Lecture XIV: Deborah (part 1)

by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D.

   The great war of the earlier period of the history     
is heralded by two or three lesser conflicts.      
   Othniel only appears as the last of the generation      
of conquerors.  In him the Lion of Judah,       
which had won the southern portion of Palestine        
under Caleb, appears for the last time, till the resus-         
citation of the warlike spirit of the tribe of David.       
All the other indications of its history during this      
period are peaceful; the pastoral simplicity of Boaz     
and Ruth, its absence from the gathering under      
Barak, its retiring demeanor in the story of Samson.       
The enemy whom Othniel attacked is also a solitary     
exception.  Chushan-Rishathaim is the only invader           
from the remote East till the decline of the mon-     
archy, and his name has as yet received no illustra-     
tion from the Assyrian monuments or history.        
   The story of Ehud throws a broader light over the     
darkness of the time.  The Moabite armies, the     
most civilized of the Transjordanic nations, exasperat-     
ed, perhaps, by the increasing inroads of Gad and Reu-      
ben, place themselves at the head of the more no-      
madic tribes of Ammon and Amalek, cross the Jordan,      
and (like the Israelites on their first passage) estab-      
lish themselves at Gilgal and Jericho.  Beyond the     
mountain barrier they did not reach; but their do-    
minion extended itself over the neighboring tribe of    
Benjamin, and a village bearing  the name of the      
"hamlet of the Ammonites" was probably the me-      
morial of the conquest.  From Benjamin, accordingly,       
a yearly tribute was exacted.  There was in the tribe     
a youth of the name of Ehud, who had acquired a     
fame for prophetic power in the country.  He was     
naturally entrusted with the charge of carrying the     
tribute to the Moabite fortress.  After he had de-     
livered the gifts, he paid a visit to the sacred enclos-         
ure or "images" at Gilgal, left his two attendants,        
and returned, with his increased knowledge of the     
localities, to the presence of the king.  The whole      
scene is full of the contrast between the slight, wily,     
agile Israelite, and the corpulent, credulous, unwieldy       
Moabite.  The king is seated in a chamber on the      
roof of the house for the sake of catching a cool air     
in the sultry atmosphere of the Jordan valley, with         
his attendants around him.  Ehud announces that he     
has a secret oracle to disclose.  The king, with an      
instantaneous "Hush!" orders his attendants to with-     
draw.  Ehud, still fearing lest his blow should miss     
its aim, repeats the announcement of the divine mes-    
sage.  This was to raise the king from his sitting     
posture, and expose him to the stroke more easily.      
Eglon falls into the snare.  With the respect always      
paid in the East to a sacred personage, he rises and       
comes toward the assassin.  In that moment, from     
the long mantle, which as the leader of the tribe he    
wore round him, Ehud, left-handed like so many of     
his tribesmen, drew the long dagger concealed on his      
right thigh.  Its flash is seen for an instant, before     
the flesh of the portly king closes in upon it.  Ehud       
escapes by the gallery round the roof, locking the       
door behind him.  He regains the sanctuary at Gilgal,      
then darts into the mountains, and rouses his coun-      
trymen by the rude blasts of his cow-horns, blown in      
every direction over the hill-side.  The upper cham-       
ber at Jericho, meanwhile, remains shut.  The attend-     
ants stand outside.  They cannot account for the long      
closing of the door, except on the supposition that       
their lord had retired there for purposes which Orien-    
tal delicacy reserves for seclusion.  At last their hope       
fails.  They find the huge corpse stretched on the        
ground.  They fly panic-stricken; but, by the time       
they reach the ford of the Jordan, they find it inter-      
cepted by the Israelite warriors, and the narrative      
ends as it had begun, with its half-humorous allusion       
to the well-fed carcasses of those, who, corpulent    
like their chief, lay dead along the shore of the river.       
   But the crowning event of this period, both in its      
intrinsic interest and our knowledge of it, is      
the victory of Deborah and Barak.  It is told both     
in prose and poetry, and the poem is one of the     
most incontestable remains of antiquity that the Sa-     
cred records contain, and the increased pleasure and      
instruction with which we are enabled to read it      
furnish a signal proof of the gain added to our Bib-     
lical knowledge by the advance of Biblical criticism.         
If, in the story of Ehud and Eglon, we trace some-     
thing of what may be called the comic vein of the      
Sacred History, in the story of Deborah and Sisera      
we come across the tragic vein in its grandest style.        
   The power of the northern kings, which Joshua     
had broken down at the waters of Merom, revived       
under a second Jabin, also king of Hazor.  The for-     
midable chariots, as before, overran the territories of        
the adjacent tribes.  The whole country was disor-     
ganized with terror.  The obscure tortuous paths be-      
came to only means of communication.  As long      
afterwards in the time of Saul, regular weapons dis-       
appeared from the oppressed population.  "There was      
not a spear or shield seen among forty thousand in       
Israel."  Shamgar, the son of Anath, defended him-     
self against the enemies of the south with a long pole     
armed at the end with a spike still used by the      
peasants of Palestine.  In this general depression, the       
national spirit was revived by one whose appearance     
is full of significance.  On the heights of Ephraim, on      
the central thoroughfare of Palestine, near the sanc-        
tury of Bethel, stood two famous trees (if we may         
be permitted to distinguish them), both in after-times       
known by the same name.  One was "the oak-tree,"       
or "Terebinth" "of Deborah," underneath which was      
buried, with many tears, the nurse of Jacob.  The      
other was a solitary palm, which, in all probability,        
had given its name to an adjacent sanctuary, Baal-     
Tamar, "the sanctuary of the palm," but which was      
also known in after-times as "the palm-tree of Deb-     
orah."  Under this palm, as Saul afterwards under     
the pomegranate-tree of Migron, as S. Louis under      
the oak-tree of Vincennes, dwelt Deborah the wife of        
Lapidoth, to whom the sons of Israel came up to       
receive her wise answers.  She is the magnificent      
impersonation of the free spirit of the Jewish peo-     
ple and Jewish life.  On the coins of the Roman     
Empire, Judæa is represented as a woman seated      
under a palm-tree, captive and weeping.  It is the      
contrast of that figure which will best place before       
us the character and call of Deborah.  It is the same       
Judæan palm, under whose shadow she sits, but not      
with downcast eyes and folded hands, and extin-      
guishes hopes; with all the fire of faith and energy,     
eager for the battle confident of the victory.  Like      
the German prophetess who roused her people against       
the invaders from Rome, like the simple peasant-girl,     
who by communing with mysterious angels' voices         
roused the French nation against the English do-      
minion, when princes and statesmen had wellnigh     
given up the cause, - so the heads of Israel "ceased       
and cease, until that she, Deborah, arose, that she      
arose, a mother in Israel."  Her appearance was like     
a new epoch.  They chose new chiefs that came as       
new gods among them.  It was she who turned her      
eyes and the eyes of the nation to the fitting leader.       
As always in these wars, he was to come from the      
tribe that most immediately suffered from the yoke of       
the oppressor.  High up in the north, almost within          
sight of the capital of Jabin, was the sanctuary of       
the tribe of Naphtali, - Kedesh-Naphtali.  It      
is a spot which, though only mentioned here          
in direct connection with the sacred history, retained      
its sanctity long afterwards.  Planted on a hill over-      
looking a double platform, or green upland plain,      
amongst the mountains of Naphtali its site is cov-      
ered with ancient ruins beyond any other spot in      
western Palestine, if we except the ancient capitals      
of Hebron, Jerusalem, and Samaria.  Tombs of every      
kind, rock-hewn caves, stone coffins thrust into the         
earth, elaborate mausoleums, indicate the reverence      
in which it must have been held by successive gen-       
erations of the Jewish people.  In this remote sanc-        
tuary lived a chief, who bore the significant name       
- which afterwards reappears amongst the warriors      
of Carthage - "Barak" - "Barca" - "Lightning."           
His fame must have been wide-spread to have reached        
the prophetess in her remote dwelling at Bethel.           
From his native place she summoned him to her       
side, and delivered to him her prophetic command.         
He, as if oppressed by the presence of a loftier spirit    
than his own, refuses to act, unless she were with       
him to guide his movements, and (according to the         
Septuagint version) to name the very day which       
should be auspicious for his effort: "For I know not       
the day on which the Lord will send his good angel      
with me."  She replied at once with the Hebrew     
emphasis: "I will go, I will go!" but adding the res-      
ervation, that the honor should not rest with the       
man who thus leaned upon a woman, but that a      
woman should reap the glory of the day of which a      
woman had been the adviser.  It was not from Kedesh          
that the insurrection, thus organized, spread from      
tribe to tribe.  The temperature of the zeal       
of the different portions of the nation can be       
traced almost in proportion to their nearness to the        
centre of the agitation.  The main support of the       
cause was naturally derived from the northern tribes,       
who were the chief sufferers from the oppressor, and       
who fell most immediately within the range of Barak's      
influence.  The leading tribe, conjointly with Barak's       
own clan of Naphtali, but even more conspicuously,    
was Zebulun, as though the spirit of the neighboring        
population was less crushed than that which lay close       
under the walls of Jabin's capital.  The sceptres or      
standards of Zebulun stamped themselves on the         
mind of the beholders, as the two kindred tribes,           
drew near to "the high places of the field" of the      
upland of Kedesh, ready "to throw" their lives       
headlong into the mortal struggle.  With them, but       
in a subordinate place, were the chiefs of Issachar,      
roused apparently by Deborah herself, as she passed       
over the plain of Esdraelon on her way to Kedesh.           
To her influence must also be ascribed the rising of       
the central tribes around her residence at Bethel.       
From the mountain which bore the name Amalek      
came a band of Ephraimites.  The war-cry of Benja-     
min, "After thee, Benjamin!" was raised, and from      
the north-eastern portion of Manasseh came repre-     
sentatives bearing some high title, which distinguished      
them from the surrounding chiefs.          
   Three portions of the nation remained aloof.  Of      
Judah nothing is said.  Dan and Asher, the two mari-      
time tribes, clung the one to his ships in the harbor      
of Joppa, the other to his sea-shore by the bay of     
Acre.  The Transjordanic tribes met by one of the        
rushing streams of their native hills - the Arnon or      
the Jabbok - to decide on their course.  "Great was       
the debate."   The pastoral Reuben preferred to linger     
among the sheepfolds, among the whistling pipes of       
shepherds.  "Great was the wavering" that fol-      
lowed.  And the nomadic Gileadites abode in their      
tents or their cities, safe beyond the Jordan valley.          
   These, however, were exceptions.  It was a general      
revival of the national spirit, such as rarely occurred.     
The leaders are described as filling their places with     
an ardor worthy of their position.  "The chiefs be-      
came the chiefs," in deed, as well as in name.      
"The lawgivers of Israel willingly offered themselves      
for the people."  "The Lord came down amongst     
the mighty."  And to this the nation responded with     
a readiness, unlike their usual sluggishness, as under        
Gideon and Saul.  "The people willingly offered them-     
selves."  "They that rode on white asses, they that        
sate on rich carpets of state, they that humbly      
walked by the way,"  all joined in this solemn en-     
terprise.          
   The muster-place was Mount Tabor.  The marked      
isolation of the mountain, the broad green-      
sward on its summit, possibly the first begin-     
nings of the fortress which crowned its height            
in later times, pointed it out as the encampment of      
the northern tribes, in the centre of which it stood.        
It has been already noticed that, in all probability,       
this was the mountain to which the people of "Zebu-     
lun and Issachar" are called by Moses "to offer sac-       
rifices of righteousness."  There two at least of the      
tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali, waited under their leaders         
for the appearance of the enemy.  A village on the       
wooded slope of the hill still bears the name of Debo-      
rah, possibly from this connection with her history.        
   The enemy were not without tidings of insur-      
rection.  Close beside Kedesh-Naphtali was a tribe,     
hovering between Israel and Canaan, which we shall       
shortly meet again, through which (so we are led to       
infer) this information came.  From Harosheth of the         
Gentiles - the "woodcuttings" or "quarries" of the           
mixed heathen population on the outskirts of Lebanon        
- came down the Canaanite host, with the chariots     
of iron, in which, after the manner of their country-     
men, they trusted as invincible.  Their leader, the first,     
indeed the only, commander of whom we hear by     
name on the adverse side of these long wars, was      
himself a native of Harosheth, and a potentate of suf-      
ficient grandeur to have his mother recognized in the      
surrounding tribes as a kind of queen-mother of the        
place; and whose family traditions had struck such       
root, that the name of "Sisera" occurs long after-       
wards in the history, and the great Jewish Rabbi        
Akiba claimed to be descended from him.  Jabin      
himself seems not to have been present.  But, as       
in the former battle by the waters of Merom, so now,       
several kings of the Canaanites had joined him, and       
they, with all their forces, encamped in the plain of      
Esdraelon, now for the first time the battle-field of      
Israel, where their chariots and cavalry could act     
most effectively.  They took up their position in the      
south-west corner of the plain, where a long spur, now      
clad wit olives, runs out from the hills of Manasseh.      
On this promontory still stands a large stone village,        
in its name of Taanak, marking the site of        
the Canaanitish fortress of Taanach, beside which,      
doubtless, as occupied by a kindred unconquered pop-       
ulation, the Canaanitish kings were entrenched.  It is         
just at this point that the traveler catches the first       
distinct view of the arched summit of Tabor.  From       
that summit Deborah must have watched the gradual       
drawing of the enemy towards the spot of her pre-      
dicted triumph.  She raised the cry, which twice over       
occurs in the story of the battle, "Arise, Barak."       
She gave with unhesitating confidence to the doubt-      
ing troops the augury which he had asked before the      
insurrection began, - "his," this and no other, "is       
the day when the Lord shall deliver Sisera into thy      
hand."  Down from the wooded heights descended       
Barak and his ten thousand men.  It is emphatically      
repeated that they were "on foot," and thus contrast-      
ed in the most forcible manner with the horses and       
chariots of their enemies.

from The History of the Jewish Church, Vol. I : Abraham to Samuel,
"Lecture XV: Gideon"
by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1879, pp. 348-357