According to theBook of Judges,Deborah(Hebrew:דְּבוֹרָה,Dəḇōrā) was aprophetess of Judaism,the fourthJudge of pre-monarchic Israel,and the only femalejudgementioned in theHebrew Bible.Many scholars contend that the phrase, "a woman of Lappidoth", as translated from biblical Hebrew in Judges 4:4 denotes her marital status as the wife ofLapidoth.[1]Alternatively, "lappid"[1]translates as "torch" or "lightning", therefore the phrase, "woman of Lappidoth" could be referencing Deborah as a "fiery woman."[2]Deborah toldBarak,an Israelite general[1]fromKedeshinNaphtali,that God commanded him to lead an attack against the forces ofJabinking ofCanaanand his military commanderSisera(Judges 4:6–7); the entire narrative is recounted inchapter 4.
Deborah | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Other names | Debora, Débora, Dvora, Debra |
| Occupation(s) | Prophetess of God, Fourth Judge of Israel |
| Predecessor | Shamgar |
| Successor | Gideon |
| Spouse | Lapidoth (possibly) |
Judges 5gives the same story inpoetic form.This passage, often calledThe Song of Deborah,may date to as early as the twelfth century BCE,[3]and is perhaps the earliest sample ofHebrew poetry.[4]
Bible narrative
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In theBook of Judges,it is stated that Deborah was aprophetess,ajudge of Israeland the wife of Lapidoth.[5][6]She rendered her judgments beneath adate palmtree betweenRamah in BenjaminandBethelin the land ofEphraim.[7]
Thepeople of Israelhad been oppressed byJabin,the king ofCanaan,whose capital wasHazor,for twenty years. Stirred by the wretched condition of Israel she sends a message toBarak,the son of Abinoam, atKedeshinNaphtali,and tells him that the Lord God had commanded him to muster ten thousand troops of Naphtali andZebulunand concentrate them uponMount Tabor,the mountain at the northern angle of the great plain ofEsdraelon.At the same time she states that the Lord God of Israel will drawSisera,commander of Jabin's army, to theKishon River.Barak declines to go without the prophet. Deborah consents, but declares that the glory of the victory will therefore belong to a woman. As soon as the news of the rebellion reaches Sisera, he collects nine hundred chariots of iron and a host of people.[6]
Then Deborah said, according toJudges 4:14:
"Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?" So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him.
As Deborah prophesied,a battleis fought (led by Barak), and Sisera is completely defeated. He escapes on foot while his army is pursued as far asHarosheth Haggoyimand destroyed. Sisera comes to the tent ofJaeland lies down to rest. He asks for a drink, she gives him milk and he falls asleep. While he is asleep she hammers a tent-pin through his temple.[6]
The Biblical account of Deborah ends with the statement that after the battle, there was peace in the land for 40 years (Judges 5:31).
The Song of Deborah
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The Song of Deborah is found inJudges 5:2–31and is a victoryhymn,sung by Deborah and Barak, about the defeat of Canaanite adversaries by some of the tribes of Israel. The song itself differs slightly from the events described inJudges 4.The song mentions six participating tribes:Ephraim,Benjamin,Machir—a group associated with theTribe of Manasseh—Zebulun,IssacharandNaphtali,as opposed to the two tribes inJudges 4:6(Naphtali and Zebulun) and does not mention the role ofJabin(king ofHazor).[8]The song also rebukes three other tribes (Reuben,Dan,andAsher) for their lack of patriotism.[9],not mentioning the tribes of Gad, Simeon and Judah.Michael Cooganwrites that forthe redactorsof the Song of Deborah, that the Canaanite generalSiseraends up being murdered by a woman (Jael)—the ultimate degradation— "is a further sign that Yahweh ultimately is responsible for the victory".[10]
Though the presence of victory hymns is conventional in the Hebrew Bible, the Song of Deborah is unusual in that it is a hymn that celebrates a military victory of two women: Deborah, the prophetess and Jael, the warrior.[11]Jael—the heroine of the Song of Deborah—shares parallels with the main character of theBook of Judith,who uses her beauty and charm to killan Assyrian generalwho has besieged her city,Bethulia.
The Song of Deborah is commonly identified as among the oldest texts of the Bible,[12]butthe date of its compositionis controversial. Many scholars claim a date as early as the 12th century BCE,[3]while others claim it to be as late as the 3rd century BCE. Some hold that the song was written no earlier than the 7th century BCE.[13]
Traditional chronology
editTraditional Jewish chronologyplaces Deborah's 40 years of judgingIsrael(Judges 5:31) from 1107 BC until her death in 1067 BC.[14]TheDictionary of World Biography: The Ancient Worldclaims that she might have lived in the period between 1200 BC to 1124 BC.[15]Based on archaeological findings, different biblical scholars have argued that Deborah's war with Sisera best fits the context of either the second half of the 12th century BC[16]or the second half of the 11th century BC.[17]
Gallery
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Deborah and Barak in a miniature from the 13th-centuryPsalter of St. Louis -
Jael, Deborah, and Barak(c. 1630) bySalomon de Bray -
A statue of Deborah (1792) inAix-en-Provence,France -
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Deborah Judging Israel,west-facing panel at the northwest corner of theNebraska State Capitol
See also
editReferences
edit- ^abcVan Wijk-Bos, Johanna WH.The End of the Beginning: Joshua and Judges.Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2019.
- ^García Bachmann, Mercedes L., Ahida E. Pilarski, and Barbara E. Reid. "Judges."Wisdom commentary,Liturgical Press, 2018.
- ^abCoogan, Michael David(2006).A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in its Context.Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 216.ISBN978-0195139112.
- ^Cook, Stanley(1911)..InChisholm, Hugh(ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 904.
- ^Judges 4:4
- ^abc"Deborah",Jewish Encyclopedia.
- ^Judges 4:5
- ^Nelson, Richard(2006). "Judges".The Harper Collins Study Bible,rev. ed. Eds. Attridge, Harold & Wayne Meeks. New York: HarperCollins, p. 353.
- ^Singer, Isidore,ed. (1912)."Deborah, The Song of".The Jewish Encyclopedia.Vol. 4 (3 ed.). New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 490.
- ^Coogan, Michael David(2006).A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in its Context.Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 217.ISBN978-0195139112.
- ^Niditch, Susan (2011)."Tales of Deborah and Jael, Warrior Women".Judges: a commentary.The Old Testament Library. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 59–67.ISBN978-1611644937.
- ^Hendel, Ronald; Joosten, Jan (2018).How Old Is the Hebrew Bible?: A Linguistic, Textual, and Historical Study.Yale University Press. p. 104.ISBN978-0-300-23488-6.
The archaic nature of the Song of Deborah is granted by most scholars. [...] The consilience of linguistic and historical data indicate that this is a very early text, composed in the premonarchical or early monarchical period. It belongs to the oldest age of biblical literature.
- ^Frolov, S. (2011). "How Old is the Song of Deborah?".Journal for the Study of the Old Testament.36(2): 163–84.doi:10.1177/0309089211423720.S2CID170121702.
'To be sure, the consensus outlined here is by no means perfect; several publications that appeared in the 1980s and 1990s diverge from it, sometimes in a major way. In particular,Alberto Soggin,Ulrike Schorn, andBarnabas Lindarssee the Song, or at least the bulk thereof, as a product of the early monarchy; Ulrike Bechmann and Manfred Görg place it in the late pre-exilic period; Michael Waltisberg advocates early post-exilic provenance (fifth to third centuries BC); and B.-J. Diebner shifts the composition's date to the turn of the era.' (p. 165); 'With the text's internal parameters and the external conditions of its existence considered systematically, what we know as Judg. 5.2–31a presents itself as an integral part of the Deuteronomistic oeuvre and should be dated, accordingly, between c. 700 and c. 450 BCE.' (p. 183)
- ^Jewish History: Deborah the Prophetess,Chabad.
- ^Northen Magill, Frank and Christina J. Moose (2003-01-23)."Deborah".Dictionary of World Biography: The Ancient World.Taylor & Francis.ISBN978-1-57958040-7.Retrieved1 April2013.
- ^Albright, W. F. (1937). "Further Light on the History of Israel from Lachish and Megiddo".Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.68(68): 22–26.doi:10.2307/3218855.JSTOR3218855.S2CID163435967.
- ^Mayes, A. D. H. (1969). "The Historical Context of the Battle against Sisera".Vetus Testamentum.19(3): 353–360.doi:10.2307/1516506.JSTOR1516506.
Further reading
edit- Bird, Phyllis(1974)."Images of Women in the Old Testament".In Ruether, Rosemary Radford (ed.).Religion and Sexism: Images of Women in the Jewish and Christian Traditions.Simon & Schuster.ISBN0-671-21692-9.
- Brown, Cheryl Anne (1992).No Longer be Silent: First Century Jewish Portraits of Biblical Women: Studies in Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities and Josephus's Jewish Antiquities.Louisville, KY: Westminster J. Knox Press.ISBN0-664-25294-X.
- Deen, Edith(1955).All the Women of the Bible.New York: Harper & Row.
- Lacks, Roslyn (1979).Women and Judaism: Myth, History, and Struggle.Garden City, NY: Doubleday.ISBN0-385-02313-8.
- Otwell, John H. (1977).And Sarah Laughed: the Status of Woman in the Old Testament.Philadelphia: Westminster Press.ISBN0-664-24126-3.
- Phipps, William E. (1992).Assertive Biblical Women.Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.ISBN0-313-28498-9.
- Schroeder, Joy A. (2014).Deborah's Daughters: Gender Politics and Biblical Interpretation.New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-999104-4.
- Williams, James G. (1982).Women Recounted: Narrative Thinking and the God of Israel.Sheffield: Almond Press.ISBN0-907459-18-8.
External links
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- Book of Judges article,Jewish Encyclopedia
- Debbora,Catholic Encyclopedia
- Biblical Hebrew Poetry - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience
- Song of Deborah (Judges 5) Reconstructed