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Deborah or (Hebrew: ?????????, Standard  Tiberian D??ôr?h ; "Bee") was a prophetess and the fourth, and the only female, Judge of pre-monarchic Israel in the Old Testament (Tanakh). Her story is told twice, in chapters 4 and 5 of Judges.

The first account is prose, relating the victory of Israelite forces led by General Barak, whom Deborah called forth, but prophesied would not achieve the final victory over the Canaanite general Sisera himself. That honor went to Jael, the wife of Heber, a Kenite tentmaker. Jael killed Sisera by driving a tent peg through his temple as he slept.

Judges 5 gives this same story in poetic form. This passage, often called The Song of Deborah, may date to as early as the 8th century BCE, which would make it one of the oldest passages of the Bible and the earliest extant sample of Hebrew poetry.

It is also significant because it is one of the oldest passages that portrays fighting women. The poem may have been included in the Book of the Wars of the Lord mentioned in Numbers 21:14.

Gustave Dore's interpretation of the prophetess Deborah

Little is known about Deborah's personal life. In the Book of Judges, it was stated that she is the wife of Lappidoth (meaning "torches"). But since this name is not found outside of the Book of Judges, it might simply mean that Deborah herself was a "fiery" spirit. She was a poet and she rendered her judgments beneath a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the land of Benjamin.

Some people today refer to Deborah as the mother of Israel because of the "Song of Deborah" found in Judges 5. In that chapter, in Judges 5:7, the text reads, "until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel." The victory to which the Bible refers is the victory of the Israelites over the Canaanites. In this battle, Deborah called to Barak to lead the Israelites into battle. Barak agreed to this only after Deborah agreed to accompany him into battle. Judges 4:9 recounts Deborah's assent to Barak's request: "And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh." According to the Biblical account, the Israelites went out to meet the Canaanite army in battle. When Deborah saw the Canaanite army, she said, according to Judges 4:14: "Up; for this [is] the day in which the LORD hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: is not the LORD gone out before thee? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him." As Deborah prophesied, the Lord gave the victory to the Israelites, and their leader, Sisera, fled the battle site seeking refuge in the tent of a woman, Jael, who ultimately killed him.

The Biblical account of Deborah ends in Judges 5.

See also

• Biblical judges
• Book of Judges
• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture
• Animal names as first names in Hebrew

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Bible, English, King James, Judges#Chapter 4

• Book of Judges article (Jewish Encyclopedia)
• Debbora - Catholic Encyclopedia article
• Biblical Hebrew Poetry - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience
• Song of Deborah (Judges 5) Reconstructed