Page 18 - October 2025 - Truth & Tidings

ael, it must be acknowledged, is a words in 4:9, “I will surely go with thee:
somewhat awkward fit in a series notwithstanding the journey that thou
J on family life in the book of Judges. takest shall not be for thine honour; for the
Though clearly a striking personality, LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a
her robust approach to hospitality hardly woman,” make it clear that his reticence
provides an example for us to emulate, was evidence of failure. He had been se-
and so much of her origins and motiva- lected by God and commanded to “go”;
tion are shrouded in obscurity. It would his response, “If thou wilt not go with me,
be easy – even tempting – to pass over her then I will not go” (4:8), was disobedience
and move on to more clearcut case studies. as well as cowardice.
However, the narrator of Judges presents Heber’s failure was of a different char-
Jael to us not just as an individual, but acter. As a Kenite, he was not part of the
as a member of a family, and it would people of God. The Kenites are introduced
seem a little craven to avoid considering to us in Judges 1:16: “And the children
what we can learn from that family. This of the Kenite, Moses' father in law, went
is especially so, given Deborah’s declara- up out of the city of palm trees with the
tion that Jael would be “blessed above children of Judah into the wilderness of
women” (Jdg 5:24). Clearly, there are Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad;
1
lessons to be learned from this remarkable and they went and dwelt among the
and redoubtable woman. people.” If “the people” refers here to the
We should notice first that Jael was Israelites, rather than to the native peoples
faithful to God in days of failure in head- of the land, the mention of their peaceful
ship. This is one of the key elements of the coexistence may serve to prevent us from
narrative of Judges 4 and 5. Headship is regarding Israel’s mission of extirpation
explicitly in view in the case of Deborah as merely an ethnically motivated quest
and Barak. In Jael’s case, the emphasis of superiority. Unlike the peoples of the
is more implicit, but the fact that she is land, the Kenites were not under divine
repeatedly described as “Jael the wife of sentence and their presence could be toler-
Heber the Kenite” indicates that the nar- ated. If this is the case, the Kenites serve
rator’s interest in the topic extends beyond as another example of God’s purpose that
the first half of chapter 4. Gentiles would be blessed through Israel.
In the case of Deborah, failure in head- Heber, however, “had severed himself
ship was seen in Barak’s reluctance to from the Kenites, and pitched his tent
lead. Barak’s refusal to go to battle without unto the plain of Zaanaim, which is by
Deborah has been interpreted in a variety Kedesh” (4:11). His departure was more
of ways, and a variety of motives have than merely geographical; he had entered
been ascribed to him. However, Deborah’s into a peace treaty with Jabin the king of
Hazor, Israel’s oppressor (4:17).

1 Bible quotations in this article are from the The narrative of which Jael forms a
KJV. part is marked, then, by two examples of

306 TRUTH kTidings October 2025