A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Deborah, a prophetess
DEBORAH,
A prophetess and judge in Israel, and the most extraordinary woman recorded in the Old Testament. She lived about a hundred and thirty years after the death of Joshua. The Israelites were in subjection to Jabin, king of the Canaanites, who for twenty years had "mightily oppressed" them. Josephus says, "No humiliation was saved them; and this was permitted by God, to punish them for their pride and obstinacy;" according to the Bible, for their "idolatry and wickedness." In this miserable and degraded condition they were, when "Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth," was raised up to be the "judge" and deliverer of her people. By the authority God had sanctioned, in giving her superior spiritual insight and patriotism, she called and commissioned Barak to take ten thousand men of the tribe of Naphthali and of Zebulun, and go against Sisera and his host. According to Josephus, this armed host of the Canaanites consisted of three hundred thousand infantry, ten thousand cavalry, and three thousand chariots; the Bible does not give the number, but names "nine hundred chariots of iron," and the army as "a multitude." Barak seems to have been so alarmed at the idea of defying such a host of enemies, or so doubtful of succeeding in gathering his own army, that he refused to go, unless Deborah would accompany him. Here was a new and great call on her energies. She had shewn wisdom in counsel, superior, we must infer, to that of any man in Israel, for all the people "came up to her for judgment;"—but had she courage to go out to battle for her country? The sequel shewed that she was brave as wise; and the reproof she bestowed on Barak for his cowardice or want of faith, is both delicate and dignified. She had offered him the post of military glory; it belonged to him as a man; but since he would not take it, since he resolved to drag a woman forward to bear the blame of the insurrection, should the patriot effort fail; the "honour" of success would be given to a "woman!" And it was. But Deborah's spirit-stirring influence so animated the army of the Israelites, that the numerical force of the Canaanites was of no avail. When she said, to Barak, "Up; for this is the day ill which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand;" her battle-cry inspired him with faith, and he rushed "down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him." "The Lord discomfitted Sisera and all his chariots, and all his host;" being, if Josephus is right, a hundred to one against the little army of Barak, besides the "nine hundred iron chariots." Of the mighty host of Sisera not a man escaped. What a victory to be achieved, by the blessing of God, under the guidance of a woman!
After the battle was won and Israel saved, then Deborah, who had shewn her wisdom as a judge, and her bravery as a warrior, came forth to her people in her higher quality of prophetess and priestess, and raised her glorious song, which, for poetry, sublimity, and historic interest, has never been exceeded, except by the canticle of Moses. It is true that Barak's name is joined with hers in the singing, but the wording of the ode shews that it was her composition; as she thus declares,—"Hear, ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, I, will sing unto the Lord; I will sing to the Lord God of Israel." Then she pathetically alludes to the wasted condition of her country, when the "highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways."—"The villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I, Deborah, arose, that I arose a mother in Israel "
How beautiful is her character shewn in the title she assumed for herself! not "Judge," "Heroine" "Prophetess," though she was all these, but she chose the tender name or "Mother" as the highest style of woman; and described the utter misery of her people, as arousing her to assume the high station of a patriot and leader. It was not ambition, but love, that stirred her noble spirit, and nerved her for the duties of government. She is a remarkable exemplification of the spiritual influence woman has wielded for the benefit of humanity, when the energies of man seemed entirely overcome. Her genius was superior to any recorded in the history of the Hebrews, from Moses to David, an interval of more than four hundred years; and scriptural commentators have remarked, that Deborah alone, of all the rulers of Israel, has escaped unreproved by the prophets and inspired historians. The land under her motherly rule had "rest forty years." See Judges, chapters iv. and v.