Jael יעל
“most blessed of women is Jael” — Deborah's song on how the war ended
Deborah and Barak had broken Sisera's army at the brook Kishon. Sisera himself got down from his chariot and fled on foot — to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between his king and that household.
Jael came out to meet him: "turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me, do not be afraid." He asked for water; she gave him milk and covered him. He told her to stand at the entrance and tell anyone who asked that no one was there. And he fell asleep from exhaustion.
Then come the three lines that make up all her fame: she took a tent peg and a mallet, went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple. When Barak came on the trail, she went out to meet him: come, and I will show you the man you are looking for.
Deborah's song, one of the oldest poetic passages in the Tanakh, gives her a place of her own: "most blessed of women is Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite; of women in tents most blessed." And immediately after it, the one picture in the chapter seen from the other side: Sisera's mother looks out of the window and wonders why her son's chariot is so long in coming.
On the timeline
Sources
Tanakh
- Shoftim 4:17–22 — the tent, the milk, and the peg
- Shoftim 5:24–27 — “most blessed of women is Yael”
- Shoftim 5:28 — Sisera's mother at the window
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.