Deborah

Deborah, a prophetess and judge, led Israel to victory against the Canaanites alongside Barak.

Deborah was a prophetess and the only female judge mentioned in the Bible. She lived during a time when the Israelites were oppressed by Jabin, the king of Canaan (Jdg 4:4). Deborah held court under a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, where the Israelites came to her for judgment (Jdg 4:5).

Deborah summoned Barak, an Israelite warrior, and delivered a message from God instructing him to lead an army against Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army (Jdg 4:6-7). Barak agreed to go only if Deborah accompanied him, to which she consented but prophesied that the honor of the victory would go to a woman (Jdg 4:8-9).

Deborah and Barak led the Israelite army to Mount Tabor, where they defeated Sisera's forces (Jdg 4:10-16). Sisera fled and sought refuge in the tent of Jael, who killed him by driving a tent peg through his temple (Jdg 4:17-22).

After the victory, Deborah and Barak sang a song of praise, recounting the events of the battle and celebrating God's deliverance (Jdg 5:1-31). Deborah's leadership as a prophetess and judge brought 40 years of peace to the land of Israel (Jdg 5:31).

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 north-east 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 Canaanitish 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, JABIN [2].)