Deborah's adversary living before Israel's Monarchy
Sisera was the commander of the Canaanite army who was defeated by the Israelites under the leadership of Deborah and Barak.
🗺 Places mentioned alongside Sisera on the map →
Sisera was the commander of the Canaanite army under King Jabin of Hazor, who oppressed the Israelites for twenty years during the time of the judges (Jdg.4.2-3). Deborah, a prophetess and judge of Israel, summoned Barak and instructed him to gather an army to fight against Sisera (Jdg.4.4-7). Barak agreed to go only if Deborah accompanied him, to which she consented but prophesied that the honor of the victory would go to a woman (Jdg.4.8-9). In the ensuing battle at Mount Tabor, the Lord routed Sisera's army, and Barak pursued them (Jdg.4.14-16). Sisera fled on foot and sought refuge in the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite (Jdg.4.17). Jael welcomed Sisera and gave him a drink, but while he slept, she drove a tent peg through his temple, killing him (Jdg.4.18-21). The victory song of Deborah and Barak celebrates the defeat of Sisera and the role of Jael in his demise (Jdg.5.24-31). The story of Sisera's defeat is also mentioned in 1Sa.12.9 as an example of God's deliverance of Israel from their oppressors and in Psalm 1Sa.83.9 as a prayer for God to defeat Israel's enemies as He did with Sisera. The account of Sisera's downfall highlights the power of God to deliver His people and the role of women in His plan.
More background: search Wikipedia ↗
(Egypt. Ses-Ra, “servant of Ra”). (1.) The captain of Jabin’s army (Judg. 4:2), which was routed and destroyed by the army of Barak on the plain of Esdraelon. After all was lost he fled to the settlement of Heber the Kenite in the plain of Zaanaim. Jael, Heber’s wife, received him into her tent with apparent hospitality, and “gave him butter” (i.e., lebben, or curdled milk) “in a lordly dish.” Having drunk the refreshing beverage, he lay down, and soon sank into the sleep of the weary. While he lay asleep Jael crept stealthily up to him, and taking in her hand one of the tent pegs, with a mallet she drove it with such force through his temples that it entered into the ground where he lay, and “at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell down dead.” The part of Deborah’s song (Judg. 5:24-27) referring to the death of Sisera (which is a “mere patriotic outburst,” and “is no proof that purer eyes would have failed to see gross sin mingling with Jael’s service to Israel”) is thus rendered by Professor Roberts (Old Testament Revision): “Extolled above women be Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite, Extolled above women in the tent. He asked for water, she gave him milk; She brought him cream in a lordly dish. She stretched forth her hand to the nail, Her right hand to the workman’s hammer, And she smote Sisera; she crushed his head, She crashed through and transfixed his temples. At her feet he curled himself, he fell, he lay still; At her feet he curled himself, he fell; And where he curled himself, there he fell dead.” (2.) The ancestor of some of the Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:53; Neh. 7:55).
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
17 verses in 3 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H5516
So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his forces was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.
And I will draw out Sisera the commander of Jabinʼs army, his chariots, and his troops to the River Kishon, and I will deliver him into your hand.’”
“I will certainly go with you,” Deborah replied, “but the road you are taking will bring you no honor, because the LORD will be selling Sisera into the hand of a woman.” So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh,
When Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up Mount Tabor,
he summoned all nine hundred of his iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the River Kishon.
Then Deborah said to Barak, “Arise, for this is the day that the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone before you?” So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.
And in front of him the LORD routed with the sword Sisera, all his charioteers, and all his army. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot.
Then Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and the whole army of Sisera fell by the sword; not a single man was left.
Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.
Jael went out to greet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord. Come in with me. Do not be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to greet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man you are seeking.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera dead, with a tent peg through his temple.
From the heavens the stars fought; from their courses they fought against Sisera.
She reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workmanʼs hammer. She struck Sisera and crushed his skull; she shattered and pierced his temple.
Siseraʼs mother looked through the window; she peered through the lattice and lamented: ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? What has delayed the clatter of his chariots?’
‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil— a girl or two for each warrior, a plunder of dyed garments for Sisera, the spoil of embroidered garments for the neck of the looter?’
But they forgot the LORD their God, and He sold them into the hand of Sisera the commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab, who fought against them.
Do to them as You did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the River Kishon,
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.