The Lord is the leading actor in this scene. He not only controlled the enemy army and brought it into the trap, but He also controlled the weather and used a storm to defeat Sisera’s troops.
Sisera is warned (vv. 11–12). Verse 12 suggests that it was Heber and his family who first warned Sisera that the Jews were about to revolt and where the Israelite army was mustering. We met the Kenites in 1: and discovered that they were distant relatives of the Jews through Moses. It seems strange that Heber the Kenite would separate himself from his people, who worshipped Jehovah, and be friendly with idolatrous tyrants like Jabin and Sisera (4:17). Perhaps he needed the protection and business of the Canaanites as he carried on his trade as an itinerant metalworker. The Kenites seem to be attached to the tribe of Judah (1:16), but the men of Judah weren’t among the volunteers in Barak’s army.
It’s possible, however, to view Heber from another perspective and see him as a part of God’s plan to lure Sisera into the trap. Heber wasn’t an ally of Jabin’s; he was simply trying to maintain a neutral position in a divided society. But once the Jewish army was in place at Mount Tabor, Heber ran and gave the news to Sisera, and Sisera had no reason to question the report. Sisera began to move his army and fell right into the trap.
Sisera is defeated (vv. 13–16). The Canaanites depended on their 900 iron chariots to give them the advantage they needed as they met the Jewish army (1:19; see Josh. 17:18). What they didn’t know was that the Lord would send a fierce rainstorm that would make the Kishon River overflow and turn the battlefield into a sea of mud (Judg. 5:20–22). The water and mud would severely impede the mobility of the Canaanite chariots and horses, and this situation would make it easy for the Israelite soldiers to attack and slaughter the enemy. The trap worked, and the enemy army was wiped out.
Along with the storm from the heavens and the flood from the swollen river, God sent confusion in the minds of the enemy troops. The word translated “routed” (4: nkjv) means “confused, thrown into panic.” This is what God had done to Pharaoh’s charioteers in the Red Sea (Ex. 14:24) and would later do to the Philistines in Samuel’s day (1 Sam. 7:10).
One thing that helped to confuse and frighten the Canaanites was the sudden appearance of torrential rain during the traditional dry season. Since Sisera wouldn’t have taken his chariots to the fields if he had suspected any kind of bad weather, we can safely assume that this battle was fought during the June-toSeptember dry season. When you remember that the Canaanite god Baal was the god of storms, you can see how the sudden change of weather could have affected the superstitious Canaanites. Had their own god Baal turned against them? Was the God of Israel stronger than Baal? If so, then the battle was already lost, and the wisest thing the soldiers could do was flee.
Sisera is slain (vv. 17–23). While Barak and his men were pursuing and killing the fleeing Canaanites, some of whom were in chariots and others on foot, the Canaanite captain Sisera was running for his life, probably heading toward Hazor and safety. But weariness got the best of him, and providentially he was near the tents of Heber at the oak of Zaanannim (v. 11). This famous oak was on the border of Naphtali (Josh. 19:33), about six miles east of Mount Tabor.
Since Sisera knew that Heber and his people were friendly toward Jabin, this settlement seemed a good place to stop and rest. When Heber’s wife, Jael, came out to meet Sisera and invited him into her tent, the Canaanite captain was sure that he was at last safe. After all, in that culture nobody would dare enter a wife’s tent except her husband. Jael gave him milk instead of water and then covered him with a blanket, and he was confident that he had found a dependable ally and could rest in peace.
But Sisera made the mistake of telling Jael to lie if anyone asked whether he was there. Being a wise woman, she concluded that Sisera was fleeing the battlefield, which meant that the Jews had won the battle and the Canaanite grip on the land was broken. If she protected Sisera, she’d be in trouble with the Jews, her own relatives. No doubt somebody was chasing Sisera, and whoever it was wouldn’t be satisfied until the captain was dead.
But Sisera had no reason to suspect danger. After all, Heber’s clan was friendly to the Canaanites, Jael had shown him hospitality and kindness, and no pursuing Jewish soldier was likely to force his way into a woman’s tent. What Sisera didn’t know was that God had promised that a woman would take his life (Judg. 4:9).
When Sisera was in a deep sleep, Jael killed him by pounding a tent peg through his head. In the Eastern nomadic tribes, it was the women who put up and took down the tents, so Jael knew how to use a hammer. When Barak arrived on the scene, he discovered that his enemy was dead and that Deborah’s prediction had been fulfilled. For a captain to flee from a battle was embarrassing; for him to be killed while fleeing was humiliating; but to be killed by a woman was the most disgraceful thing of all (9:54).
Should we bless or blame Jael for what she did? She invited Sisera into her tent, treated him kindly, and told him not to be afraid; so she was deceitful. The Kenites were at peace with Jabin, so she violated a treaty. She gave Sisera the impression that she would guard the door, so she broke a promise. She killed a defenseless man who was under her protection, so she was a murderess. Yet Deborah sang, “Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent” (5:24).
To begin with, let’s not read back into the era of the judges the spiritual standards taught by Jesus and the apostles. Also, let’s keep in mind that the Jews had been under terrible bondage because of Jabin and Sisera, and it was God’s will that the nation be delivered. Both Jabin and Sisera had been guilty of mistreating the Jews for years, and if the Canaanite army had won the battle, hundreds of Jewish girls would have been captured and raped (v. 30). Jael not only helped deliver the nation of Israel from bondage, but also she helped to protect the women from the most vicious brutality. She wasn’t a Semitic “Lady Macbeth” who murdered her guest for her own personal gain. There was a war on, and this courageous woman finally stopped being neutral and took her stand with the people of God.