Judges Part Two Deep Dive

SISERA IS NOT WELCOME HERE | EMMA AUSTIN

One of the stories in the Book of Judges that has always intrigued (and disturbed) me is the encounter of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, and Sisera, commander of the army of Jabin king of Hazor. You’ll find this encounter in Judges 4:17-21, and then retold in a poem in chapter 5. Essentially, Deborah and Barak are fighting Sisera and his army and they defeat them. But Sisera escapes to the camp of Heber the Kenite and is greeted by Heber’s wife, Jael, who invites him into her tent and offers him refreshment. When he falls asleep, she resourcefully takes a tent peg and hammer and drives it through his temple, thus freeing the Israelites from the attack of the Canaanites. It is heroic, no doubt, but also so strange! What is going on here?

As a way of thinking about this story, and many others in the Bible, one of my college professors, Dr Paul Wright of Jerusalem University College, explained the principle of “Kuyunjik vs. onion.” Kuyunjik is the name of the ancient palace at Nineveh, a huge mound of monumental archaeological value. On the other hand, an onion is an everyday food item of not much significance or value, too common to be of notice. The principle is this: in most cases, the Bible records events of monumental significance, such as what happens in the royal family, while the daily lives of ordinary folk were not worth writing down, perhaps because it was so familiar. 

What this means for our examination of biblical narratives is that we should be aware of the ordinary ‘onion’ folk who are living beyond the perimeter of the Kuyunjik-scale narratives, outside of the palaces and spotlight, and pay attention when we do encounter them. What daily practices will we see and how might they be subverted to make a point? Two resources I recommend if you are interested in this are Social World of Ancient Israel: 1250-587 B.C.E. by Victor M. Matthews and Don Benjamin and Life in Biblical Israel by Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager. 

In our story, we are meeting an ‘onion’ woman who has become a hero. How do I know she was ordinary? Deborah and Barak describe her as “of tent-dwelling women most blessed” (5:24). That’s like calling me, “of townhouse-dwelling women most blessed” (I’ll take it!) If we examine now her actions in light of the norms and expectations of ordinary folk, leaving aside killing the man, we find that it is Sisera’s actions that would have been shocking to the ancient reader, not Jael’s. Here’s why.

In the ancient Near East, interaction with strangers was much more conspicuous than it is in today’s widely connected, globalised world. The concept of gerim (translated as ‘sojourners’, ‘resident aliens’ or ‘clients’, see 2 Chr. 2:17) was essentially anyone outside of your immediate family, so almost anybody you met outside of that circle was a stranger. However, since gerim were also far away from their own family and home, it became a cultural protocol to show hospitality. In fact, it was a sacred duty prescribed in the Mosaic law: “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love them as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:34). 

As a result, certain expectations arose for both parties. The guest should approach the head of the household, usually the father so that he might extend the invitation of hospitality (see Judg. 19:20 where the old man invites the Levite to his home). The host should offer water, food, and shelter to the stranger, who would at first refuse, and then respond favourably to the repeated offer (see Gen. 19:2-3). The host would then wash the stranger’s feet, signaling that they are now accepted as a guest and will be offered food and drink, and privacy from probing personal questions. The guest, in response, was to not overstay their welcome, nor request more than was offered or any of his possessions, as this would shame the host; and was to offer a blessing over the household upon departure (Gen. 18:18-19).

In the narrative, Sisera does not go directly to the head of the household, Heber the Kenite, who was authorised to extend an invitation of hospitality, but instead goes “to the tent Jael” (Judg. 4:17). As she is not able to extend the offer of hospitality, his entrance into her tent further violates the codes of hospitality, and the absence of foot washing indicates that he has not been granted the status of guest. Further, Sisera does not wait to be offered refreshments, demanding of her water. Nevertheless, Jael surpasses his request by offering the even greater delicacy of milk. He then asks her to keep watch over the entrance while he sleeps. To ancient readers, her actions are seen as protective over her household from this man who is clearly not to be trusted as an ally (Matthews and Benjamin, 87-94). 

This biblical example clearly illustrates the important place the protocols of hospitality had in the society of ancient Israel in providing a means for the host to determine whether a stranger was to be a welcomed guest or a shunned enemy. The praise for Jael’s bravery and wisdom is reflected poetically in Judges 5, the finality of it is celebrated in verse 27:

“Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still;
Between her feet he sank, he fell;
Where he sank, there he fell – dead.”

Jael was an ordinary, ‘onion’ woman who saved the honour of her household while at the same time-saving Israel from the attack of the Canaanites. I pray we won’t need to use tent pegs so creatively any time soon! But whenever the devil tries to move in on your house, your thoughts, your identity, your worth, or your relationship with the Lord, know that you don’t have to sit back and let the intruder intrude. God has outfitted you with everything you need to fight back, so take up that shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, onion warriors! Sisera is not welcome here!

Emma Austin after visiting Israel, Palestine and Jordan for the first time in 2010,
became a passionate, lifelong lover and student of the geography of the
biblical lands. She completed a Master of Theology at Alphacrucis College in
Sydney, writing a thesis on Eastern Orthodox iconography, and lived in Jerusalem
for 2 and a half years completing a second Masters in Biblical History and
Geography. She is now a doctoral student at the University of Sydney, studying
the way that the prophet Jeremiah uses geographic imagery to creatively rethink
the relationship between God, the people of Israel and the land.

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extra resources

judges part two

judges part three