwelling, with the weapons the tent supplied her, and gains the victory there. She handles the weapons of her narrow sphere with as much skill as a man could have shown, for if her hand had trembled in the least, everything would have been lost.
A celebrated commander died under a wooden spike. Commentators read that contrast as deliberate.
To crown the defeat, the great Sisera, the hero of so many victories, fell before a woman and a tent peg! Barak had been told beforehand that this enterprise would not be for his honour. He took it up reluctantly and timidly, and so it turned out. The very weakness and insignificance of the means employed made it clear that all the honour and glory was God's.
Samuel Ridout explains why Barak's share of the victory was cut short:
Therefore the full victory will not be his, but Sisera will fall by the hands of Jael, a feeble woman. How our blessed God would check, with a holy jealousy, all usurpation of His place even by the instrument He may please to use.
Many readers find the killing shocking. Leslie Grant weighs two things: her motive, and the fact that this was wartime.
If her action had come from selfish motives, this would have been murder. But Sisera was an oppressor of the people of God, and it was a time of war. So the Lord approved of her killing this enemy of God.
A second objection goes wider. Should the Spirit of God write a song that rejoices over an enemy's ruin? William Kelly answers:
The root of the difficulty seems to be this: people are apt to judge from their own circumstances. Suppose we think God's Spirit is bound to say nothing but what suits a Christian. Then I grant you, we could not have the song of Deborah. But then we could not have had the Old Testament as it is. The Spirit of God did work, but He worked according to the state of the people of God at that time.
Jael did not strike out of temper. She struck because of where her heart was fixed.
The heart of Jael was wholly with the God of Israel, with the Israel of God. When it became a question of truth, and of treating the enemy as an enemy, she showed the greatest energy. This woman is, at this moment, in the narrow sphere of the house, the real leader of the armies of the Lord. She is in the front rank, honoured by God to gain the victory, for she has an undivided heart for His people.
J T Mawson hears an older promise in this wound. He starts from the dead commander's name.
Sisera was the great leader, and his name means "he that binds with chains", and we are well aware that the great captive-maker is Satan himself. In the end he was destroyed by something very weak in itself. His head was bruised, even to death, by a woman and a tent peg. And Jesus, the woman's Seed, has bruised the serpent's head. Men despised Him, because He was meek and lowly; His death was weakness and folly in their eyes.
Ridout makes the tent peg itself the secret of Jael's power, and then turns it on the reader.
The only weapon she has is feeble enough, but it says: here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. It was the tent peg that killed the mighty man. The one who has a tent peg is the one who is separate from the world, a true stranger and pilgrim. Take that pilgrim life of yours and lay hold of it with your hands — the practical life. Take up the hammer of God's word — it is a hammer in your right hand. Take hold of peg and hammer, and put to death the principles that are eating the very life out of your soul.
- Small hand. Jael fights with a tent-keeper's tools and wins inside her own tent, without leaving her sphere.
- Small weapon. A wooden peg fells a commander of iron chariots, so that the honour can belong to nobody but God.
- Guarded glory. Barak heard in advance that the campaign would not bring him honour. God keeps the crown from the instrument He uses.
- Whole heart. She struck when truth was at stake, because her heart was undivided for God's people.
- Crushed head. The pierced skull points ahead. The woman's Seed has bruised the serpent's head, and men saw only weakness in His death.
Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down Between her feet he bowed, he fell; Where he bowed, there he fell, overcome.
Deborah's song slows down here and tells one moment three times over: the enemy commander goes down at the feet of a woman in a tent. Commentators read the scene as God's own account of how He overturns great power. They differ, though, over the way Jael did it.
God had said beforehand that He would hand Sisera over to a woman. He did not use Heber, Jael's husband, but Jael herself.
It is not Heber, however, but his wife Jael who is used by God. She has faith that identifies her with the people of God, and makes their enemies her own... Let us just notice the lesson repeated all through the book. The way of power is through weakness. God will only use the instrument that is weak enough to give itself up into His hands.
Before the peg came the milk. One writer asks what that kindness should teach us.
Now Jael is honoured; the one with a little strength is blessed. "He asked for water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl." When the enemy of the people of God comes to her, this woman shows grace. She brings out the best thing she has in her tent, in recognition of Sisera's rank. Is this not the very opposite of contempt? Is this not how we should act towards the enemies of God? We should give them more than they ask for their thirst and their nourishment.
Another writer reads the same scene as a picture of grace offered and refused.
When Sisera asked for water, she gave him milk, a picture of giving the simple, elementary truth of God even to an enemy (v. 25). But Sisera pictures one who does not respond to the truth, and grace refused results in judgment... She illustrates the faith that is willing to use the truth, whether in grace or in judging for God.
A tent peg killed Sisera, not a sword — the gear of a temporary home. One writer turns that into a challenge to the reader.
Jael takes the witness of her pilgrim life — she is a pilgrim and a stranger — and kills him. The only weapon she has is feeble enough, but it says, "here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come." It was the tent peg that killed the mighty... Take that pilgrim standing of yours. Take hold of it with your hands — the practical life. Take hold of the hammer of God's word; it is a hammer in your right hand. Now apply it to that argument of yours that would tamper with God's truth.
She showed him hospitality and then killed him. Writers differ on whether the song's praise covers the way she did it. One answers that she was carrying out God's judgment, which puts her act in a different class.
People have shown great indignation at this act of Jael, and even Christians have condemned her. But it was foretold that the LORD would "sell Sisera into the hand of a woman"... And Deborah, in her song of praise, declared Jael to be "most blessed of women." This song shows that Sisera was an enemy not only of God's people but of the Lord Himself. She prophetically says, "So may all your enemies perish, O LORD!"... So God empowered Jael to take his life. Sometimes an act is clearly the carrying out of God's righteous judgment. Such an act rises far above what would be right under the ordinary rules of hospitality or of war.
Another draws a line between the service and the way it was done.
Jael did a great service to Israel, no doubt... But praise for her action does not have to mean approval of the way she carried it out. It was wholly treacherous... If she had taken a more straightforward course, trusting God, she would have succeeded just as well.
The song repeats the collapse until it ends in one word: dead. One writer sees in this one man's ruin a far greater one.
Sisera was the great leader, and his name means "he who binds with chains," and we are well aware that the great captive-maker is Satan himself. In the end something very weak destroyed him. A woman and a tent peg bruised his head, even to death. And Jesus, the woman's Seed, has bruised the serpent's head.
- Weakness chosen. God passes over the strong. He uses the instrument weak enough to leave itself in His hands.
- Weakness supplied. The weapon is a tent peg and a hammer: the tools of someone who lives as a stranger, not a soldier's sword.
- Weakness offering grace. Milk in a noble's bowl came before the peg — more than the enemy asked, given while he was still an enemy.
- Weakness judging. Grace refused ends in judgment; the same faith that pours the milk drives the peg.
- Weakness winning. The captive-maker falls at a woman's feet — an early picture of the woman's Seed bruising the serpent's head.