Sisera, the head
of the Canaanite kings, is transformed into a mere general; the
oppression of the Hebrews is made general and indefinite. Jael
murders Sisera when he is Iying in a deep sleep by driving a
tent-peg into the ground through his temples. There is nothing
of this in the song: there he is drinking when she strikes the
blow, and is conceived as standing at the time, else he could
not bow down at her feet and fall, and lie struck dead where
he fell (ver. 27).
In the song the campaign is prepared with human means.
Negotiations are carried on among the tribes, and in the course of
these differences crop up. The lukewarmness or the swelling words
of some tribes are reproved, the energetic public spirit and
warlike courage of others praised. In the narrative, on the
contrary, the deliverance is the work of Jehovah alone; the men of
Israel are mere dummies, who show no merit and deserve no praise.
To make up for this, interest is concentrated on the act of Jael,
which instead of being an episode becomes the central point of the
whole narrative. Indeed it is announced as being so, for Deborah
prophesies to Barak that the glory of the conflict will not be his
but a woman's, into whose hand the enemy is to be sold; it is not
the hero, not human strength, that accomplishes what is done:
Jehovah shows His strength in man's weakness.
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