Jael

For other uses, see Yael (name).
Jael or Yael

Jacopo Amigoni, Jael and Sisera, 1739
Residence Tent in the plain of Zaanaim, near Kedesh.
Nationality Kenite
Other names Ya'el
Spouse(s) Heber the Kenite

Jael or Yael (Hebrew Ya'el, יָעֵל, meaning Ibex) is a woman mentioned in the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible, as the heroine who killed Sisera to deliver Israel from the troops of King Jabin.

Family

Jael shows Sisera lying dead to Barak, James Tissot, 1896-1902

Jael was the wife of Heber the Kenite.[1] The Kenites were a nomadic tribe, some of whom lived in close proximity to the Israelites. The Bible records a number of cases of intermarriage; the father-in-law of Moses was apparently a Kenite, but it is not clear if this was Jethro. The Kenites may have been a part of the Midianite group.

Jael in the Book of Judges

Deborah, a prophetess and judge, advises Barak to mobilize the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon on Mount Tabor to do battle against King Jabin of Canaan. Barak demurred, saying he would go, provided she would also. Deborah agreed but prophesied that the honour of defeating Jabin's army would then go to a woman. Jabin's army was led by Sisera (Judg. 4:2). The armies met on the plain of Esdraelon, where Sisera's iron-bound chariots became hampered by the mud caused by an downpour during the night that caused the Wadi Kishon to overflow its banks. The Canaanites were defeated and Sisera fled the scene.[1]

Limoges enamel plaque, 1550-75

Sisera arrived on foot at the tent of Heber the Kenite on the plain of Zaanaim. Heber's wife Jael (whose tent would have been separate from Heber's) [2] welcomed Sisera into her tent and covered him with a blanket. As he was thirsty, she gave him a jug of milk. Exhausted, Sisera lay down and soon fell asleep. While he was sleeping, Jael took a mallet and drove a tent peg into his temple, killing him instantly.[1] The "Song of Deborah" (Judg. 5:24-26) recounts:

"Extolled above women be Jael,
Extolled above women in the tent.
He asked for water, she gave him milk;
She brought him cream in a lordly dish.
She stretched forth her hand to the nail,
Her right hand to the workman's hammer,
And she smote Sisera; she crushed his head,
She crashed through and transfixed his temples."

Scholars [3] have long recognized that the Song of Deborah, on the basis of linguistic evidence (archaic biblical Hebrew), is one of the oldest parts of the Bible, dating back to the 12th century BC.[4]

Extra-biblical references

Jan Saenredam engraving picturing Jael killing Sisera

Pseudo-Philo refers to Jael in the book, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum:

Now Jael took a stake in her left hand and approached him, saying, "If God will work this sign with me, I know that Sisera will fall into my hands. Behold I will throw him down on the ground from the bed on which he sleeps; and if he does not feel it, I know that he has been handed over." And Jael took Sisera and pushed him onto the ground from the bed. But he did not feel it, because he was very groggy.

And Jael said, "Strengthen in me today, Lord, my arm on account of you and your people and those who hope in you." And Jael took the stake and put it on his temple and struck it with a hammer.

And while he was dying, Sisera said to Jael, "Behold pain has taken hold of me, Jael, and I die like a woman."

And Jael said to him, "Go, boast before your father in hell and tell him that you have fallen into the hands of a woman."[5]

Commentary

Judges 4:17 states that there was peace between the Canaanites and Heber's clan. They were familiar to the Israelites through the connection of Jethro to Moses, and their skill as metalworkers was welcomed wherever they camped. Both sides in the conflict would have considered the Kenites a neutral party. C.E. Schenk notes that Sisera was Jael's guest, "was in the sanctuary of her home, and protected by the laws of hospitality."[6] According to Herbert Lockyer she may have acted out of practical necessity. Sisera was in flight and Barak in pursuit. It would not have been wise to allow Barak to find Sisera in her tent. She also knew that Sisera would be killed if captured, therefore she would kill him and thus cement a friendship with the victor.[7] Biblical commentaries have viewed Jael as either a heroine or someone much less so. Newsom and Ringe consider her a survivor caught up in her husband's politics.[8]

Christian moral theorists during the Renaissance extensively referred to Jael as example of tyrannicide.

Artistic depictions of Jael

Jael and Sisera, by Artemisia Gentileschi.

Medieval images of Jael, mostly in illuminated manuscripts, depicted her as both a defender of Israel and a prefiguration of the Virgin Mary.[9] This can be seen in the Stavelot Bible, the Speculus Darmstadt, as well as several other texts. When not shown in the act of killing Sisera, she carries her hammer and sometimes the spike, making her easy to identify.

In the Renaissance the subject is one of the most commonly shown in the Power of Women topos, with other biblical women who triumphed over men, such as Judith or Delilah.[10] Here she was used to show the risk for men in following women, in groupings including positive figures and scenes such as Judith beheading Holofernes, but mostly ones with female villains such as Phyllis riding Aristotle, Samson and Delilah, Salome and her mother Herodias an the Idolatry of Solomon. More positively, Jael was included in sets of the female Nine Worthies, such as the prints by Hans Burgkmair.[11] Ladies sometimes chose to have their portraits painted as Jael, a transformation achieved by holding a hammer and spike.[12]

In the Baroque period, Jael continued to be a sexual figure in art. Works by Gregorio Lazzarini and Artemisia Gentileschi are two examples of an attractive Jael, shown in the act of killing her foe.

Jael is portrayed in the French silent film Jael and Sisera (1911), directed by Henri Andréani.[13]

Mosaic at the Dormition Church in Jerusalem
Portrait of a Venetian Jewish lady, with the attributes of Jael, around 1500, by Bartolomeo Veneto

As a name

"Yael" (יעל) is at present one of the most common female first names in contemporary Israel.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Tikva. "Jael: Bible." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive (Viewed on April 13, 2016)
  2. ↑ Barnes' Notes on Judges 4, accessed 17 October 2016
  3. ↑ Halpern, Baruch (1983). The First Historians. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
  4. ↑ Coogan, Michael D. (2009). A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in its Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-19-533272-8.
  5. ↑ Charlesworth, James (1985). Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 31.7, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 2:. Anchor Bible. p. 1056. ISBN 0-385-18813-7.
  6. ↑ Schenk, C. E., "Jael", International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, (James Orr, ed.) 1915
  7. ↑ Lockyer, Herbert. "Jael", All the Women of the Bible, Zondervan, 1967 ISBN 9780310281511
  8. ↑ Newsom, Carol Ann and Ringe, Sharon H., Women's Bible Commentary, Westminster John Knox Press, 1998, p.76 ISBN 9780664257811
  9. ↑ Wolfthal, Diane (October 2000). Images of Rape: The Heroic Tradition and its Alternatives. Cambridge University Press. p. 123. ISBN 0-521-79442-0.
  10. ↑ Bohn, Babette (2005). The Artemisia Files "Death, Dispassion and the Female Hero:Gentileschi's Jael and Sisera". Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-03582-4.
  11. ↑ H Diane Russell (ed), Eva/Ave; Women in Renaissance and Baroque Prints, pp. 36-39, 147-148, 154-155, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1990, ISBN 1-55861-039-1
  12. ↑ One illustrated below; see also this example from Amsterdam in 1640
  13. ↑ Jaël et Sisera at IMDb.com, December 15, 2010.

Sources

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). "article name needed". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons. 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jael and Sisera.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.