Jael

Sisera, the defeated commander, runs on foot to a tent where he thinks he will be safe. Jael meets him with the words “Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not” (Judges 4:18), gives him milk and covers him with a mantle. While he sleeps, she takes a tent nail and a hammer and ends the battle that Barak’s army had begun. The song in Judges 5 declares, “Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be.” Her story is unsettling as well as celebrated, and Judges 4 and 5 are worth reading together.

8 verses

Judges

Judges 4:17

Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

Judges 4:18

And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle.

Judges 4:19

And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.

Judges 4:20

Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and enquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No.

Judges 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.

Judges 4:22

And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will shew thee the man whom thou seekest. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his temples.

Judges 5:6

In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.

Judges 5:24

Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Mountain-goat, the wife of Heber the Kenite (Judg. 4:17-22). When the Canaanites were defeated by Barak, Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, fled and sought refuge with the friendly tribe of Heber, beneath the oaks of Zaanaim. As he drew near, Jael invited him to enter her tent. He did so, and as he lay wearied on the floor he fell into a deep sleep. She then took in her left hand one of the great wooden pins (“nail”) which fastened down the cords of the tent, and in her right hand the mallet, or “hammer,” used for driving it into the ground, and stealthily approaching her sleeping guest, with one well-directed blow drove the nail through his temples into the earth (Judg. 5:27). She then led Barak, who was in pursuit, into her tent, and boastfully showed him what she had done. (See SISERA; DEBORAH.)

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(mountain goat), the wife of Heber the Kenite. (B.C. 1316.) In the headlong rout which followed the defeat of the Canaanites by Barak, at Megiddo on the plain of Esdraelon, Sisera, their general, fled to the tent of the Kenite chieftainess, at Kedesh in Naphtali, four miles northwest of Lake Merom. He accepted Jael’s invitation to enter, and she flung a mantle over him as he lay wearily on the floor. When thirst prevented sleep, and he asked for water, she brought him buttermilk in her choicest vessel. At last, with a feeling of perfect security, he feel into a deep sleep. Then it was that Jael took one of the great wooden pins which fastened down the cords of the tent, and with one terrible blow with a mallet dashed it through Sisera’s temples deep into the earth. (Judges 5:27) She then waited to meet the pursuing Barak, and led him into her tent that she might in his presence claim the glory of the deed! Many have supposed that by this act she fulfilled the saying of Deborah, (Judges 4:9) and hence they have supposed that Jael was actuated by some divine and hidden influence. But the Bible gives no hint of such an inspiration.