Deborah
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Summer Song
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{{Otheruses|Deborah (disambiguation)}}
{| align="right"
| [[Image:Barak devorah.jpg|thumb|float:right|250px|Grave near [[Tel Kadesh]] attributed to Barak or Deborah]]
|}
{{Book of Judges}}
'''Deborah''' or ({{Hebrew Name|דְּבוֹרָה||Dəḇôrāh|"[[Bee]]"}}) was a prophetess and the fourth Judge and only female Judge of pre-monarchic [[Israel]] in the [[Old Testament]] ([[Tanakh]]). Her story is told twice in chapters 4 and 5 of [[Book of Judges|Judges]]. The first account is [[prose]], relating the victory of Israelite forces led by General [[Barak]], whom Deborah called forth but prophesied would not achieve the final victory over the [[Canaan]]ite general [[Sisera]] himself. That honor went to [[Jael]], the wife of [[Heber (Judges)|Heber]], a [[Kenite]] tentmaker. Jael killed Sisera by driving a tent [[peg]] through his [[Temple (anatomy)|temple]] as he slept.
''Judges'' 5 gives this same story in [[poetry|poetic form]]. This passage, often called ''The [[Song]] of Deborah'' may date to as early as the [[8th century BC]], which would make it one of the oldest passages of the Bible and the earliest extant sample of [[Hebrew poetry]].
Two dates are given in the text, 28:30 and 28:31, the first pointing to the fall of [[Ephraim]] (722 BCE), the other to a time near the beginning of the [[royal house of Israel]].
It is also significant because it is one of the oldest passages that portrays [[Timeline of women in ancient warfare|fighting women]].
The poem may have been included in the ''[[Book of the Wars of the Lord]]'' mentioned in [[Book of Numbers|Numbers]] 21:14.
[[Image:Deborah.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Gustave Dore]]'s interpretation of the prophetess Deborah]]
Little is known about Deborah's personal life. In the [[Book of Judges]], it was stated that she is the wife of Lappidoth (meaning "torches"). But since this name is not found outside of the [[Book of Judges]], it might simply mean that Deborah herself was a "fiery" spirit. She was a poet and she rendered her judgments beneath a [[palm tree]] between [[Ramah]] and [[Bethel]] in the land of [[Benjamin]]. Some people today refer to her as the mother of [[Ancient Israel|Israel]] because of what Deborah said of herself in Judges 5:7, "until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel," After her victory over Sisera and the Canaanite army, there was peace in the land for forty years.
== See also ==
*[[Biblical judges]]
*[[Book of Judges]]
*[[List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture]]
*[[Animal names as first names in Hebrew]]
*[[Jael]]
==External links==
{{wikisourcepar|Bible, English, King James, Judges#Chapter 4}}
*[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=689&letter=J&search=Judges Book of Judges article] (Jewish Encyclopedia)
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04663a.htm Debbora] - Catholic Encyclopedia article
*[http://www.houseofdavid.ca/anc_heb.htm Biblical Hebrew Poetry - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience]
*[http://www.houseofdavid.ca/anc_heb.htm#Deborah Song of Deborah (Judges 5) Reconstructed]
{{Prophets of the Tanakh}}
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[[Category:Biblical women in ancient warfare]]
[[Category:Given names]]
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