Sisera

Sisera - (Egypt. Ses-Ra, "servant of Ra"). (1.) The captain of Jabin's\narmy (Judg. 4:2), which was routed and destroyed by the army of\nBarak on the plain of Esdraelon. After all was lost he fled to\nthe settlement of Heber the Kenite in the plain of Zaanaim.\nJael, Heber's wife, received him into her tent with apparent\nhospitality, and "gave him butter" (i.e., lebben, or curdled\nmilk) "in a lordly dish." Having drunk the refreshing beverage,\nhe lay down, and soon sank into the sleep of the weary. While he\nlay asleep Jael crept stealthily up to him, and taking in her\nhand one of the tent pegs, with a mallet she drove it with such\nforce through his temples that it entered into the ground where\nhe lay, and "at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed,\nthere he fell down dead." The part of Deborah's song (Judg.\n5:24-27) referring to the death of Sisera (which is a "mere\npatriotic outburst," and "is no proof that purer eyes would have\nfailed to see gross sin mingling with Jael's service to Israel")\nis thus rendered by Professor Roberts (Old Testament Revision): "Extolled above women be Jael,\nThe wife of Heber the Kenite,\nExtolled above women in the tent.\nHe asked for water, she gave him milk;\nShe brought him cream in a lordly dish.\nShe stretched forth her hand to the nail,\nHer right hand to the workman's hammer,\nAnd she smote Sisera; she crushed his head,\nShe crashed through and transfixed his temples.\nAt her feet he curled himself, he fell, he lay still;\nAt her feet he curled himself, he fell;\nAnd where he curled himself, there he fell dead." (2.) The ancestor of some of the Nethinim who returned with\nZerubbabel (Ezra 2:53; Neh. 7:55).