Deborah
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Deborah or was a prophetess and the fourth, and the only female, Judge of pre-monarchic Israel in the Old Testament (Tanakh). Her story is told twice, in chapters 4 and 5 of Judges.
Judges 5 gives this same story in poetic form. This passage, often called The Song of Deborah, may date to as early as the 8th century BC and is perhaps the earliest sample of Hebrew poetry.
It is also significant because it is one of the oldest passages that portrays fighting women, the account being that of Jael, the wife of Heber, a Kenite tentmaker. Jael killed Sisera by driving a tent peg through his temple as he slept. The account is interesting in that both Deborah and Jael are portrayed as strong independent women. The poem may have been included in the Book of the Wars of the Lord mentioned in Numbers 21:14.
