Judges 5:26
She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.
She put her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workman's hammer to drive it through the temples of Sisera, Jabin's general, and take his life when he slept in her tent after fleeing Barak's army. The deed is celebrated in the triumphant song of Deborah and Barak over Israel's deliverance from twenty years of oppression by Jabin, king of Canaan, and the routing of his nine hundred chariots of iron. The song ascribes all the glory of the deliverance to Jehovah and bids kings and princes hear what God wrought for Israel and take warning not to harm them. God has in all ages used women in public capacity to His glory, so that Jael is blessed above women in the tent and Barak must join Deborah in praising the woman who destroyed Israel's enemy because he would not trust the Lord's word through His prophetess alone. The battle at Megiddo in the days of Deborah and Barak stands as an object lesson of the final gathering of the nations under the sixth and seventh plagues, calling all in crisis to discern the time, accept God's message, and come to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
Story and Historical Setting
Judges 5:26 belongs to the song of Deborah and Barak in Judges 5:1-31, a triumphant song celebrating Jael's part in Israel's deliverance from Jabin king of Canaan after twenty years of oppression and in Israel's victory over Sisera's army. It is identified as part of Deborah's triumph song over that army.
The verse recounts how Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite whose tent stood among Israel's allies, destroyed Sisera, Jabin's general and captain of his heathen idolatrous host. She laid her right hand to the workman's hammer and drove a nail or tent peg through his temples to take his life and cut off his head. Her praised deed made her right hand an example of power and strength in action.
Sisera's end came after Barak with ten thousand men of Zebulon and Naphtali routed his nine hundred chariots of iron near Mount Tabor and down the Kishon valley toward Harosheth of the Gentiles, where the whole host fell by the sword. Sisera then fled on foot over or around Mount Tabor to the opposite side to seek protection from Heber as a supposed friend, and stopped to rest at Jael's tent. There she gave him milk to drink and covered him with a mantle while he told her to stand in the tent door and turn away inquirers, and when he fell asleep she drove the spike through the sleeper's temples, leaving the pin still projecting, then directed Barak and his men to their enemy lying in the toils of death. Thus despite his iron chariots and oppression of Israel he was defeated through Jael's action.
The verse falls within the record of Judges 3-17 of Israel's backsliding, suffering and oppression, return to God, forgiveness and deliverance. It belongs to the earliest poetry of Israel that rose among the hills of Galilee when Barak of Naphtali triumphed over the Canaanites, proving the intellectual vigor and mental freshness and force of the Galilean people. Through the victory of Barak and Deborah the Israelites first gained possession of the plain of Jezreel, the Canaanites were effectually subdued, and afterward the land had peace forty years, though prosperity did not bring Israel nearer to God.
Theology Prophecy and Duty
The song in which the verse stands presents the battle as a deliverance accomplished with Jehovah's help. It ascribes to God all the glory of the deliverance and bids the people praise Him for His wonderful works. It calls upon the kings and princes of the surrounding nations to hear what God wrought for Israel and to take warning not to do them harm, showing that honor and power belong to God and not to men or to their idols. It portrays the awful exhibitions of divine power and majesty displayed at Sinai, sets before Israel their helpless and distressed condition under the oppression of their enemies, and relates in glowing language the history of their deliverance. That deliverance effectually subdued the Canaanites, after which the land had peace forty years, but prosperity did not bring Israel nearer to God.
The verse belongs to the account of the battle of Megiddo in the days of Deborah and Barak. Barak's victory over the Canaanites is one of the great victories connected with the battlefield of Megiddo. That battle serves as an object lesson connected with the final gathering of the nations under the sixth plague and the events of the sixth and seventh plagues.
Hands are emblems of human actions, and the right hand in particular is the symbol of power and strength. Jael is praised in the song for laying her right hand to the workman's hammer and taking the oppressor Sisera's life. Her deed therefore stands as one instance of the right hand as a continual emblem of favor, protection, and power.
God has used women in a public capacity in all ages to His glory. The account of women taking an active public part in God's work shows that the instruction for women to keep silent does not forbid them from bearing testimony, helping in God's work, or proclaiming truth in a womanly, Christian way. Barak refused to go on his heaven-sent mission to array ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulon at Mount Tabor on God's call through the prophetess Deborah unless Deborah went with him, for lack of trust in the Lord's word through her, so a woman gained the honor that ought to have been his under God. Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite destroyed Sisera, Jabin's general, after he fled from Barak's army and stopped to rest at her tent, where she gave him milk to drink and covered him with a mantle while he told her to stand in the tent door and turn away inquirers, and when he fell asleep she would not risk the wrath of his pursuers by hiding him but drove the spike through the sleeper's temples, leaving the tent pin still projecting when she directed Barak and his men to their enemy lying in the toils of death. Barak was then obliged to join Deborah in a song of praise for the woman who had destroyed Israel's enemy, and God thereby established her sex on an equality with the men of Israel.
Jael was a tender-hearted woman of a tender-hearted family on friendly terms with the enemy, yet she defended the cause of God in a time of crisis by killing Sisera the enemy of Israel. To do so means discerning the importance of the time and accepting the message God sends, thereby justifying God and bringing salvation to herself and to the people. For this she is blessed above women in the tent, in contrast to those who fail to come to the help of the Lord against the mighty and bring a curse upon themselves.