Judges 4: Deborah

Yet again, the children of Israel had disobeyed the Lord. At this point in time, they had been under the yoke of Jabin, a Canaanite king, for twenty years. He had nine hundred chariots of iron, and was apparently very powerful.

The Lord raised up Deborah, a prophetess, to free the Israelites from oppression under Jabin. The text says that she would pass judgements for the children of Israel while she sat under the palm tree of Deborah.

Deborah summoned Barak, an army officer, and told him to go with ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun to fight King Jabin’s armies. Barak said he would only go if Deborah went as well, so she agreed to join him. Deborah then prophesied that Sisera, the enemy commander, would be defeated by a woman.

The two armies clashed at by the River Kishon, and all of Sisera’s men were killed. Sisera then fled to the tent of Heber, an Israelite who was on peaceful terms with King Jabin. Jael, Heber’s wife, invited Sisera to come in with the comforting words, “fear not”. She covered him with a blanket, gave him milk to drink, and let him sleep there.

Then Jael quietly took a tent peg and drove it into Sisera’s temple using a hammer, so that the peg stuck in the earth. When Barak came to the tent, pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to tell him, “come, and I will show you the man you seek.” And she showed him Sisera, dead, with a peg through his temple.

So Jabin’s army was defeated that day, and Israel grew stronger until their oppression under Jabin came to an end.

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Deborah is an especially significant character in the Bible, because she was the only female judge of Israel. It was very unusual for a woman in those times to rise to power, yet she truly earned the respect of her people. Deborah, as a woman, stands for the nurturing power of the Word to strengthen us during regeneration. Her name means ‘a bee’, but this comes from a word meaning ‘to speak’ – here, to speak the Word. Bees make honey; honey is nutritious; God’s word is our nourishment (see Swedenborg’s work, Arcana Caelestia 3424[2]).

The fact that Deborah judged from under a palm tree may seem like a passing detail, but even this contributes to the spiritual meaning of the story. Palm trees stand for the divine truths of the Word, which means that Deborah was judging the people from her understanding of the Lord’s truths.

King Jabin’s nine hundred iron chariots represent the apparent power of false beliefs, thoughts and persuasions over us. The number ‘nine’ stands for something which is complete, and ‘iron’ here stands for either natural truths or falsities. A ‘chariot’, being pulled by a horse, always stands for a set of teachings or doctrine. These three symbols add to the picture of a very powerful enemy: false ideas and views that can weaken and overwhelm us (Arcana Caelestia 4720[2]).

The spiritual meaning of the complex arrangement between Barak and Deborah is that we can only deal with our spiritual conflicts if we take the Word’s power (Deborah) with us. Barak, a man, represents the power of truth, but Deborah says a woman will gain victory over Sisera. The feminine stands for the power of love: our charity, our affection for good, and our wish to be useful. These qualities are always essential in our spiritual life (see Swedenborg’s work, Apocalypse Explained 1120[2]).

The story about Jael and Sisera is really about actively resisting the temptations of evil in our lives. Jael, a woman, stands for the power of good to overcome what is false in our mind. Driving the tent peg through Sisera’s head stands for the complete destruction of what is false. Driving it right through and into the ground stands for the power of good in our life and in our regeneration, because the ground represents our actions (Arcana Caelestia 268).

When Barak and Jael meet, it stands for the unity between good (Jael, a woman) and truth (Barak, a man). This unity of good and truth appears again at the start of the next chapter, in which Deborah and Barak sing of Israel’s victory.

3249. 'Eastwards to the land of the east' means towards the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'the east' and 'the land of the east', to be dealt with below. The good of faith which is meant by 'the land of the east' is nothing else but that which in the Word is called charity towards the neighbour. And charity towards the neighbour is nothing else than a life according to the Lord's commandments. This is what 'the land of the east' means, see 1250. Those therefore who possessed cognitions regarding the good of faith were called 'the sons of the east'. The land of the sons of the east was Aram or Syria - Aram or Syria meaning cognitions of good, see 1232, 1234, and Aram Naharaim or Syria of the [Two] Rivers cognitions of truth, 3051. And because the Syrians, or 'the sons of the east' means those who possessed cognitions of good and truth, they above all others were referred to as wise, as in 1 Kings where Solomon is referred to,

The wisdom of Solomon surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east. 1 Kings 4:30.

And in Matthew, in reference to those who came to Jesus at His birth,

Wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east and have come to worship Him. Matthew 2:1-2.

[2] Indeed in Syria there existed the final remnants of the Ancient Church, which is why cognitions of good and truth still remained there, as also becomes clear from Balaam who not only worshipped Jehovah but also prophesied concerning the Lord and called Him,

A star out of Jacob and a sceptre out of Israel. Numbers 24:17.

The fact that he belonged to the sons of the east in Syria is self-evident, for he says of himself when delivering his discourse,

From Syria Balak has brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. Numbers 23:7.

The fact that Aram or Syria was where the sons of the east lived is made additionally clear from the consideration that when Jacob went to Syria he is said to have gone to the land of the sons of the east, Genesis 29:1.