Grave near Tel Kadesh attributed to Barak or Deborah

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.

The first account is prose, relating the victory of Israelite forces led by General Barak, whom Deborah called forth, but prophesied would not achieve the final victory over the Canaanite general Sisera himself. That honor went to Jael, the wife of Heber, a Kenite tentmaker. Jael killed Sisera by driving a tent peg through his temple as he slept.

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 BCE, which would make it one of the oldest passages of the Bible and the earliest extant sample of Hebrew poetry.

It is also significant because it is one of the oldest passages that portrays fighting women. The poem may have been included in the Book of the Wars of the Lord mentioned in Numbers 21:14.

Gustave Dore's interpretation of the prophetess Deborah

Little is known about Deborah's personal life. In the Book of Judges, it was stated that she is the wife of Lappidoth (meaning "torches"). But since this name is not found outside of the Book of Judges, it might simply mean that Deborah herself was a "fiery" spirit. She was a poet and she rendered her judgments beneath a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the land of Benjamin. Some people today refer to her as the mother of Israel because of what Deborah said of herself in Judges 5:7, "until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel," After her victory over Sisera and the Canaanite army, there was peace in the land for forty years.

See also

• Biblical judges
• Book of Judges
• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture
• Animal names as first names in Hebrew
• Jael

External links

• Book of Judges article (Jewish Encyclopedia)
• Debbora - Catholic Encyclopedia article
• Biblical Hebrew Poetry - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience
• Song of Deborah (Judges 5) Reconstructed

ca:Dèbora de:Debora (Richterin) es:Débora fa:????? fr:Débora id:Debora it:Debora (Bibbia) he:????? ?????? nl:Debora (persoon) ja:??? no:Debora nn:Profeten Debora pl:Debora (posta? biblijna) pt:Débora (juíza) ru:?????? sh:Deborah fi:Debora