deborah Summary and Overview

a bee. (1.) Rebekah's nurse. She accompanied her mistress when she left her father's house in Padan-aram to become the wife of Isaac (Gen. 24:59). Many years afterwards she died at Bethel, and was buried under the "oak of weeping", Allon-bachuth (35:8). (2.) A prophetess, "wife" (woman?) of Lapidoth. Jabin, the king of Hazor, had for twenty years held Israel in degrading subjection. The spirit of patriotism seemed crushed out of the nation. In this emergency Deborah roused the people from their lethargy. Her fame spread far and wide. She became a "mother in Israel" (Judg. 4:6, 14; 5:7), and "the children of Israel came up to her for judgment" as she sat in her tent under the palm tree "between Ramah and Bethel." Preparations were everywhere made by her direction for the great effort to throw off the yoke of bondage. She summoned Barak from Kadesh to take the command of 10,000 men of Zebulun and Naphtali, and lead them to Mount Tabor on the plain of Esdraelon at its NE end. With his aid she organized this army. She gave the signal for attack, and the Hebrew host rushed down impetuously upon the army of Jabin, which was commanded by Sisera, and gained a great and decisive victory. The Canaanite army almost wholly perished. That was a great and ever-memorable day in Israel. In Judg. 5 is given the grand triumphal ode, the "song of Deborah," which she wrote in grateful commemoration of that great deliverance. (See LAPIDOTH T0002240, JABIN T0001938 [2].)

(a bee). (B.C. 1857.) 1. The nurse of Rebekah. #Ge 35:8| Deborah accompanied Rebekah from the house of Bethuel, #Ge 24:59| and is only mentioned by name on the occasion of her burial under the oak tree of Bethel, which was called in her honor Allon-bachuth. 2. A prophetess who judged Israel. Judges 4,5. (B.C, 1316.) She lived under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in Mount Ephraim, #Jud 4:5| which, as palm trees were rare in Israel, "is mentioned as a well-known and solitary landmark." She was probably a woman of Ephraim. Lapidoth was probably her husband, and not Barak as some say. She was not so much a judge as one gifted with prophetic command #Jud 4:6,14; 5:7| and by virtue of her inspiration "a mother in Israel." The tyranny of Jabin, a Canaanitish king, was peculiarly felt in the northern tribes, who were near his capital and under her jurisdiction. Under her direction Barak encamped on the broad summit of Tabor. Deborah's prophecy was fulfilled, #Jud 4:9| and the enemy's general perished among the "oaks of the wanderers" (Zaanaim), in the tent of the Bedouin Kenite's wife, #Jud 4:21| in the northern mountains. Deborah's title of "prophetess" includes the notion of inspired poetry, as in #Ex 15:20| and in this sense the glorious triumphal ode, Judges 5, well vindicates her claim to the office.

DEB'ORAH (a bee). 1. The nurse of Rebekah, and her companion into Canaan. Gen 24:59. She was buried at Bethel, under the "oak of weeping." Gen 35:8. "Nurses held a high and honorable place in ancient times, and especially in the East, where they were often the principal members of the family. 2 Kgs 11:2; 2 Kgs 2 Chr. 22:11." 1. A woman of eminent wisdom and holiness (called a prophetess), and a judge of the people of Israel. Jud 4:4 She was the wife of Lapidoth (although some think the passage should read "a woman of Lapidoth"), and had her judgment-seat under a palm tree, which from this circumstance, and from the rarity of the tree, is spoken of as "the [well-known] palm tree of Deborah." Jud 4:5. Israel was suffering at that time a most oppressive bondage under Jabin, a Canaanitish king, to which it was doomed in consequence of its sin. Deborah, by divine direction, called upon Barak, who had probably signalized himself in some way, and commanded him to station himself upon Mount Tabor with a prescribed number of men, and she would see to it that Sisera, the commander of the tyrant's army, should be there, and should fall into Barak's hands. Barak engaged to undertake the enterprise if Deborah would accompany him. To this she consented, prophesying, however, that if she went the honor of the victory would be hers and not his, and that Sisera would be regarded as having fallen by the hands of a woman. Jud 4:9. The two armies met, and the event was as Deborah predicted. Sisera fled, and died by the hand of Jael; his army was cut off and every man slain. Jud 4:21. The triumphal song composed or dictated by Deborah on that occasion is regarded as one of the finest specimens of Oriental poetry. Jud 5. We give a few verses from a revised version: "Lord, when thou wentest forth out of Seir, When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, Yea, the clouds dropped water. The mountains flowed down at the presence of the Lord, Even that Sinai at the presence of the Lord the God of Israel. * * * * * * * * The kings came, they fought; Then fought the kings of Canaan In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; They took no gain of silver. They fought from heaven; The stars from their courses fought against Sisera. The river Kishon swept them away. That ancient river, the river Kishon. March on, my soul, with strength." See Barak. Jael.

1. Rebekah's nurse (Genesis 24:59), faithful as a servant from Rebekah's childhood, and so, when dead at an advanced age, lamented as much as one of the family. Her burial place at the oak beneath Bethel was hence called Allon-Bachuth," the oak of weeping" (Genesis 35:8). She was in Jacob's household now, as she had been in his mother's, who was by this time dead, as appears from Genesis 35:27. 2. The prophetess and judge ("a bee"), a personal or possibly an official name applied to poets, seers, and priestesses. The symbol of a monarch in Egypt; a honey bee to her friends, a stinging bee to the enemy (Cornelius a Lapide). "Lived under the palm tree"; a landmark, as palms were rare in Israel (Judges 4:5); possibly meaning Baal Tamar, "the sanctuary of the palm" (Judges 20:33). Wife of Lapidoth; "a mother in Israel," a patriotic and inspired heroine like Miriam. Jabin oppressed the northern tribes adjacent to Hazor his capital (Zebuhn, Naphtali, and Issachar, which she judged). Barak, at her call, summoned these (to whom the central tribes, Ephraim, Manasseh (Machir), and Benjamin in part sent contingents, Judges 20:14) in a long train (draw: Judges 5:6-7) toward the broad topped mount Tabor. Deborah accompanied him at his request. With but 10,000 in his train ("at his feet"), by the Lord's interposition, descending from Mount Tabor, he defeated Sisera's mighty host and 900 chariots who were in the famous battlefield of Jezreel or Esdraelon, in the valley of Kishon. Deborah's prediction was fulfilled by the "Lord's selling Sisera into the hand of a woman," namely, Jael, the Kenite Heber's wife. Enthusiasm for the cause of Israel, so closely allied with the Kenites through Moses' father-in-law Hobab, caused her to commit the treacherous murder. The praise, "blessed above women in the tent (i.e. shepherdesses) shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be" commends her faith, not her treachery. Some actions of faith are mixed with the corrupt motions of the flesh, as that of the midwives and Rahab's treatment of the spies. So Jael's act showed real faith in the case of God's controversy with the godless Canaanites. The approval of her faith, the mainspring of her conduct, by no means implies approval of the deceit by which its true character was obscured. Yet faith is precious and "blessed" in spite of grievous infirmities, and will at last outgrow and stifle them utterly. God is keen to see the faith, slow to condemn the fault, of His children. Deborah and Barak together sang the song of victory composed by her. It begins with a reference to Jehovah's original, grand, and awful manifestation at Sinai (Exodus 19; Deuteronomy 33:2), the sealing of the covenant with Israel, and the ground of all His subsequent interpositions for them. Then follows Israel's deep degradation, its highways deserted, its 40,000 soldiers (a round number for a diminished army) without shield or spear, because they forsook Jehovah for "new gods" (compare Deuteronomy 32:17). Then "war (pressed up) to their (very) gates." But now deliverance is come, for which "bless the Lord." All should join in "speaking" His praise: the upper classes "who ride upon white-spotted asses," and those "that sit upon coverings" (middin, the rich, Matthew 21:7) spread upon the asses; also the humbler "who walk on the way," foot travelers. Those delivered from the plundering "archers "who infest "the places of drawing water" to plunder the shepherds, shepherdesses, and their flocks in lawless times (Exodus 2:17), should rehearse there, now that all is peace, "the Lord's righteous acts." "Then shall the people of Jehovah go down (from their past mountain hiding places) to their gates" and towns now delivered. "Barak, lead away thy captivity (train of captives) captive" (quoted in Psalm 68:18); fulfilled exhaustively in Christ the ascended Conqueror (Ephesians 4:8; Ephesians 4:13). "Out of Zebulun came they that handle the pen of the writer," i.e. the scribes of the host (Jeremiah 52:25) who wrote down the names of the soldiers. "Barak was sent by his feet into the valley," i.e. impelled irresistibly to the battle. "At the brooks of Reuben were great resolutions of the heart," but issuing in no practical action, the tribe resembling their forefather. Reuben preferred hearing "the bleatings of the flocks" to the blast of the war trumpets. Dan with its port Joppa preferred merchandise to warring for the fatherland. "Asher abode in his bags." "The kings of Canaan took no gain of money," i.e. no booty, as they expected, from the battle; for "the stars from heaven fought against Sisera;" i.e., a Jehovah-sent storm beat in their faces and on the Israelites' back (Josephus), swelling the Kishon, which suddenly fills up the dry channel and overflows the plain of Esdraelon, making it impassable with mud, especially to chariots, so that the" prancing horses" and their "mighty" riders were swept away. Meroz might have intercepted the retreating foe and Sisera, but is "cursed by the angel of Jehovah" for not doing so; and Jael is blessed" for her zeal, though mixed with earthly alloy. So "the land had rest for 40 years." (See BARAK.) Neither Ehud nor Jael are in the list of examples of faith in Hebrews 11. Jael apparently received Sisera in good faith, with the intention of hospitality, but a sudden impulse may have urged her to destroy the enemy of God's people. Her faith and patriotism are commendable, but not the means she took of delivering Israel.