Deborah and Jael · Gideon

In context

After Ehud died, Jabin, a king of Canaan in Hazor, oppressed Israel for twenty years with nine hundred iron chariots under his commander Sisera (Judges 4:1–3). Israel’s judge was Deborah, a prophetess, who heard cases under a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel (4:4–5). She sent Barak with ten thousand men to Mount Tabor, and the Lord threw Sisera’s army into confusion by the Kishon River. Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, and she killed him as he slept, a hard scene told plainly (4:6–22). So Deborah’s words came true: “Yahweh will sell Sisera into a woman’s hand” (4:9). Chapter 5 is their song of that day.

Next, Midian and its allies raided Israel for seven years, coming “as locusts for multitude” (6:1–5). The Lord’s angel found Gideon beating out wheat in a wine press to hide it from them, and called him a “mighty man of valor” (6:11–12). Gideon pulled down his father’s altar to Baal and asked twice for a sign with a fleece. Twenty-two thousand who were afraid went home, and the Lord kept only three hundred, “lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’” (7:2–7). With trumpets, jars and torches, the three hundred put Midian to flight (7:16–22). Isaiah later spoke of “the day of Midian” (Isaiah 9:4).