Judges 4 · a question people ask
Jael welcomed Sisera into her tent, then killed him (4:18-21). Was that right?
The chapter tells what she did in a few verses (4:18-22) and gives no verdict on it in its own words. Both readings below agree that the chapter gives the victory to the LORD, "The LORD confused Sisera, all his chariots, and all his army" (4:15), and that Sisera was the captain of the army of a king who "mightily oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years" (4:2-3). The song in chapter 5 comes back to her (5:24-27), and chapter 5 is where that song is taught. Christians read her act in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The LORD's deliverance by her hand
Those who hold this view start from Deborah's word before the battle, "the LORD will sell Sisera into a woman’s hand" (4:9), and the chapter's own words about that day: "So God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel on that day" (4:23). They note that the song sung by Deborah and Barak says, "Jael shall be blessed above women, the wife of Heber the Kenite" (5:24), and they read her act as the way the LORD gave the captain of Israel's oppressor into a woman's hand.
Judges 4:9 · Judges 4:23 · Judges 5:1 · Judges 5:24
Recorded, the means not approved
Those who hold this view note that there was peace between Jabin and the house of Heber (4:17), that Jael invited Sisera in with "Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; don’t be afraid" (4:18), and that the chapter gives her no command from the LORD and no verdict on how she did it. They read 4:9 as Deborah saying what would happen, not how, and the blessing of 5:24 as praise for the deliverance it sings of (5:1-3). They note that Judges often records what people did without approving it; twice it says, "Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes" (17:6, 21:25).
Judges 4:17-18 · Judges 4:9 · Judges 5:1-3 · Judges 5:24 · Judges 17:6 · Judges 21:25
The verses
“The LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles. The children of Israel cried to the LORD, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and he mightily oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years.”
“The LORD confused Sisera, all his chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled away on his feet.”
““Jael shall be blessed above women, the wife of Heber the Kenite; blessed shall she be above women in the tent. He asked for water. She gave him milk. She brought him butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer. With the hammer she struck Sisera. She struck through his head. Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. At her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.”