Twenty Years of Iron

Ehud died, and the Israelites again did evil in the sight of the LORD. The account begins with that small word, again. Someone who had led them was gone, and the people returned to what they had done before. Before it names the king who would rule over them, it names their own turning.

“So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor.” That is how the account describes Israel’s place beneath another king. Jabin reigned from Hazor, and his power reached into the lives of the Israelites. They were in his hand.

His commander was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. The king had a city, the army had a commander, and behind both stood nine hundred chariots of iron. The number is given exactly. It is part of the story before anyone is summoned to stand against them.

For twenty years, Jabin harshly oppressed Israel. Twenty years was long enough for a child born near the beginning to grow up beneath the same king’s power. The account does not divide those years into separate troubles or tell us which year was hardest. It gathers the whole long stretch into one sentence.

“Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he had harshly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.” Their cry comes with the weight of both numbers behind it. Nine hundred chariots, twenty years — the strength arrayed against them, and the length of time they had borne it.

The cry did not yet come with an army attached. No march has begun, and no challenger has been named to Sisera. The people have cried out from beneath Jabin’s rule. At this point in the telling, his chariots are still his, and Israel is still under his hand.

Then the account turns from Hazor and Harosheth-hagoyim to the hill country of Ephraim. Between Ramah and Bethel, a woman sat beneath a palm. The tree bore her name, and the Israelites went up to her there for judgment. While Jabin ruled and Sisera commanded, this work was already being done.

“Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.” Her name comes with those few particulars. She was a prophetess, she was Lappidoth’s wife, and she was judging Israel. The account gives no speech announcing her arrival and no account of how she first took her place beneath the tree.

It tells us where to find her. The Palm of Deborah stood between two named towns, in a named stretch of hill country, and the people came to it. Their going up to her belongs to the same years as the oppression, while the king’s commander still had his chariots. Jabin’s power had not brought that movement to an end.

Under the palm, Deborah received the people who came for judgment. No particular case is set before us; the telling leaves her there in the course of her work, with Israel coming up to her. Soon a man from Kedesh in Naphtali would be called to come as well. His name was Barak, and Deborah had a summons for him.