Renverser les stéréotypes avec Yaël, la guerrière

Yaël montre à Barak le cadavre de Sisera
James J. Tissot (1836-1902)
Gouache sur carton, 14 x 24 cm


La plupart des personnages bibliques sont stéréotypés selon leur genre. Par exemple, dans le monde biblique le courage, la force et les prouesses militaires sont associés aux hommes. David est un bon exemple de cet idéal masculin. Par contre, certains personnages renversent ces schémas. C’est le cas d’une Israélite nommée Yaël dont l’histoire croise celle de Sisera, un chef ennemi :

Or Sisera s’enfuyait à pied vers la tente de Yaël, femme de Héber le Qénite, car il y avait la paix entre Yavîn, roi de Haçor, et la maison de Héber le Qénite. Yaël sortit à la rencontre de Sisera et lui dit : « Arrête-toi, mon seigneur, arrête-toi chez moi ; ne crains rien. » Il s’arrêta chez elle, dans sa tente, et elle le recouvrit d’une couverture. Il lui dit : « Peux-tu me donner à boire un peu d’eau, car j’ai soif. » Elle ouvrit l’outre de lait, le fit boire et le recouvrit. Il lui dit : « Tiens-toi à l’entrée de la tente et si quelqu’un vient, t’interroge et dit : “Y a-t-il quelqu’un ici ?”, tu diras : “Non.” » Mais Yaël, femme de Héber, prit un piquet de la tente, saisit dans sa main le marteau, entra auprès de lui doucement et lui enfonça dans la tempe le piquet, qui alla se planter dans la terre. Sisera qui, épuisé, était profondément endormi, mourut. (Juges 4, 17-21)

Les rôles de genres sont particulièrement intéressants dans ce passage. Yaël commence par jouer un rôle typiquement maternel en accueillant Sisera. Elle va jusqu’à lui donner du lait et le border pour qu’il dorme. Puis, elle tue le chef ennemi en pénétrant un pieu dans son corps. En fait, le mot habituellement traduit par tempe et parfois traduit par le palet de la bouche. Cette deuxième option de traduction oriente les lecteurs vers une image potentiellement sexuelle où un homme subit la pénétration orale d’une femme.
Le renversement des genres peut aussi se voir en s’intéressant au personnage de Sisera. La masculinité de ce chef de guerre est remise en question lorsqu’il demande à Yaël de dire à ceux qui le cherchent qu’il n’y a pas d’homme dans la tente où il se repose. Il est bien dans la tente, mais couché et abreuvé par Yaël, Sisera n’est déjà plus dans une posture d’homme. Au mieux, il est montré comme un enfant auprès de sa mère.
Dans le monde biblique, il y a des façons de mourir plus honorables que d’autres. Être tué par un ennemi lors d’un affrontement militaire est une mort valeureuse, mais s’enfuir et se faire tuer par une femme est certainement l’une des plus honteuses. Comme le chante Débora au chapitre suivant : « Qu’ainsi périssent tous tes ennemis, SEIGNEUR ! » (Jg 5,31).
Cette curieuse page de la Bible, m’incite à comprendre qu’il n’y a pas qu’une façon d’être « homme » ou « femme ». Les masculinités et féminités, même dans la Bible, sont toujours plus complexes que les stéréotypes.

FAIRYTALE COMMENTARY (NO MILK TODAY?)

The commentary here is from Australian illustrator Ursula Vernon, for a Romanian folktale recorded by Ion Creanga.

Milk on screen... not the same as liquor, but far more innocent / naive; thirsting for emotional nourishment, instead of for serious fun and/or masculinity.

Interestingly, the laced drink in this Sale of Bed tale is not some cup of liquor or tea, but rather milk, giving the scene an air of subverted innocence, to quench a thirst for emotional nourishment (on the handsome love interest's side)... and of sinister, devouring motherhood (on the sorcerous crone's side, like with so many other wicked witches, and the Snow Queen). 
Hello, insert A Clockwork Orange references here (are you sure the prince's real name in this version is not Alex?). Or to the Sisera story in Judges. Also, if milk makes one naturally sleepy, especially if the drinker is thirsty and burned out... why in R'hllor's name should you lace that glass of milk with a drug or some enchantment?! Isn't that gilding the f-ing lily?! 

Or could this glass of so-called "magic milk" be a metaphor for semen, and the fact that it was produced by the villainess (again, Yael and Sisera anyone?) serve to demonise female agency?

Anyway, on to the folktale and to Ursula's commentary...

This particular version is Romanian, and is pretty obviously a version of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, but with some peculiar twists along the way.

 The Story of the Pig (Povestea porcului)

In the end, after so much trouble and so much danger, they succeeded in arriving at the entrance to a cave. Here the princess mounted once more onto the lark’s wings which were now scarcely able to flutter, and he alighted into another world which was more beautiful than Paradise.

Here we are at the Monastery of Incense,” said the lark. “Prince Charming (Fat-Frumos), the handsome prince whom you have sought through so many difficulties, lives here. Is there not something familiar here?”

Then, although her eyes were dazzled by so much splendor, she looked more closely and at once recognized the wonderful bridge from the other world and the palace where she and Prince Charming had lived for such a short time, and her eyes filled with tears of joy.

“Wait a moment! Don’t be in such a hurry to rejoice, for you are still a stranger in these parts, and you are not yet out of danger,” said the lark.

He then showed her a well where she must go three days in succession; he told her who she would meet and what she should say; he advised her what to do in turn with the distaff, with the reeling machine, and the golden clucking-hen and chicks, given to her by the three weird sisters.

Then, saying good-bye to the princess entrusted to his care, he turned back suddenly, flying without stopping, afraid lest someone should break his other leg too.

They hate larks in Paradise. It’s kind of a problem. There are Lark Anti-Defamation Leagues and everything, but you get into the small towns, and…well.

And the unhappy princess watched him as he flew, her eyes full of tears. Then she went towards the well which he had pointed out.

And when she reached the well, she took out first of all the spindle from the place where she had carried it, and then sat down to rest.

Shortly afterward, a servant came to draw water, and seeing an unknown woman and the miraculous distaff, spinning golden thread by itself (thread which was thousands of times finer than the hair of your head), fled to her mistress to tell her the news.

The hair on my head is pretty fine. This kinda sucks in some regards, as it will frizz out given a single drop of moisture anywhere in the atmosphere. But regardless of this, even if I had hair like electrical wire, thousands of times finer is a LOT. This thread cannot possibly be visible to the naked eye. The servant is apparently coming to the well to draw water with an electron microscope in her back pocket.

The mistress of this servant was the wicked old witch who turned the devil’s hair gray,

Oh god, the phrases keep coming!

the housekeeper of Prince Charming’s palace, a marvelous sorceress, who could make water curdle, and knew all the mischief in the world. But there was only one thing the old hag didn’t know: man’s thoughts.

The Shadow’s got her totally beat there.

The wicked old witch, on hearing about this wonder, sent the servant at once to ask this strange woman to come to the palace. And when she arrived, the witch asked, “I have heard that you have a golden spindle which can spin alone. Would you sell it to me, woman, and how much do you want for it?”

“Will you allow me to spend one night in the room where Prince Charming sleeps?”

“Of course. Give me the distaff and stay here until the evening when the prince returns from the hunt.”

Doesn’t bat an eyelash. “Sure, I regularly sell tickets to watch the prince sleep. It’s a thing. We call it the Twilight Special.”

Then the princess gave up the spindle and remained. The hunchbacked, toothless old woman, knowing that the prince was accustomed to drink a cup of sweet milk every evening, now prepared one for him to make him sleep right through till the next morning. And as soon as he returned from the hunt and lay down on his bed, the old hag sent him the milk; and as soon as he had drunk it, he fell fast asleep, as if he were dead. Then the old woman called the unknown traveller into the room of the prince, as had been arranged, and left her there, whispering softly, “Sit here until the morning. I will come and fetch you then.”

The old woman whispered and went on tiptoe so that the prince should not hear, and she took good care that a faithful servant who accompanied him to the hunt every day and who was sleeping in the same room, should not hear either.

And as soon as the old woman had left the room, the unhappy princess knelt down by her husband’s bed and began to shed bitter tears saying, “Prince Charming! Prince Charming! Put your right arm round my waist so that the spell may be broken.”

Oddly this does not seem to be a euphemism.

And poor thing, she persevered like this until the morning, but in vain, for the prince seemed to have gone to the next world. At daybreak, the witch came along and sulkily told her to leave the courtyard and go away. The unfortunate princess came out without having succeeded in making her husband hear, and very unhappy, went once more to the well and this time took out her reeling machine. Again the servant came to fetch water and seeing this second wonderful object, rushed off to her mistress and said that the woman had now a golden reel, which could wind alone and which was even more wonderful than the distaff she had given her. Then the wicked old witch sent the servant to summon her and took possession of the reeling machine with the same craftiness, and the next morning took her out of the prince’s room and chased her out of the palace.

That night, however, the prince’s faithful servant sensed what was happening and taking pity on the poor stranger, set out to discover the old woman’s trick. And when the prince rose and was setting off to hunt, his faithful servant told him in detail what had happened in his room on the two previous nights. And the prince, on hearing this, gave a sudden start, as if the sky had fallen. Then he cast down his eyes and began to weep. And while tears were streaming from his eyes, at the well, his spell-bound and tormented wife now took out her golden hen and chicks — her last hope. And while she stood by the well, the servant came along once more to fetch water.

Magic distaff, meh. Magic reeling machine—I know this is about weaving, but I keep seeing a fishing rod—whatever. Lot of versions, it’s a set of three dresses.

But the golden hen and chicks? Now I’m intrigued.

And when she saw still another wonder, she didn’t even wait to draw water, but rushed to her mistress, saying, “Good gracious, mistress! Imagine what I have seen! That woman now has a golden hen with chicks also of gold — so beautiful they are that they could steal your eyesight.”

Do not look directly into the chickens. Use a smoked lens or make a pinhole chicken camera. Staring at the chickens can cause damage and irritation to the retina.

When the old woman heard that, she sent for her at once, saying to herself, “She won’t get what she’s looking for.”

And when the princess came in, the wicked old witch took possession of the golden hen and chicks by the same sly means.

But the prince, when he returned that evening from the hunt and when his milk was brought in, said to himself, “I won’t drink any more of this milk.”

So he threw it away and lay down, pretending to fall sound asleep.

When the old woman thought he was asleep, and was confident that he was now under the spell of the magic milk, she once more brought the princess into the room, just as she had done on the preceding nights; and leaving her there, she went off. The, the troubled girl, falling on her knees by her husband’s bedside, dissolved in a flood of tears, again saying these words, “Prince Charming! Prince Charming! Have pity on an innocent soul who has been tortured for four years with the most cruel suffering, and put you right arm round my waist so that the spell may break, for I cannot bear this any longer.”

I think it’s been at least six years, but hey, who’s keeping track?

And when she had finished speaking, Prince Charming stretched out his hand, as if in sleep, and when he touched her waist — bang! The belt burst open, and the spell was broken. Then the princess told her husband how much she had suffered since he had disappeared.

“…and the lark kept talking about ice dancing and there were these twenty-four headed otters and I’ve been sleeping on things that would make a board look comfortable and did I mention the otters had twenty-four freakin’ heads? Seriously, I’m not gonna get over that in a hurry. Also, you used to be a pig. I think I’m holding up very well, all things considered. By the way, I met a couple of saints. They say hi.”

Then Prince Charming rose, and, although it was the middle of the night, awoke the whole court and ordered the wicked old witch to be brought to him, together with all the treasures taken so slyly from the princess. Then he ordered a wild mare be brought to him and a sack of nuts.

…I cannot even begin to figure out where he is going with this.

And he ordered the wicked old witch and the sack of nuts to be tied to the mare’s tail and to set the mare galloping. And this was done. And when the mare began to gallop, each time a nut dropped from the bag, a little bit of the witch dropped too; and when the sack fell, the witch’s head dropped off.

This is the weirdest use of sympathetic magic I have ever heard of. Seriously, you already tied her to a mare’s tail, the nut thing may just be gilding the lily.

By her wicked tricks she had turned her master, Prince Charming, into the miserable, mangy little pig, so that later on she could make him marry her.

That is why Prince Charming punished her so severely. The faithful servant was handsomely rewarded with gifts by the prince and princess who keep him in their service as long as he lived.

And very soon a son was born to the prince and princess.

Now remember, good people, that Prince Charming had no wedding ceremony when he was married. But now he celebrated both a wedding and a christening, a thing which never happened before and which I’m sure will never happen again.

Oh honey. How long ago was this written? You’d be amazed what we get up to in the future.

And millions of people assembled for that large and sumptuous wedding reception, and the gaiety went on for three days and three nights, and unless it has ended, it must still be going on.

And with that, dear readers, I am going to bed. Perchance to dream of…err….hogs. (Oh, who are we kidding? It’s otter heads all the way down.)

SÍSERA (ÍSL.)

DÓMARABÓKIN

KAFLA 4

1 Þegar Ehúð var dáinn, gjörðu Ísraelsmenn enn að nýju það, sem illt var í augum Drottins. 
2 Og Drottinn seldi þá í hendur Jabín, Kanaans konungi, sem hafði aðsetur í Hasór. Hershöfðingi hans hét Sísera og bjó hann í Haróset Hagojím. 
3 Og Ísraelsmenn hrópuðu til Drottins, því að hann átti níu hundruð járnvagna og hafði kúgað Ísraelsmenn harðlega í tuttugu ár. 
4 Kona hét Debóra. Hún var spákona og eiginkona manns þess, er Lapídót hét. Hún var dómari í Ísrael um þessar mundir. 
5 Hún sat undir Debórupálma milli Rama og Betel á Efraímfjöllum, og Ísraelsmenn fóru þangað upp til hennar, að hún legði dóm á mál þeirra. 
6 Hún sendi boð og lét kalla til sín Barak Abínóamsson frá Kedes í Naftalí og sagði við hann: "Sannlega hefir Drottinn, Ísraels Guð, boðið svo: ,Far þú og hald til Taborfjalls og haf með þér tíu þúsundir manna af Naftalí sonum og Sebúlons sonum. 
7 Og ég mun leiða Sísera, hershöfðingja Jabíns, með vögnum hans og liði til þín að Kísonlæk, og ég mun gefa hann í hendur þínar.'" 
8 Barak sagði við hana: "Fara mun ég, ef þú fer með mér, en viljir þú eigi fara með mér, mun ég hvergi fara." 
9 Hún svaraði: "Víst mun ég með þér fara. En enga frægð munt þú hafa af för þessari, sem þú fer, því að Drottinn mun selja Sísera í konu hendur." Síðan tók Debóra sig upp og fór með Barak til Kedes. 
10 Þá kallaði Barak saman Sebúlon og Naftalí í Kedes, og tíu þúsundir manna fóru með honum, og Debóra var í för með honum. 
11 Heber Keníti hafði skilist við Kain, við niðja Hóbabs, tengdaföður Móse, og sló hann tjöldum sínum allt að eikinni hjá Saanaím, sem er hjá Kedes. 
12 Nú var Sísera sagt frá því, að Barak Abínóamsson væri farinn upp á Taborfjall. 
13 Dró Sísera þá saman alla vagna sína, níu hundruð járnvagna, og allt það lið, er með honum var, frá Haróset Hagojím til Kísonlækjar. 
14 Þá sagði Debóra við Barak: "Rís þú nú upp, því að nú er sá dagur kominn, er Drottinn mun selja Sísera í þínar hendur. Sannlega er Drottinn farinn á undan þér." Fór Barak þá ofan af Taborfjalli, og tíu þúsundir manna fylgdu honum. 
15 Og Drottinn gjörði Sísera felmtsfullan og alla vagna hans og allan hans her með sverðseggjum frammi fyrir Barak, svo að Sísera hljóp af vagni sínum og flýði undan á fæti. 
16 En Barak elti vagnana og herinn allt til Haróset Hagojím, og allur her Sísera féll fyrir sverðseggjum. Enginn komst undan. 
17 Sísera flýði á fæti til tjalds Jaelar, konu Hebers Keníta, því að friður var milli Jabíns, konungs í Hasór, og húss Hebers Keníta. 
18 Þá gekk Jael út í móti Sísera og sagði við hann: "Gakk inn, herra minn, gakk inn til mín, vertu óhræddur." Og hann gekk inn til hennar í tjaldið, og hún lagði ábreiðu yfir hann. 
19 Þá sagði hann við hana: "Gef mér vatnssopa að drekka, því að ég er þyrstur." Hún leysti þá frá mjólkurbelg og gaf honum að drekka, og breiddi síðan ofan á hann aftur. 
20 Þá sagði hann við hana: "Stattu í tjalddyrunum, og ef einhver kemur og spyr þig og segir: ,Er nokkur hér?' þá seg þú: ,Nei.'" 
21 Jael, kona Hebers, þreif tjaldhæl og tók hamar í hönd sér og gekk hljóðlega inn til hans og rak hælinn gegn um þunnvangann, svo að hann gekk í jörð niður, en Sísera var sofnaður fastasvefni, því að hann var þreyttur. Varð þetta hans bani. 
22 Í sama bili kom Barak og var að elta Sísera. Jael gekk þá út í móti honum og sagði við hann: "Kom þú hingað, og mun ég sýna þér þann mann, sem þú leitar að." Og hann gekk inn til hennar, og lá þá Sísera þar dauður með hælinn gegnum þunnvangann. 
23 Þannig lægði Guð á þeim degi Jabín, Kanaans konung, fyrir Ísraelsmönnum. 
24 Og hönd Ísraelsmanna lagðist æ þyngra og þyngra á Jabín, Kanaans konung, uns þeir að lokum gjörðu út af við hann.

KAFLA 5

1 Þá sungu þau Debóra og Barak Abínóamsson á þessa leið: 
2 Foringjar veittu forystu í Ísrael, og fólkið kom sjálfviljuglega, lofið því Drottin! 
3 Heyrið, þér konungar, hlustið á, þér höfðingjar! Drottin vil ég vegsama, ég vil lofa hann, lofsyngja Drottni, Ísraels Guði. 
4 Drottinn, þegar þú braust út frá Seír, þegar þú brunaðir fram frá Edómvöllum, þá nötraði jörðin og himnarnir drupu, já, skýin létu vatn niður streyma. 
5 Fjöllin skulfu fyrir Drottni, sjálft Sínaí fyrir Drottni, Ísraels Guði. 
6 Á dögum Samgars Anatssonar, á dögum Jaelar, voru þjóðbrautir mannlausar, og vegfarendur fóru krókóttar leiðir. 
7 Fyrirliða vantaði í Ísrael, uns þú komst fram, Debóra, uns þú komst fram, móðir í Ísrael! 

[···]

9 Hjarta mitt heyrir leiðtogum Ísraels, þeim er komu sjálfviljuglega fram meðal fólksins. Lofið Drottin! 
10 Þér, sem ríðið bleikrauðum ösnum, þér, sem hvílið á ábreiðum, og þér, sem farið um veginn, hugsið um það. 

[···]

12 Vakna þú, vakna þú, Debóra, vakna þú, vakna þú, syng kvæði! Rís þú upp, Barak, og leið burt bandingja þína, Abínóams sonur! 
13 Þá fóru ofan leifar göfugmennanna, lýður Drottins steig ofan mér til hjálpar meðal hetjanna. 
14 Frá Efraím fóru þeir ofan í dalinn, á eftir þér, Benjamín, meðal liðsflokka þinna. Frá Makír fóru ofan leiðtogar og frá Sebúlon þeir, er báru liðstjórastafinn, 
15 og fyrirliðarnir í Íssakar með Debóru, og eins og Íssakar, svo og Barak. Hann steypti sér á hæla honum ofan í dalinn. Við Rúbens læki voru miklar ráðagerðir. 
16 Hví sast þú milli fjárgirðinganna og hlustaðir á pípublástur hjarðmannanna? Við Rúbens læki voru miklar ráðagerðir. 
17 Gíleað hélt kyrru fyrir hinumegin Jórdanar og Dan, - hvers vegna dvaldi hann við skipin? Asser sat kyrr við sjávarströndina og hélt kyrru fyrir við víkur sínar. 
18 Sebúlon er lýður, sem hætti lífi sínu í dauðann, og Naftalí, á hæðum landsins. 
19 Konungar komu og börðust, þá börðust konungar Kanaans við Taanak hjá Megiddóvötnum. Silfur fengu þeir ekkert að herfangi. 
20 Af himni börðust stjörnurnar, af brautum sínum börðust þær við Sísera, 
21 Kísonlækur skolaði þeim burt, orustulækurinn, lækurinn Kíson. Gakk fram, sál mín, öfluglega! 
22 Þá hlumdu hófar hestanna, af reiðinni, reið kappanna. 
23 "Bölvið Merós!" sagði engill Drottins, já, bölvið íbúum hennar, af því að þeir komu ekki Drottni til hjálpar, Drottni til hjálpar meðal hetjanna. 
24 Blessuð framar öllum konum veri Jael, kona Hebers Keníta, framar öllum konum í tjaldi veri hún blessuð! 
25 Vatn bað hann um, mjólk gaf hún, í skrautlegri skál rétti hún honum rjóma. 
26 Hún rétti út vinstri hönd sína eftir hælnum, hægri hönd sína eftir smíðahamrinum og sló Sísera, mölvaði haus hans, laust sundur þunnvanga hans og klauf inn úr. 
27 Hann hné fyrir fætur henni, féll út af og lá þar. Hann hné fyrir fætur henni, féll út af, þar sem hann hné niður, þar lá hann dauður. 
28 Út um gluggann skimar og kallar móðir Sísera, út um grindurnar: "Hví seinkar vagni hans? Hvað tefur ferð hervagna hans?" 
29 Hinar vitrustu af hefðarfrúm hennar svara henni, já, sjálf hefir hún upp fyrir sér orð þeirra: 
30 "Efalaust hafa þeir fengið herfang og verið að skipta því, eina ambátt, tvær ambáttir á mann, litklæði handa Sísera að herfangi, litklæði, glitofin, að herfangi, litklæði, tvo glitofna dúka um háls mér!" 
31 Svo farist allir óvinir þínir, Drottinn! En þeir, sem hann elska, eru sem sólaruppkoman í ljóma sínum. Var nú friður í landi í fjörutíu ár.

DEBORAH, BARAK, AND YAEL

Deborah, the only female judge in the Bible, is notable in that, unlike the male judges, she does not act but directs. She is described in Jud. 4:4-5 as follows:
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at this time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel, in the hill country of Ephraim; and the people of Israel came up to her for judgement.
The association of a holy and/or wise woman, called a prophetess in the text, with a special tree calls to mind the worship of Asherah. The location of the palm as being near Bethel could be significant in that Gen. 35:8 states that another Deborah, the wet-nurse (Heb. yanaq, "to give suck") of Rachel, died and was buried under an oak below Bethel, so it was named Allon-bacuth or "oak of weeping." While this might only be of significance in that it explains the origin of a place name, and while this Deborah may only be important in that she was Rachel's beloved nurse, it is equally possible diat the mention of her death is significant in that the author(s) of E saw fit to include it in their document, even though this is the only time Rachel's wet-nurse is mentioned. Following Deborah's death in E is the story of Rachel's death in childbirth, which is followed by the story of Joseph. So Rachel's death ends a sequence in which Jacob, having been sanctified as Israel, builds a series of altars to El, much as his grandfather Abram had done for Yahweh in the J document. It is notable that both of them build altars at or near both Shechem and Bethel. This indicates not so much a renewal of the covenant as two opposing traditions, the Yahwist, in which the covenant is established between Yahweh and Abraham, and the Elohist, in which it is between El and Israel.
Associated with the altar at Bethel is Deborah's death, and though we have almost no information about her at all, she was a noteworthy enough person to be buried under an oak. All other references to oaks in narratives dealing with the patriarchs involve altars, oracles or sacred burial sites. Following the death of Deborah, Rachel dies in childbirth and is supposedly buried at Bethlehem. As I noted previously, Savina Teubal saw Arab men and women praying at what is called Rachel's tomb following the Six Day War, begging her to give them back the territories they had just lost. However, Gen. 35:19 says that Rachel died and was buried on the way to Bethlehem. Jeremiah 31:15a says:
Thus says the LORD: "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children;...
Since Ramah is on the way to Bethlehem from Bethel and since it is in Benjamin, the tribe that sprang from the child Rachel died giving birth to, it is likely that Rachel's voice weeping for her children is heard in Ramah because that is where she is buried. In 1 Samuel 10:2 Rachel's tomb is said to be at Zelzah, within the border of Benjamin. While we do not know where Zelzah was located, it would seem to be quite near to Ramah. The later tradition that Rachel was buried in Bethlehem could have been because of a misreading of the text compounded by the mystique of Bethlehem as the home of David. All of this means that the Deborah of Judges has stationed herself between the burial sites of Rachel and the Deborah of Genesis. If this first Deborah was a priestess, as Rachel might have been, and as seems likely from her burial under an oak, then perhaps there is a reason that the judge and prophetess of Judges has the same name. Deborah is Hebrew for "honey bee." The Greek word for bee is melissa, and either the nymph Melissa, or a hive of bees (depending of the interpretation and/or the version), fed the infant Zeus with honey. There were also priestesses of Demeter who bore the title Melissa. Nectar (or honey) and ambrosia were the foods that kept the Greek gods eternally young. One reason for the association of honey with rejuvenation is that bees often start new colonies in mammalian carcasses, as we will see in greater detail in the story of Samson (with the bees in the lion carcass). As a result, they were seen as symbols of rebirth. In Minoan Crete, as well as in Rhodes as late as 700 BCE, there are a number of representations of a bee goddess, which would seem to represent Demeter in her role as the regenerator of life. Thus, just as the Melissae were priestesses, the two Deborahs would also likely have merited the title kohenet or "priestess." If the meaning of the name seems a bit thin as a basis for calling either Deborah a priestess, bear in mind that the burial of the first under an oak is a strong hint that she was something more than a mere nursemaid, and remember also that the Deborah of Judges is called in the text not only a judge but a prophetess, Such women among the Bedouins today are given the title kahina, the Arabic variant of kohenet. So, despite the all male priesthoods of Shiloh and Hebron, there might still have been in the time of Judges women who could be called priestesses.
But to whom was Deborah a priestess? Given the association of the Melissae with Demeter, one possibility is Asherah, consort of El, to whom Jacob dedicated his altars. Since Asherah was probably appropriated by the early Yahwists as that god's consort, there is good reason to believe that Deborah might have venerated both Asherah and Yahweh, particularly the latter in times of battle since he was a warrior god. When Deborah summons Barak to go to war against Sisera, general of Jabin of Hazor, who is now oppressing Israel, she does so in the name of Yahweh. At first Barak demurs, saying that he will go to Mt. Tabor, where Deborah has told him to assemble his troops, only if she will go with him. She agrees but tells him he will not get the glory for the coming victory, for Yahweh will,".. .sell Sisera into the hand of a woman" (Jud. 4:9).
For all his seeming timidity, Barak possesses a good warrior's name in that it means "Lightning." Interestingly enough, Deborah's husband is named Lappidoth, which means "torch." Whether there is any connection between the two is hard to say. Nothing is said of Lappidoth but that he is Deborah's husband, and, even though he is her chosen general, Barak remains a rather shadowy figure. He does not even initiate the battle. Rather, Deborah commands him to engage the enemy (Jud. 4:14):
And Deborah said to Barak, "Up! For this is the day in which the LORD has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the LORD go before you?" So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.
Yahweh routs Sisera, whose army falls by the edge of the sword, not a man escaping but Sisera himself. He flees to the tent of Heber the Kenite, who has separated himself from the other Kenites, who live in Judah. Heber has good relations with Jabin, so Sisera has reason to think that Heber's wife Yael will harbor him. He is weary from his flight and begs her for water. She gives him milk instead and covers him with a rug. Once his fatigue and the soporific effects of the milk have put him to sleep, Yael takes a tent peg and a mallet and drives the peg into his temple, clear into the ground. Barak, pursuing Sisera, comes to the tent, and Yael shows him his enemy lying dead within. After the fall of Sisera Jabin's power is broken, and he is eventually destroyed by the Israelites. This story is sketchy and leaves us witii many questions. First of all, how did Barak's troops manage to defeat Sisera's 900 iron chariots? Why did Yael kill Sisera, since her husband had good relations with Jabin? Another question that comes to mind is, since Deborah summons Barak from Naphtali, yet he has only 10,000 troops, how wide or narrow is her sphere of influence? Fortunately, Judges 4 is not the only source of information on the battle. Judges 5, which consists of the Song of Deborah, gives us considerably more detail. Its claim to some historical validity is that it seems to be one the oldest bits of Hebrew literature in the Bible. While the rest of Judges is believed to have been written between 600 and 850 BCE, the Song may well have been written ca. 1125; that is to say that it might well have been written at the time of the Judges. One problem with it as a text is that its early Hebrew is difficult to translate. Hebrew scholars have compared the differences between the Hebrew of the Song of Deborah and the Hebrew of the rest of the Book of Judges to the difference between Latin and modern Italian. The meanings of as many as 70% of the keywords of the text maybe in doubt. Nevertheless, some important facts can be inferred from the Song. Along with the Song of Deborah, we have the clues given by the meaning of various names of people and places and other clues such as the location of Yael's tent.
Let us first consider the reason for Barak's victory over Sisera. Judges 4:15 says that Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled the battle on foot, a rather odd thing to do if one is being pursued by foot soldiers and has a horse-drawn chariot at his disposal. That Sisera abandoned his chariot indicates that it was no longer functioning effectively. This seems to be borne out by the Song of Deborah, which says that not only the stars in their courses fought against Sisera (i.e. his fate was written in the stars, Jud. 5:20) but that the "torrent" Kishon swept Sisera's army away (vs. 21). In fact the "river" Kishon, north of Mt. Carmel, is actually the wadi Kishon, a wash, a stream bed that is sometimes dry, and seems to have been such in ancient times as well. So for this wash to have become a torrent implies a cloud burst and a flash flood, or at the very least enough of a downpour to make the ground near the stream unusually soggy. Even assuming Sisera's chariots escaped the flood, their wheels might well have been mired, rendering them useless. It is likely that Sisera's force of 900 chariots, each with a driver and a warrior, the latter armed mainly with a bow, was vastly outnumbered by Barak's force. The Israelites are referred to as peasants in the Song (Jud. 5:7, ll).1 Thus, Sisera would have regarded them as little more than an untrained rabble and could have been confident of beating them with his trained soldiers and the superior weapon of his chariotry despite having barely more than 1,800 troops against Barak's 10,000. A sudden downpour would not only have immobilized the chariots but would have rendered bows and arrows virtually useless. Sisera's elite corps would have then found itself almost defenseless against an army five times its size. Of course I am speculating a good bit here. Yet Sisera's flight on foot only makes sense if his chariot was out of commission. There is, however, a mythic component to this story. The wadi Kishon being turned into a flood and sweeping Sisera's chariots away is an obvious parallel to the sea sweeping away the chariots of the Pharaoh.
As to the geographical extent of Deborah's judgeship, her song lists Ephraim, Machir (i.e. Manasseh east of the Jordan, Machir being Manasseh's eldest son), Benjamin, Zebulun, Issachar and Naphtali as tribes who sent troops to fight under Barak and chides Reuben, Gilead (most of Israel east of the Jordan), Asher and Dan for not sending troops. Neither Judah nor Simeon is even mentioned. From the Song then it would seem that Deborah did not even feel that she had a claim on die allegiance of these last two tribes. Her claim on the Transjordan tribes other than Machir was tenuous at best, the same being true of the coastal tribes of Asher and Dan. So the seat of her power was the tribe of Ephraim and its sphere of influence, which included the hill tribes of Issachar, Zebulun, Naphtali, Manasseh, as well as the little tribe of Benjamin. This is evidence that not only were the tribes loosely bound together, but that the 12-tribe confederacy was more of a religious unit than even a loose political entity at this time. As to Deborah's enemy, Sisera's stronghold of Haroseth lies on the Kishon at the border between Naphtali and Asher. Quite possibly Jabin's sphere of power roughly matched Deborah's.
That Sisera's base is called "forest of the Gentiles" is a clue as to who he might have been. Given that the Israelites might well have had Canaanite elements among their tribes, and given that they often referred to the Philistines disdainfully as "the uncircumcised" a taunt not used against any of the Semitic peoples of the region, it is quite possible that Haroseth ha-goiim was a Philistine fortress. Sisera is not a Semitic name, which further strengthens the likelihood that he and his men were Philistines in service as mercenaries to a Canaanite king. That the Philistines were already in the land is attested to by the Song's reference to the time of Shamgar as being in the past. Shamgar was noted for single-handedly killing 600 Philistines with a cattle prod. Sisera's name may be derived from the Greek sysera meaning a robe made of goat-skin, specifically one with the hair outside, a shaggy outer garment, which is highly significant when we consider that Yael, his executioner, means "wild goat" or "Ibex." That her tent is at the oak of Zaanannim near Kadesh is also significant. Kadesh in Naphtali is Barak's home, and the name means "holiness" or "sanctuary." That the authors of the text thought it worth mentioning that Yael's tent is pitched at a particular oak, that the oak is near a sanctuary and that Yael's name relates to Sisera's could all point to a priestess to whose shrine Sisera fled hoping for sanctuary. While the curious means of his death may just have been a result of Yael using whatever was handy, and the fact that Barak seemed to know where to find his defeated enemy might be nothing more than good tracking skills, the whole affair seems to have a ritualistic aspect. The use of the mallet and peg seems a bit clumsy. Not only would Yael have had knives handy, but the tent of a Kenite, that is a smith, would have had hammers and perhaps even swords. Another oddity of the situation is that while she is called the wife of Heber the Kenite, she is alone in the tent when Sisera arrives. Again, this could be mere happenstance, but it seems odd that Sisera does not even ask to speak to her husband or wonder where he is, even though Heber is a potential ally of Sisera's lord, Jabin of Hazor. The name Heber, by the way (spelled heth-beth-resh in Hebrew), is a variant of Eber, the eponymous ancestor of the Hebrews. The name derives from the verb chabar, meaning to join, to charm, to couple or to have fellowship. The noun cheber means either a society or a spell. Either as a reference to a secret society or a spell, such a name would support the idea of Yael as a priestess of some sort. It is also odd that a woman alone would allow a man to enter her tent in the culture of that time and place. Sisera's presence in the tent alone with Yael would have been considered evidence in that society of adultery. Again, it is possible that this only refers to the urgency of Sisera's situation. But if Yael was a priestess, and if her tent was considered a place of sanctuary, then Sisera could enter it when she was there alone without violating a social taboo.
Yet another anomaly is that Sisera is at Yael's tent at all. Consider the odd course of his journey. He sets out from Haroseth ha-goiim when he hears that Barak is at Mt. Tabor in Issachar. Barak intercepts him and defeats him on the River Kishon. Logically his flight should be toward the west back to his stronghold at Haroseth ha-goiim. Yet he flees northeast into Naphtali. Perhaps this can be rationalized by assuming that Barak has flanked Sisera's army, forcing the defeated general away. However, the logical object of Sisera's flight would be Hazor, the Canaanite capital. Yet he ends up near Kadesh, which is beyond Hazor. So it seems inexplicable that Sisera, in flight and fearing for his life to the point that he tells Yael to keep watch at the door to her tent and to conceal his presence there (Jud. 5:20), would bypass the powerful stronghold of his sovereign to hide in a tent. I should point out in all fairness that while the location of the oak of Za-ananim is north of Hazor in Judges, it is listed as south of Hazor in Josh. 19:33, where it marks part of the southern border of Naphtali. If the location in Joshua is correct, Sisera would logically have stopped there in his flight. I have used the location given in Judges because that location is part of the story of Sisera and Yael. I offer a caveat, that what I am about to propose is tentative, conditional and depends at least somewhat on the admittedly disputed location of Za-ananim.
That caveat firmly in mind, one way to resolve the inexplicable aspects of the tale is to consider it ritual in story form. The defeated general seeks sanctuary from a priestess, who instead ritualistically kills him. Perhaps the rug Yael throws over Sisera is a goat-skin. In the KJV Yael covers him with a "mantle" rather than a "rug." The Hebrew word used, semiykah, can mean either a rug or a mantle. As a mantle it would approximate the Greek sysera.. It is reasonable to assume that the milk she gave him was goat's milk. If Yael covered her victim with a goat-skin just prior to killing him, it is possible that his name was given to him later and is metaphorical. On the other hand, Sisera's name might mark him as a member of a cult whose symbol was the goat, and Yael's name might mark her as a priestess of that cult. One possible candidate for the deity such a cult would venerate is Azazel, a desert demon to whom the scapegoat, symbolically bearing the sins of the people, was given.