The Hand of a Woman - Reflections on Judges 4:1-7, 25th Sunday after Pentecost, Year A

by John C. Holbert on Friday, September 18, 2026

         On occasion, when I am preparing these essays, I make use of the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, published in 2003 by Abingdon Press. It is a rich source, filled with extensive commentary by reputable scholars, along with maps, charts, and other helpful aids for the modern interpreter. I do notice one facet of this resource that to me may be less helpful, if not possibly misleading when it comes to certain biblical texts. Judges 4 is one of those texts. The commentator, Paula McNutt, has clearly been trained, as many of us were, in the older historical-critical method. As such, she focuses her reading on the geographical and historical backgrounds of the material, to the unfortunate exclusion, as I see it, of the wonderful literary skills displayed by this author, whoever she/he may have been. I would suggest that whatever historical and geographical information may exist around this marvelous tale, they play merely a tangential role in what is a complex and delightful story of powerful women in the midst of multiple narratives that feature only men at their centers. Here women are the stars, and the author has gone out of her/his way to make that feminine centrality the heart of the story.

         The lectionary collectors give us only the first 7 verses of a 24 verse tale, but those verses will make plain to us the focus of the narrative we are about to read. The book of Judges has been edited by a Deuteronomic reader who has overlayed the older stories in the book with a clear framework: the Israelites “again do evil,” after the death of a hero (in this case Ehud, who in the previous chapter has dispatched in a bloody fashion the so-called “king of Moab, Eglon”—“fat calf” in Hebrew [Judges 4:1]), YHWH then “sells Israel” into the hand of another tyrant, “Jabin of Canaan” (Judges 4:2), forcing the Israelites to “cry out to YHWH for help”(Judges 4:3). One hardly needs to know the ancient history, if such can be recovered, of Moab and Canaan to see what is really at stake here: Israel continues to sin in various ways, YHWH continues to hand them over to a tyrant, causing them to petition YHWH for help, bringing YHWH to send to them another hero for their aid. 

         But now in this story, the hero turns into a heroine, Deborah by name (the name means “bee” in Hebrew). And the author proceeds to make her gender explicit and unforgettable by her further description; her name is listed first in the sentence of vs.4 (unusual in Hebrew grammar), and names her “female prophet,” employing the feminine form of the typical word for prophet, and calls her “wife of Lappidoth.” It is far from unusual that her husband is named in a patriarchal text, but in this case Lappidoth is never heard from again in the story, and his name is itself a feminine one, ending with a feminine plural form. After all that, there can be no doubt that the central figure of the story is definitely a woman.

         In addition to her prophetic calling, designated by YHWH as one of the divine spokespersons, she is also a “female judge,” sitting under the “palm of Deborah” (she even has a tree named for her!) “between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim” (Judges 4:5). “And the Israelites came to her for judgment” (or perhaps “for justice”) (Judges 4:5). Deborah is nothing less than extraordinary woman; she is both prophet of God and the community’s arbiter of justice. Yet, she is even more than all that.

         “She sent and summoned Barak, son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, ‘Does not YHWH, God of Israel, command you to go and station yourself at Mt. Tabor, bringing with you 10,000 men from Naphtali and Zebulon’” (Judges 4:6)? Barak (“lightening” in Hebrew) is summoned by the prophet to prepare for battle with the forces of Jabin (and his 900 iron chariots!) by gathering a huge army of northern warriors, and assembling them at the base of the highest mountain in the land, Mt. Tabor in the far north. Well, we might think, a man has finally entered the story, and Deborah’s role will now shrink, as in patriarchal tales women so often do. Not so fast! “I,” continues Deborah, speaking for YHWH, “will draw out Sisera, general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand” (Judges 4:7). And there the lectionary unfortunately ends! It appears the men have reiterated their male power.

         But they have not. Barak first in a whiney little speech, refuses to go at all! Don’t worry, says Deborah, I will go with you, but she warns him that he will gain no glory on the day of this battle: “YHWH will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (Judges 4:9). We may well assume at this stage of the tale that the woman will be Deborah. But if we do, we will be proven wrong. Later in the narrative, after Sisera’s army has been routed by YHWH and the forces of Israel, he, like a craven coward, rushes away from the battle site, seeking refuge among a supposed friend of the Canaanites, Heber and his consort, Jael. It is unfortunate that Sisera’s grasp of Hebrew was not better, since Jael means “YHWH is God!” In one of the more memorable and terrible scenes in the Bible, Jael strikes Sisera, while he sleeps, with a “tent peg in her hand,” killing him in cold blood. Thus, the hand of a woman turns out to be the hand of Jael. 

         The men in this story are either cowards or fools, and end up dismissed or dead. This is a women’s tale through and through, and is thus the more remarkable for that fact, existing as it does in one of the more male-dominated books the Bible presents. Why is that important, and why should those of us who are men take careful note of it? Males do not, should not, and clearly cannot claim to control the narratives that make up our sacred stories. In a time when sexism continues to rear its ugly head in our lives, in our governmental systems, our military ranks, our ecclesiastical priorities, and in all areas of our existence, we simply must find places for these stories in our teaching and preaching. This ancient author has given to us a great gift of the tale of Deborah and Jael. May its power sound in your pulpit and classrooms as long as you can proclaim and teach its glorious truth of women’s true power.