Sisera: (Egypt. Ses-Ra, "servant of Ra").1. The captain of Jabin's army
(Judges 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
(Judges 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; Nehemiah 7:55)