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

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

Family

All that the bible says is that Jael was the wife of Heber the Kenite. The Kenites were a clan or small people, originally nomadic, who were not Israelites, but some of whom lived in close proximity with the Israelites. The bible records a number of cases of intermarriage; the (or a) 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 grouping.

Jael in the book of Judges

God told Deborah (a prophetess and leader) that she would deliver Israel from Jabin. Deborah called Barak to make up an army to lead into battle against Jabin on the plain of Esdraelon. But Barak demanded that Deborah would accompany him into the battle. Deborah agreed but prophesied that the honour of the killing of the other army's captain would be given to a woman. Jabin's army was led by Sisera (Judg. 4:2), who fled the battle after all was lost.

Jael received the fleeing Sisera at the settlement of Heber the Kenite on the plain of Zaanaim. Jael welcomed him into her tent with apparent hospitality. She 'gave him milk' 'in a lordly dish'. Having drunk the refreshing beverage, he lay down and soon sank into the sleep of the weary. While he lay asleep Jael crept stealthily up to him, holding a tent peg and a mallet. She drove it through his temples with such force that it entered into the ground below. And 'at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell down dead'.

Limoges enamel plaque, 1550-75

As a result of the killing of Sisera, God gave the victory to Israel. Jael is considered "blessed", according to the text, because of her action. Deborah's song (Judg. 5:23-27) that refers to the death of Sisera:

"Extolled above women be Jael,
The wife of Heber the Kenite,
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.
At her feet he curled himself, he fell, he lay still;
At her feet he curled himself, he fell;
And where he curled himself, let it be, there he fell dead."

Scholars[1] 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.[2] A similar story is explored in the deuterocanonical Book of Judith.

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."[3]

Artistic depictions of Jael

Medieval images of Jael, mostly in illuminated manuscripts, depicted her as both a defender of Israel and a prefiguration of the Virgin Mary.[4] 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 identity.

Jael and Sisera, by Artemisia Gentileschi

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. [5] 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, The Idolatry of Solomon, and witches. More positively, Jael was included in sets of the female Nine Worthies, such as the prints by Hans Burgkmair.[6] Ladies, who were presumably Jewish, sometimes chose to have their portraits painted as Jael, a transformation achieved by holding a hammer and spike.[7]

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.[8]

In popular culture

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.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Halpern, Baruch (1983). The First Historians. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Wolfthal, Diane (October 2000). Images of Rape: The Heroic Tradition and its Alternatives. Cambridge University Press. p. 123. ISBN 0-521-79442-0.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ 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
  7. ↑ One illustrated below; see also this example from Amsterdam in 1640
  8. ↑ 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. 

External links

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