Sisera

Sisera was the commander of the Canaanite army who was defeated by the Israelites under the leadership of Deborah and Barak.

Sisera was the commander of the Canaanite army under King Jabin of Hazor, who oppressed the Israelites for twenty years during the time of the judges (Jdg 4:2-3). Deborah, a prophetess and judge of Israel, summoned Barak and instructed him to gather an army to fight against Sisera (Jdg 4:4-7). 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). In the ensuing battle at Mount Tabor, the Lord routed Sisera's army, and Barak pursued them (Jdg 4:14-16). Sisera fled on foot and sought refuge in the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite (Jdg 4:17). Jael welcomed Sisera and gave him a drink, but while he slept, she drove a tent peg through his temple, killing him (Jdg 4:18-21). The victory song of Deborah and Barak celebrates the defeat of Sisera and the role of Jael in his demise (Jdg 5:24-31). The story of Sisera's defeat is also mentioned in 1Sa 12:9 as an example of God's deliverance of Israel from their oppressors and in Psalm 1Sa 83:9 as a prayer for God to defeat Israel's enemies as He did with Sisera. The account of Sisera's downfall highlights the power of God to deliver His people and the role of women in His plan.

The captain of Jabin’s army (Judg. 4:2), which was routed and destroyed by the army of Barak on the plain of Esdraelon. After all was lost he fled to the settlement of Heber the Kenite in the plain of Zaanaim. Jael, Heber’s wife, received him into her tent with apparent hospitality, and “gave him butter” (i.e., lebben, or curdled milk) “in a lordly dish.” Having drunk the refreshing beverage, he lay down, and soon sank into the sleep of the weary. While he lay asleep Jael crept stealthily up to him, and taking in her hand one of the tent pegs, with a mallet she drove it with such force through his temples that it entered into the ground where he lay, and “at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell down dead.” The part of Deborah’s song (Judg. 5:24-27) referring to the death of Sisera (which is a “mere patriotic outburst,” and “is no proof that purer eyes would have failed to see gross sin mingling with Jael’s service to Israel”) is thus rendered by Professor Roberts (Old Testament Revision):

“Extolled above women be Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite, Extolled above women in the tent. He asked for water, she gave him milk; She brought him cream in a lordly dish. She stretched forth her hand to the nail, Her right hand to the workman’s hammer, And she smote Sisera; she crushed his head, She crashed through and transfixed his temples. At her feet he curled himself, he fell, he lay still; At her feet he curled himself, he fell; And where he curled himself, there he fell dead.”