Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 4:21
Then Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
21. a tent-pin ] a wooden peg, used for fastening the ropes, and driven in with the mallet, both of them instruments which Bedouin women are accustomed to use.
and it pierced through ] and it descended; the verb only again in Jdg 1:14, Jos 15:18, where it means alight, descend from.
for he was in a deep sleep; so he swooned and died ] The word for swooned is uncertain. With a slight change, but following the Hebr. accents, AV. reads ‘for he was in a deep sleep and weary; so he died.’ This makes smoother grammar. In Jdg 5:26-27 Jael murders Sisera while he is standing and drinking out of the bowl. Some have explained the different account given here as due to a misunderstanding of the parallelism of Jdg 5:26, as though peg and hammer meant two different implements, seized, the one by her hand, the other by her right hand. But it is more probable that the whole account of Jael’s action in ch. 4 is founded on a slightly different tradition, which made Jael murder Sisera in his sleep.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
If we can overlook the treachery and violence which belonged to the morals of the age and country, and bear in mind Jaels ardent sympathies with the oppressed people of God, her faith in the right of Israel to possess the land in which they were now slaves, her zeal for the glory of Yahweh as against the gods of Canaan, and the heroic courage and firmness with which she executed her deadly purpose, we shall be ready to yield to her the praise which is her due. See Jdg 3:30 note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 21. A nail of the tent] One of the spikes by which they fasten to the ground the cords which are attached to the cloth or covering.
He was fast asleep and weary.] As he lay on one side, and was overwhelmed with sleep through the heat and fatigues of the day, the piercing of his temples must have in a moment put him past resistance.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A nail of the tent; wherewith they used to fasten the tent, which consequently was long and sharp, being headed with iron: these weapons she chooseth, either,
1. Because she had no better weapons at hand, this being only the womans tent, where arms use not to be kept, and these people being wholly given to peace, and negligent of war, or Sisera having disarmed them before this time. Or,
2. Because she had more skill in the handling these than other weapons, being probably accustomed to fasten the tents herewith. Or,
3. Because this was very proper for his present posture, and which she knew would be effectual.
Into his temples; which is the softest part of the skull, and soonest pierced. This might seem a very bold attempt; but it must be considered that she was encouraged to it, partly, by observing that the heavens and all the elements conspired against him, as against one devoted to destruction; partly, by the fair opportunity which Gods providence put into her hands; and principally, by the secret instinct of God inciting her to it, and assuring her of success in it.
Quest. What shall we judge of this act of Jaels? It is a difficult question, and necessary to be determined, because on the one hand there seems to be gross perfidiousness, and a horrid violation of all the laws of hospitality and friendship, and of the peace which was established between Sisera and her; and on the other side, this fact of hers is applauded and commended in Deborahs song, Jdg 5:24, &c. And some who make it their business to pick quarrels with the Holy Scriptures, from hence take occasion to question and reject their Divine authority for this very passage, because it commends an act so contrary to all humanity, and so great a breach of faith. And whereas all the pretence of their infidelity is taken from the following song, and not from this history, wherein the fact is barely related, without any reflection upon it, there are many answers given to that argument; as,
1. That there was no league of friendship between Jael and Sisera, but only a cessation of acts of hostility; of which See Poole “Jdg 4:17“.
2. That Deborah doth not commend Jaels words, Jdg 4:18, Turn in, my lord; fear not; in which the great strength of this objection lies; but only her action, and that artifice, that he asked water, and she gave him milk; which, if impartially examined, will be found to differ but little from that of warlike stratagems, wherein a man lays a snare for his enemy, and deceives him with pretenses of doing something which he never intends. And Sisera, though for the time he pretended to be a friend, yet was in truth a bitter and implacable enemy unto God, and all his people, and consequently to Jael herself. But these and other answers may be omitted, and this one consideration following may abundantly suffice to stop the mouths of these men. It cannot be denied that every word, or passage, or discourse which is recorded in Scripture is not divinely inspired, because some of them were uttered by the devil, and others by holy men of God, but mistaken, (the prophets themselves not always speaking by inspiration,) such as the discourse of Nathan to David, 2Sa 7:3, which God presently contradicted, 2Sa 7:4,5, &c., and several discourses of Jobs three friends, which were so far from being divinely inspired, that they were in a great degree unsound, as God himself tells them, Job 42:7,
Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. This being so, the worst that any malicious mind can infer from this place is, That this song, though indited by a good man or woman, was not divinely inspired, but only composed by a person piously-minded, and transported with joy for the deliverance of Gods people, but subject to mistake; who therefore, out of zeal to commend the happy instrument of so great a deliverance, might easily overlook the indirectness of the means by which it was accomplished, and commend that which should have been disliked. And if they further object, that it was composed by a prophetess, Deborah, and therefore must be divinely inspired; it may be replied,
1. That it is not certain what kind of prophetess Deborah was, whether extraordinary and infallible, or ordinary, and so liable to mistakes; for there were prophets of both kinds, as hath been proved above, on Jdg 4:4.
2. That every expression of a true and extraordinary prophet was not divinely inspired, as is evident from Nathans mistake above mentioned, and from Samuels mistake concerning Eliab, whom he thought to be the Lords anointed, 1Sa 16:6.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. Then Jael took a nail of thetentmost probably one of the pins with which the tent ropesare fastened to the ground. Escape was almost impossible for Sisera.But the taking of his life by the hand of Jael was murder. It was adirect violation of all the notions of honor and friendship that areusually held sacred among pastoral people, and for which it isimpossible to conceive a woman in Jael’s circumstances to have hadany motive, except that of gaining favor with the victors. Thoughpredicted by Deborah [Jud 4:9],it was the result of divine foreknowledge onlynot the divineappointment or sanction; and though it is praised in the song [Jud5:24-27], the eulogy must be considered as pronounced not on themoral character of the woman and her deed, but on the public benefitswhich, in the overruling providence of God, would flow from it.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a nail of the tent,…. When she perceived he was fast asleep, and it being now put into her heart to kill him, having an impulse upon her spirit, which she was persuaded, by the effect it had upon her, that it was of God; not filling her with malice and revenge, but a concern for the glory of God, the interest of religion, and the good of Israel, she took this method to effect the death of this enemy of God, and his people; having no arms in the house, for the Kenites used none, she took up an iron pin, with which her tent was fastened to the ground:
and took a hammer in her hand; which perhaps she knew full well how to handle, being used to drive the pins of the tents into the ground with it:
and went softly unto him; lest she should awake him
and smote the nail into his temples: as he lay on one side, these being the tenderest part of the head, from whence they have their name in the Hebrew language, and into which therefore a nail, or iron pin, might be more easily driven:
and fastened it into the ground; she smote the nail with such force and violence, that she drove it through both his temples into the ground on which he lay; and then, as it seems, from Jud 5:26; cut off his head, to make sure work of it:
for he was fast asleep and weary; and so heard not; when she came to him:
so he died; not in the field of battle, but in a tent; not by the sword, but by a nail; not by the hand of a man, but of a woman, as Deborah foretold, Jud 4:9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(21) Then.Many commentators have ventured to assume that at this instant Jael received a Divine intimation of what she was to do. To make such an assumption as a way of defending an act of assassination peculiarly terrible and peculiarly treacherous seems to be to the last degree unwarrantable. If any readers choose to adopt such methods for themselves they ought not to attempt the enforcement of such private interpretations on others. The mind which is unsophisticated by the casuistry of exegesis will find little difficulty in arriving at a fair estimate of Jaels conduct without resorting to dangerous and arbitrary interpolations of supposition into the simple Scripture narrative.
Hebers wife.This addition, being needless, might be regarded as emphatic, and as involving an element of condemnation by calling prominent attention to the peace between Jabin and the house of Heber, which has been mentioned where last his name occurs (Jdg. 4:17). It is, however, due in all probability to the very ancient and inartificial character of the narrative.
A nail of the tent.Probably one of the great tent-pegs used to fasten down the cords which keep the tent in its place (Exo. 27:19; Isa. 22:23; Isa. 54:2, &c). Josephus says an iron nail, but there is nothing to show whether it was of iron or of wood, and the LXX., by rendering it passalon (a wooden plug ), seem to have understood the latter.
An hammer.Rather, the hammer. The ponderous wooden mallet kept in every tent to beat down the cord-pegs. The word is Makkebeth, from which is derived the word Maccabee. The warrior-priests, to whom that title was given, were the hammers of their enemies, and Karl received the title of Martel for a similar reason.
Went softly unto him.So as not to awake him. The description of Siseras murder is exceedingly graphic, but as far as the prose account of it is concerned, the silence as to any condemnation of the worst and darkest features of it by no means necessarily excludes the idea of the most complete disapproval. The method of the narrative is the same as that found in all ancient literature, and is a method wholly different from that of the moderns, which abounds in subjective reflections. Thus Homer sometimes relates an atrocity without a word of censure, and sometimes indicates disapproval by a single casual adjective.
Smote.With more than one blow, if we take the poets account (Jdg. 5:26) literally.
Fastened it into the ground.Rather, it (the nail) went down into the around. The verb used is rendered lighted off in Jdg. 1:14.
For he was fast asleep and weary.The versions here vary considerably, but the English version seems to be perfectly correct. The verb for he was fast asleep is the same as in the forcible metaphor of Psa. 76:6 : The horse and chariot are cast into a deep sleep. The description of his one spasm of agony is given in Jdg. 5:27. There is no authority in the original for the gloss found in some MSS. of the LXX.: And he was convulsed () between her knees, and fainted and died. The words here used are only meant to account for his not being awakened by the approach or preparations of Jael (Kimchi), unless they involve a passing touch of pity or disapproval. Similarly it was, when Holofernes was filled with wine, that Judith approached to his bed, and took hold of the hair of his head . . . and smote twice upon his neck with all her might, and she took away his head from him. (Jdt. 13:2; Jdt. 13:7-8.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. A nail of the tent Or, a tent-pin, sometimes made of iron, but commonly of wood, to which, when driven into the ground, the ropes of a tent are fastened. “The nail which Jael used was a tent-pin, now, as then, called wated, and the hammer was the mallet with which it is driven into the ground. It is not necessary to suppose that either of them were of iron. The wated was probably a sharp-pointed pin of hard wood, and the hammer was the ordinary mallet used by these tent-dwelling Arabs.” Thomson.
Smote the nail into his temples Stanley thus pictures this scene: “Her attitude, her weapon, her deed, are described both in the historic and poetic account of the event, as if fixed in the national mind. She stands like the personification of the figure of speech so famous in the names of Judas the Maccabee, (the Hebrew word for hammer is maccab,) and Charles Martel the Hammer of her country’s enemies. Step by step we see her advance: first, the dead silence with which she approaches the sleeper, slumbering with the weariness of one who has run far and fast; then the successive blows with which she hammers, crushes, beats, and pierces through and through the forehead of the upturned face, till the point of the nail reaches the very ground on which the slumberer is stretched; and then comes the one startling bound, the contortion of agony with which the expiring man rolls over from the low divan, and lies weltering in blood between her feet as she strides over the lifeless corpse.”
Fastened it into the ground Rather, it went down into the ground; the tent pin passed through his head so as to reach to the very earth beneath him.
For he was fast asleep and weary This statement is parenthetical, showing how it was practicable for Jael to dispatch Sisera in the way she did. Compare the poetical description in Jdg 5:26-27.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent-pin, and took a mallet in her hand, and went quietly to him, and smote the pin into his temples, and it pierced through into the ground. For he was in a deep sleep. So he swooned and died.’
It was because he had gone to sleep that she was able to do this. Using a tent-pin and mallet was second nature to such a woman who in an encampment would use them regularly. It was seen as a job for women. That is why they were in her tent. Thus she would be very adept with them. The weapon was more effective than a knife for this purpose. The bones would not deflect it. They also meant that if he suddenly woke up while she was crossing over to him it would not look so suspicious.
Thus did she ensure that this enemy of Israel did not escape. That it was her deliberate purpose to kill him from the start we cannot doubt. That she breached etiquette in doing so is, as we have seen, doubtful. Everything about his actions was wrong. He himself breached every rule of etiquette with regard to a man’s wife, and he was willing to take advantage of her and put her at risk into the bargain. He had forfeited any right to consideration. And what other method could a woman have used to kill such a powerful enemy?
It is possible that she did it because her sympathies lay with Israel, and Israel’s God, although Heber may have left the family of Hobab because he was not prepared to enter covenant with Yahweh. But there is no mention of Yahweh or of any such motive. In fact there is a remarkable and studied silence about it. Why no exultation? Why no praise to Yahweh? Why no reference to Him having delivered Sisera into her hand? We might be embarrassed about her deed but it is doubtful if anyone in her time would have anything but admiration for it. Yet she must have had some special reason for her act, for hating him so.
Perhaps he had previously shamed her in some way. Perhaps he had previously made lewd advances towards her during visits to the camp, or used his position to force his attentions on her. Like many men he would persuade himself that really she would enjoy it, (even if he thought about it). He was a Canaanite to whom sexual misbehaviour was second nature, with the power and authority to do almost what he wanted. And she was a semi-nomad, with little power. But as such she had the stricter moral ideas of her type. We cannot know all that lay behind it and should therefore hesitate to judge. But let us make no mistake about it. She took her revenge on a man who revealed what he was by being where he was. No woman of her type would have doubted the rightness of what she did.
His death at the hand of a woman would lead to mockery by fellow soldiers. His breaching of her tent would cause shock among tent dwellers. His death brought rejoicing throughout Israel. And he died a coward for the way he deserted his men. And the ribald laughter at the way he had been deceived would echo everywhere. He died without honour anywhere.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 4:21. Then Jael, Heber’s wife, &c. This nail was one of those great pins with which they fastened the tents to the ground. Bishop Patrick upon this event observes, that she might as well have let Sisera lie in his profound sleep till Barak took him, if she had not felt a Divine power moving her to this, that the prophesy of Deborah might be fulfilled. Nothing but this authority from God could warrant such a fact, which seemed a breach of hospitality, and to be attended with several other crimes; but was not so, when God, the Lord of all men’s lives, ordered her to execute his sentence upon Sisera. It can scarcely be doubted, says Dr. Waterland, that Jael had a divine direction or impulse to stir her up to this action. The enterprise was exceedingly bold and hazardous, above the courage of her sex. The resolution she took appears very extraordinary, and shows the marks and tokens of its being from the extraordinary hand of God. In this view all is clear and right, and no objectors will be able to prove that there was any treachery in it: for she ought to obey God rather than man; and all obligations to man cease, when brought in competition with our higher obligations towards God. But we are to consider, that what is done in very uncommon cases, and upon occasions very extraordinary, is not to be judged of by common rules. See Scrip. Vind. p. 75. They, who would enter into a more complete justification of this affair, will find satisfaction in Dr. Leland’s answer to Christianity as old as the Creation, p. 2.
REFLECTIONS.The army being destroyed, we have here an account of the death of their general.
1. His flight. His chariot was now no longer his safety; and though, in this confidence, he drew near to battle, he finds by experience how vain a thing is this to save a man. Creature-dependances thus usually fail us.The tents of the Kenites seemed to promise a safe retreat; and as there was peace between Jabin and them, he flees thither for protection.
2. His reception here was seemingly as hospitable as he could wish. Jael, the wife of Heber, stood at the tent-door; invited him in, to repose in her apartment; refreshed him, thirsty with his flight; and covered him up as weary, for sleep as well as for concealment. Having wished her to deny others entrance there, and by a lie to divert his pursuers, he thinks he may now lie down in peace, and take his rest. How delusive are appearances! how often is our danger nearest, when we conceive ourselves most secure, and our ruin meditating by those in whom we place the greatest confidence! Note; They who trust in man will usually be disappointed; they who trust in God, never.
3. His death. Fatigued with his flight, his senses were soon locked up in sleep, and Jael, on divine warrant, meditates and performs the fatal deed.Stealing softly to him, with one of the nails of the tent and a hammer in her hand, as he lay on his side, she smote him through both his temples, and fastened him to the ground: so he fell, as was foretold, by the hand of a woman. Note; God often chooses the weak things of the world to confound the mighty.
4. Barak comes, and finds Sisera slain. Jael welcomes him to her tent, and shews him his enemy fallen, to their common joy. Note; The death of an oppressive tyrant is a general mercy.
5. From that day Israel pursued the blow, subdued Jabin, and destroyed his people and cities; and thus, taught by experience, acted more conformably to the divine command and their own advantage, in utterly destroying this devoted people. Note; (1.) It is wisdom to improve under past experience. (2.) God’s commands and our real interests are inseparable.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
That this thing was of the Lord, no one can doubt, who considers that Deborah had before pointed out, under the Spirit of prophecy, that the Lord had sold Sisera into the hand of a woman. See Jdg 4:9 . And from the eminent blessings which, under the same authority, Deborah proclaimed in her song of victory, should be bestowed upon her. See Jdg 5:24 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 4:21 Then Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
Ver. 21. Took a nail of the tent. ] Which was long and strong enough for her purpose to pierce his skull, and to fasten him to the ground.
And smote the nail into his temples.
For he was fast asleep and weary.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
nail of the tent = a tent peg. Constantly tents are taken down and put up by the women to the present day.
So he died. The first often recorded deaths at the hands of women: Sisera (Jdg 4:21); Abimelech (Jdg 9:53. 2Sa 11:21); Sheba (2Sa 20:22); the harlot’s child (1Ki 3:19); prophets (1Ki 18:4); Naboth (1Ki 21:9, 1Ki 21:10); a son by his mother (2Ki 6:29); seed royal (2Ki 11:1. 2Ch 22:10); Haman’s sons (Est 9:13-14); John Baptist (Mat 14:8).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
took: Jdg 3:21, Jdg 3:31, Jdg 5:26, Jdg 15:15, 1Sa 17:43, 1Sa 17:49, 1Sa 17:50, 1Co 1:19, 1Co 1:27
a nail: One of the spikes of the tent. See note on Exo 35:18.
and took: Heb. and put
smote: Psa 3:7
he died: Jdg 5:27
Reciprocal: Jdg 7:13 – a cake 2Sa 18:14 – thrust them Psa 107:40 – contempt
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
WAS JAEL A MURDERESS?
Then Jael Hebers wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
Jdg 4:21
Jael appears to us as a hateful murderess; our feeling towards her is one of horror and indignation. Yet in the Bible she is extolled as amongst the noblest of heroes. The question is what vindication can be offered for her conduct? If Jael received Sisera into her tent with the intention of murdering him, she must be left to the execrations of posterity.
I. But there are plain and straightforward reasons from which to infer that Jael had no design of killing Sisera; that she acted therefore with perfect honesty, and not with atrocious duplicity, when she offered him shelter. The action was too perilous; it required too much of more than masculine hardihood, or rather ferocity, even if there had been the strongest inducements; whereas there appears to have been no inducement at all, but rather the reverse, and we add to this, that since you have only the silence of Jael when she was asked by Sisera to tell a lie in his cause, the probability is that she had a reverence for truth; and if so she must have meant what she said when she gave the invitation and the promise, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not.
II. What were the motives which instigated Jael in putting to death her slumbering guest?We reckon it a satisfactory explanation of her conduct and one which removes every difficulty, that she was led by a Divine impulse or in obedience to a Divine command, to take away Siseras life. It is true we are not told, as in the case of Abraham, that God commanded the action, but we are told that God approved the action. And since the action in itself, independent of His command, would have been a flagrant offence, we necessarily infer that what He approved He also directed.
III. There is a third question which suggests itself here.Granting that Jael acted on a Divine command, how could it be consistent with the character of God to issue such a command? Since murder is a crime which is expressly forbidden, with what propriety could He enjoin its perpetration? The answer is, that no one would have felt surprised had Sisera perished in battle. He was the oppressor of the Lords people; what marvel, then, that he should be overtaken by vengeance?
Jael was but the executioner directed by God to slay a condemned criminal, and can we charge her with bloodguiltiness because she did not refuse to obey that direction? She had a hard task to perform, one demanding faith and dependence on God, but she performed it without flinching, and she deserves our admiration as a mighty heroine.
Canon H. Melvill.
Illustration
I loved Frederick Maurice, as every one did who came near him; and have no doubt he did all that was in him to do of good in his day. Which could by no means be said either of Rossetti or of me: but Maurice was by nature puzzle-headed, and, though in a beautiful manner, wrong-headed; while his clear conscience and keen affections made him egotistic, and in his Bible-reading, as insolent as any infidel of them all. I only went once to a Bible-lesson of his; and the meeting was significant and conclusive.
The subject of lesson, Jaels slaying of Sisera. Concerning which, Maurice, taking an enlightened modern view of what was fit and not, discoursed in passionate indignation; and warned his class, in the most positive and solemn manner, that such dreadful deeds could only have been done in cold blood in the Dark Biblical ages; and that no religious and patriotic Englishwoman ought ever to think of imitating Jael by nailing a Russians or Prussians skull to the groundespecially after giving him butter in a lordly dish. At the close of the instruction, through which I sate silent, I ventured to inquire, why then had Deborah the prophetess declared of Jael, Blessed above women shall the wife of Heber the Kenite be? On which Maurice, with startled and flashing eyes, burst into partly scornful, partly alarmed, denunciation of Deborah the prophetess, as a mere blazing Amazon; and of her Song as a merely rhythmic storm of battle-rage, no more to be listened to with edification or faith than the Normans Sword-song at the battle of Hastings.
Whereupon there remained nothing for meto whom the Song of Deborah was as sacred as the Magnificatbut total collapse in sorrow and astonishment; the eyes of all the class being also bent on me in amazed reprobation of my benighted views and unchristian sentiments. And I got away how I could, and never went back.
That being the first time in my life that I had fairly met the lifted head of Earnest and Religious Infidelityin a man neither vain nor ambitious, but instinctively and innocently trusting his own amiable feelings as the final interpreters of all the possible feelings of men and angels, all the songs of the prophets, and all the ways of God.
John Ruskin in Prterita.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Jdg 4:21-22. Then Jael took a nail of the tent That is, one of that sort on which the cords of the tent were fastened, and which consequently were of a large size. Come, and I will show thee the man whom thou seekest Thus both parts of Deborahs prophecy concerning Sisera were fulfilled. He was delivered into the hand of Barak, according to the prediction, Jdg 4:7; but not alive, and therefore not to Baraks honour, as was foretold Jdg 4:9. For, when he came into her tent, behold Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his temples.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4:21 Then Jael Heber’s wife took a {k} nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
(k) That is, the pin or stake, by which it was fastened to the ground.