Deborah: A bee.1. Rebekah's nurse. She accompanied her mistress when she left her
father's house in Padan-aram to become the wife of Isaac
(Genesis 24:59) Many years afterwards she died at Bethel, and was
buried under the "oak of weeping", Allon-bachuth
(Genesis 35:8)
2. A prophetess, "wife" (woman?) of Lapidoth. Jabin, the king of
Hazor, had for twenty years held Israel in degrading subjection.
The spirit of patriotism seemed crushed out of the nation. In
this emergency Deborah roused the people from their lethargy.
Her fame spread far and wide. She became a "mother in Israel"
(Judges 4:6,14; 5:7) and "the children of Israel came up to her for
judgment" as she sat in her tent under the palm tree "between
Ramah and Bethel." Preparations were everywhere made by her
direction for the great effort to throw off the yoke of bondage.
She summoned Barak from Kadesh to take the command of 10,000 men
of Zebulun and Naphtali, and lead them to Mount Tabor on the
plain of Esdraelon at its north-east end. With his aid she
organized this army. She gave the signal for attack, and the
Hebrew host rushed down impetuously upon the army of Jabin,
which was commanded by Sisera, and gained a great and decisive
victory. The Canaanitish army almost wholly perished. That was a
great and ever-memorable day in Israel. In
(Judges 5:1)ff is given
the grand triumphal ode, the "song of Deborah," which she wrote
in grateful commemoration of that great deliverance.
(See LAPIDOTH)
(See JABIN)