Warrior Women of the Bible by Marlene Taylor

in times of war acted as a rallying point to gather the tribes and organize resistance.ĭeborah is the only woman judge mentioned in the Book of Judges.

in times of peace had authority to settle disputes and problems.

A judge in Israel was a tribal leader who

The word ‘judge’ did not mean then what it means now. The story of Deborah occurred in approximately 1125BC, when Deborah was a judge of Israel. in the Song of Deborah ( Judges 5), a victory poem.Sisera’s mother waited and waited for her son to return. She was hailed as a national heroine by the Israelites.Ĥ The mother of Sisera ( Judges 5:28-30). Then she calmly took one of her tent pegs and with one blow hammered it through the side of his head. She hid him and fed him, and he fell into a deep sleep. He was exhausted and desperate for a refuge. The Israelite slingmen and archers picked them off one by one, like ducks in a pond. Sisera, the enemy general, fled from the battlefield towards the encampment of a woman called Jael the Kenite.Īs he passed by her tent, Jael called the unwary Sisera into her tent. But Deborah tricked them into driving these chariots onto marshy land where they were bogged down. The enemy had hundreds of iron-wheeled chariots that could crush the Israelites into the ground.

God sent a rainstorm that made the Canaanite chariots sitting ducks for the Israelite slingmen – and Deborah was hailed as a national heroine.ġ Deborah, a judge of Israel, summoned Barakĭeborah was ‘just a woman’ but when war came she took up the reins of leadership – even though the Israelites were outnumbered and under-equipped.

She badgered the Israelite general into joining battle with the Canaanites, even though the enemy had more soldiers and better equipment. Who was Deborah? A Bible heroine, a Judge of Israel – not a judge who passes sentence on criminals, but a leader and adviser in times of trouble. Heavy-wheeled chariots shown on the Standard of Ur, circa 2,500 BC

Warrior Women of the Bible by Marlene Taylor