• DEBORAH v. SISERA

       

    Bible Study Resource

       

    The Campaign of Deborah and Barak

    Deborah = 'bee'. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee...

    This battle was an heroic victory by a tribal federation over a sophisticated, though perhaps degenerate, enemy. In other words,  the small boy stood up to the schoolyard bully – and won.    

    The Canaanites in ancient Israel were superior in military technique, weaponry, organization and fortifications. Despite Joshua’s battles, they still had a firm hold on the coastal area and the Jezreel Valley – which was the best land in the area.    

    The local Canaanite kings had formed a league of northern states, under the leadership of King Jabin of the city of Hazor. They were still very powerful at this stage. Their cities had strong fortifications, but they knew this was not enough. By staying behind their closed gates they could not subdue the Israelites, who were causing them more and more trouble. They had to pursue a more active course – get out and fight.    

    Background to the Battle

    The Canaanite’s main military armament was the war chariot. It was mobile, feared, fast. Each vehicle was manned by two warriors and drawn by horses.      

    An ivory plaque found in excavations at Megiddo; it shows Canaanite chariots with horses in full gallop

      You will notice in the image that the axle-rod is not at the rear of the body, but at its center; this means that the Canaanite chariot was heavier than Egyptian war chariots, that had the axle further back.   

    Drawing of figures on the ivory plaque above

     At this time the federation of Israelite tribes was headed by Deborah, a leader and prophetess. Women like Miriam the sister of Moses, or Salome Alexandra who ruled the Hasmonean kingdom from 76-67BC,  have sometimes played a decisive role in Jewish history. Among these women, Deborah stands out. She provided leadership, unflinching valor, and above all clever strategy and tactics.    

    The tribal army of Israel at this time was still in its militia stage, made up of warriors from individual tribes who were summoned to battle only in an emergency. Each clan and family sent their quota of warrior-sons to battle. It was not a standing well-trained army such as Sisera could command, with its cohorts of chariots and its heavily armed pikemen.    

    She faced the sort of problem a modern-day commander might face if he had to fight cohorts of tanks in open country with only lightly-armed infantry and no armor-piercing weapons.    

    With this in mind, Deborah developed a three-phased campaign. She relied on   

    • guerrilla tactics familiar to the Israelite tribesmen
    • exploitation of topography and weather conditions.

    The Battle: Phase 1

    Tribal militia - in another country, another time

     She summoned as many Israelite tribesmen as she could get – the main contingent was from Naphtali and Zebulun. Some of the tribes would not come, but those who did camped at Mount Tabor. It was hilly ground, easily defensible, with a flanking position facing the Jezreel Valley. There was excellent visibility in all directions, and could be used for a surprise attack on any enemy camped at the foot of the mountain. The sloping ground gave the Israelites security against any Canaanite chariot attack.   

    The main Canaanite army base was at “Harosheth of the Gentiles.” This must have been close to the Valley of Jezreel, for the site of the decisive battle was near Megiddo, in the western section of the valley.   

    Phase 1: see key at bottom of page

     Key to map: 1 – Sisera’s first base camp; 2 – Deborah and Barak concentrate their forces on Mount Tabor; 3 – Sisera moves to occupy Mount Tabor; 4 – the second Israelite force near the northern slopes of Mount Ephraim 

    The Battle: Phase 2

    Deborah assumed that when Sisera was told about the Israelite deployment, he would concentrate all his forces at Mount Tabor, to contain Barak. Eventually, Sisera would have reasoned, Barak would be forced out into the open to fight on the open plain – where he could be defeated. But Deborah had a second force at her disposal, militia she had gathered from Ephraim. She used this body of soldiers to draw Sisera away from his vigil opposite Mount Tabor, towards the swampy area of the Kishon River in the western part of the Jezreel Valley.  She must have provided good reason for him to abandon his first position – tantalizingly, the Bible does not tell us what it was. But it must have been a movement threatening the unprotected plain. Only this would have induced Sisera to break camp and move in the direction of the Kishon River, to secure the narrow pass between the Carmel and the Tivon hills leading from the Jezreel Valley into the coastal plain.  

     Whatever this feint was, it worked.  

    The Battle: Phase 3 

    Head of a Warrior, da Vinci

     The opposing forces watched each other for a few days. One may surmise that Deborah was waiting for rain to turn the Kishon and its tributaries into a mire. When she received the confirmation she hoped for she gave Barak the sign to attack: ‘Up, for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand’ (Judges 4:13).  

     Her assault caught Sisera’s troops in the flanks or rear, or possibly both. At that point the Ephraimite force joined the main battle. ‘And the Lord discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak’ (Judges 4:15).  

     A sudden downpour aided the Israelites considerably and helped turn Sisera’s defeat into a rout. The Song of Deborah tells how the Kishon River rose and swept away in its torrent the enemy’s horses and chariots. Even the heavily armed infantry must have become bogged down and hampered in their movements. The Israelite warriors fell upon them and wiped them out.  

     Sisera panicked. Instead of trying to save as much as possible from the debacle and fight another day, he jumped off his chariot and fled by foot to his ignominious death at the hands of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, in whose tent he sought refuge. ‘So God subdued on that day Jabin the King of Canaan before the Children of Israel’ (Judges 4:23) 

    Phase 3; see key below

     

     Key to map: 1 – the second Israelite force moves to divert Sisera from Mount Tabor; 2 – the diversionary force is unsuccessfully intercepted by local Canaanite people near Taanach; 3 – Sisera moves to help the Canaanite force and stem the Israelite advance; 4 – Deborah and Barak follow Sisera; 5 – Deborah and Barak overcome Sisera by the River Kishon; 6 – Sisera’s army flees; 7 – Sisera escapes on foot and is killed by Jael

    Recommended Reading: Battles of the Bible, Chaim Herzog and Mordechai Gichon, Greenhill Books, London. Maps and keys to the maps are from this excellent book.
    The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, Vols 1 and 2, Yigael Yadin, McGraw Hill Book Company, New York.
    Never Say Die! A short version of Deborah’s story

    Deborah and Jael, Bible Women: a Bible Study Resource