Judges 2; 4; 6–7, 13–16

In Judges, as in Joshua, we can consider some interesting passages about women and their relationships to men: Deborah, Jael, Samson’s mother, Samson’s Philistine wife, and Delilah. The scriptures don’t tell us about Deborah’s relationship with her husband, and very little about the relationship between Samson’s mother and father, but it is very clear that Jael acted counter to her husband’s previous political choices, and that both Samson’s Philistine wife and Delilah placed loyalty to their people and culture above loyalty to Samson. I am accustomed to hearing people tell me that women were not allowed much of a life in ancient times compared to men. But I do find that this lesson challenges that picture.

The thing that interests me about Deborah is that she was obviously highly valued and respected. Judges 4:4 calls her “Deborah, a prophetess,” and also informs us that she acted as a judge. When Barak goes to war against Jabin’s army, led by Sisera, not only does Deborah go along, but after Deborah tells Barak in verses 6 and 7 that the Lord is going to give him a victory against Sisera, Barak tells her in verse 8 that he will not even try to go against Sisera unless she goes too. This is clearly an extraordinary woman.

While reading about Deborah, I was also interested by footnote 4a at the bottom of the page. It cites Exodus 15:20 (which calls Miriam a prophetess) and Acts 21:9 (which talks about four sisters who all exercised the gift of prophesy). The footnote also cites the entry “Woman” in the Topical Guide. That entry points in turn to an entry named “Prophetess.” Today we are deeply uncomfortable talking about women as prophetesses; but isn’t it interesting that the people of the Old and New Testaments sometimes took a different view?

Later chapter 4, from verses 10 to 24, we read about Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, and Sisera. Heber was not on good terms with the Kenites (Judges 4:11) but did have a good relationship with Jabin, king of Canaan (Judges 4:2 and 4:17). When Sisera lost the battle against Israel, he ran away to Heber’s tent, and Jael greeted him. “Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not,” she tells Sisera in verse 18. But once he was asleep, in verse 21, “Jael… took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.”

Under the circumstances, this has to have been hard on Jael’s marriage. On the other hand, considering the fact that Sisera had been defeated, perhaps her actions preserved her husband’s life, since he had had a good relationship with Jabin, and Jabin’s army had been defeated. I wish we found out what happened when Heber came home. Was he angry? Or did her decision save his life and give him a chance at a new start? The scriptures are silent.

We read about another strong, intelligent woman when we meet Samson’s mother in Judges 13. The purpose of this chapter seems to be setting up the importance of Samson by talking about the miraculous events that occurred before his birth. However, we also learn a little about his father, Manoah, and his mother. Starting in verse 22 and continuing to verse 23, we read: “And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. But his wife said unto him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these.” I don’t see her name anywhere in these verses, but one thing is certain: She had common sense, and unlike her husband, she wasn’t scared of angelic visitations. Under the same circumstances, would we do as well as she did?

Despite his mother, Samson does not appear to have had much sense when it came to women. We read about his ill-fated marriage in Judges 14, where his wife wears him down with her tears during the seven days of feasting to celebrate their marriage, and then betrays him to thirty Philistine companions so that he will lose a bet he made. When Samson goes angrily home to his father in verse 20, her father then marries her to “his companion, whom he had used as his friend.” Is the companion one of the thirty men who had been feasting with him? Was Samson’s wife really in love with the companion and not him? The only certainty is that her actions don’t show a single shred of love for him.

And maybe she had good reason. In chapter 15 we read about how Samson takes his revenge on the Philistines, and how the Philistines kill both her and her father. In chapter 16, we discover that Samson, who according to Judges 15:20 “judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years,” apparently thought using a prostitute was appropriate behavior (Judges 16:1). But then he meets Delilah, who betrays him the same way his wife did (was his wife foreshadowing his later fate?), and causes his entire destruction, along with all the Philistines he kills when he pulls down the building. The story reads like one of the original Grimm’s fairytales, before they got cleaned up.

What can we take away from all of this? I find it hard to know what to believe and what not to believe in this story, or how to account for everything these chapters tell us. What I do see is that even in cultures that do not treat women well compared to the men, we cannot assume that all women in that culture are powerless, or that they have no influence on the important events of the day.

Sunday School Notebook -May 2006 - Susan Morgan