The book of Judges is full of underdog leaders. In fact, each of the six major Judges has something
specific to their backgrounds that would’ve earned them the label underdog by their society
Othniel is a younger brother, where privileges usually went to firstborns.
Gideon is described as being “the least of his family, from the weakest clan.”
Jepthah was the son of a prostitute.
Samson was the son of a barren woman, at a time when barrenness was considered sinful.
Ehud was left-handed. And Deborah of course was… a woman.
During this period of Israelite history, which occurred between the conquest of Canaan and King
Saul’s monarchy, a judge served the role as a spiritual and military leader, who was appointed
by God, to settle disputes within and among the tribes and bring people to faith.
The story of Deborah is found in chapters 4 and 5 of that book. She is labeled a prophetess
and an oracle, meaning she had direct communication with God. In chapter 4, Deborah
summons her army commander, Barak, and tells him that God commands him to mount a
sneak attack against the Canaanite army led by General Sisera using ten thousand men
borrowed from two other tribes. At the time of this order, the Canaanites had been oppressing
Israel for 20 years. Barak is initially reluctant to heed
Deborah’s orders, but gives in as long as Deborah accompanies him. This wasn’t an unusual request
by Barak for it was quite typical to have a holy person present in a military setting. But
due to his reluctance, Deborah tells him “the road on which he is going will not lead to his glory,
for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.”
Although Israel does not have any iron weaponry at this point in their history, per God’s plan the
Israelites’ sneak attack works and Sisera’s troops alongside his 900 chariots are thrown into a
panic. Sensing defeat, General Sisera flees the scene.
Running and scared, General Sisera seeks out an old friend Heber the Kenite
who used to have ties with Israel, but had since defected to become a military and
political ally of the Canaanites. Sisera reaches his friend’s tent and discovers Heber’s wife,
Jael, there alone. She convinces him that he’s in safe hands and gets him to come inside the
tent and covers him with a blanket to rest. He requests water, but she provides him milk. While
Sisera sleeps, Jael picks up a tent peg and hammers it into his head.
Israel is victorious, at last!
This is a story of two women carrying the action of the narrative. Given the cultural gender roles
of this period, Deborah and Jael “do man” better than the men themselves. Here, the warrior
men, Barak and Sisera are surprisingly passive figures. Against Deborah, Barak comes across
as reluctant, arguably cowardly, and is accordingly
deprived of expected honor/glory. Deborah is nothing but initiative and boldness.
Jael likewise embarks on a flurry of activity that results
in the death of Sisera, who is also largely passive: he “makes no direct reply … but simply
follows her -- silently -- into the tent”, accepts the drink of milk even though he asked for water
and allows himself to be covered. Jael’s gender nonconformity reaches its peak when she
hammers the tent peg into Sisera’s head. In other words, she forcibly penetrates him.
Many biblical scholars have commented on the erotic subtext of this story. Jael poses as
Sisera’s savior and seductress, tucking him in a bed and providing a glass of milk. Milk evokes
the imagery of breasts. The phrase, she “comes to him quietly”, calls to mind the seduction of
Ruth to Boaz right before the former uncovers the latter’s “feet.” Feet, in the Hebrew Scriptures
is sometimes a euphemism for genitals: Jael’s feet are explicitly mentioned a chapter
later in Deborah’s song as she describes Sisera’s death in 5:27. He sank, he fell,
he lay still at her feet; at her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell dead. Is he at her feet or between her legs?
And there’s that tent peg. An obvious phallic image
that is penetrated into Sisera’s temple or in some translations, his mouth. Chapter 4 begins
with gender role-reversal -- a woman, rather than a man, is judging Israel. By the end of
that same chapter, “Patriarchal expectation is turned upside down as the warrior’s mouth is
penetrated by an unmistakably phallic tent peg” In the next chapter, the author of Judges
powerfully intersperses the scene of Sisera’s death at
the hands of a woman with a glimpse of another female figure, the hero’s mother who anxiously
awaits her son’s victorious return from battle. In contrast to Jael, the tent-dwelling woman, the
mother of Sisera is an aristocrat peering from a house with lattice-work windows, accompanied
by ladies-in-waiting. They assure her that her son is late only because he and his men are busy
dividing up the spoil. Among the spoil are typically women.
But the reader knows what his mother does not -- that no Israelite women are to be raped, but
rather it was Sisera himself who had been pillaged by the hand of a woman.
Queer Theologians adore the characters of Deborah and Jael for their gender-nonconforming
narratives. And although there has been some fan-fiction written about these two, there is no
scriptural evidence that Deborah and Jael had ever met.
Judges 4 is one where “the powerful (the males) show weakness and the weak (the females)
show strength. This picture makes an apt paradigm for weak Israel, which in the Book of
Judges time and again defeats a more powerful enemy” . And that’s likely what the author was
going for in this story as this is also a theme throughout the entirety of the Bible. God is
predictably unpredictable. Expect the Unexpected! I love that this message of Truth is taught using
gender-queer figures and that God’s people are made victorious through gender-nonconformity!
This is a message that I’m sure will resonate throughout the rest of the Bible,
considering Deborah told Barak that the victory would not be his
own, but attributed to a woman. So let’s just see for ourselves…..
In Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews, the epistle writer provides a
litany of Isrealite all-stars in chapter 11. We got Abraham, Moses,
Rahab the prostitute, Gideon, Baaaaa-rak, Ah, fu-