DEBORAH

A bee. (1.) Rebekah’s nurse. She accompanied her mistress when she left her father’s house in Padan-aram to become the wife of Isaac (Gen. 24:59). Many years afterwards she died at Bethel, and was buried under the “oak of weeping”, Allon-bachuth (35:8). (2.) A prophetess, “wife” (woman?) of Lapidoth. Jabin, the king of Hazor, had for twenty years held Israel in degrading subjection. The spirit of patriotism seemed crushed out of the nation. In this emergency Deborah roused the people from their lethargy. Her fame spread far and wide. She became a “mother in Israel” (Judg. 4:6, 14; 5:7), and “the children of Israel came up to her for judgment” as she sat in her tent under the palm tree “between Ramah and Bethel.” Preparations were everywhere made by her direction for the great effort to throw off the yoke of bondage. She summoned Barak from Kadesh to take the command of 10,000 men of Zebulun and Naphtali, and lead them to Mount Tabor on the plain of Esdraelon at its north-east end. With his aid she organized this army. She gave the signal for attack, and the Hebrew host rushed down impetuously upon the army of Jabin, which was commanded by Sisera, and gained a great and decisive victory. The Canaanitish army almost wholly perished. That was a great and ever-memorable day in Israel. In Judg. 5 is given the grand triumphal ode, the “song of Deborah,” which she wrote in grateful commemoration of that great deliverance. (See LAPIDOTH, JABIN [2].)

(a bee). (B.C. 1857.)

DEB'ORAH (a bee). 1. The nurse of Rebekah, and her companion into Canaan. Gen 24:59. She was buried at Bethel, under the "oak of weeping." Gen 35:8. "Nurses held a high and honorable place in ancient times, and especially in the East, where they were often the principal members of the family. 2 Kgs 11:2; 2 Kgs 2 Chr. 22:11." A woman of eminent wisdom and holiness (called a prophetess), and a judge of the people of Israel. Jud 4:4 She was the wife of Lapidoth (although some think the passage should read "a woman of Lapidoth"), and had her judgment-seat under a palm tree, which from this circumstance, and from the rarity of the tree, is spoken of as "the [well-known] palm tree of Deborah." Jud 4:5. Israel was suffering at that time a most oppressive bondage under Jabin, a Canaanitish king, to which it was doomed in consequence of its sin. Deborah, by divine direction, called upon Barak, who had probably signalized himself in some way, and commanded him to station himself upon Mount Tabor with a prescribed number of men, and she would see to it that Sisera, the commander of the tyrant's army, should be there, and should fall into Barak's hands. Barak engaged to undertake the enterprise if Deborah would accompany him. To this she consented, prophesying, however, that if she went the honor of the victory would be hers and not his, and that Sisera would be regarded as having fallen by the hands of a woman. Jud 4:9. The two armies met, and the event was as Deborah predicted. Sisera fled, and died by the hand of Jael; his army was cut off and every man slain. Jud 4:21. The triumphal song composed or dictated by Deborah on that occasion is regarded as one of the finest specimens of Oriental poetry. Jud 5. We give a few verses from a revised version: See Barak. Jael.

word; thing; a bee

DEB'ORAH (a bee). 1. The nurse of Rebekah, and her companion into Canaan. Gen 24:59. She was buried at Bethel, under the "oak of weeping." Gen 35:8. "Nurses held a high and honorable place in ancient times, and especially in the East, where they were often the principal members of the family. 2 Kgs 11:2; 2 Kgs 2 Chr. 22:11." She was the wife of Lapidoth (although some think the passage should read "a woman of Lapidoth"), and had her judgment-seat under a palm tree, which from this circumstance, and from the rarity of the tree, is spoken of as "the [well-known] palm tree of Deborah." Jud 4:5. Israel was suffering at that time a most oppressive bondage under Jabin, a Canaanitish king, to which it was doomed in consequence of its sin. Deborah, by divine direction, called upon Barak, who had probably signalized himself in some way, and commanded him to station himself upon Mount Tabor with a prescribed number of men, and she would see to it that Sisera, the commander of the tyrant's army, should be there, and should fall into Barak's hands. Barak engaged to undertake the enterprise if Deborah would accompany him. To this she consented, prophesying, however, that if she went the honor of the victory would be hers and not his, and that Sisera would be regarded as having fallen by the hands of a woman. Jud 4:9. The two armies met, and the event was as Deborah predicted. Sisera fled, and died by the hand of Jael; his army was cut off and every man slain. Jud 4:21. The triumphal song composed or dictated by Deborah on that occasion is regarded as one of the finest specimens of Oriental poetry. Jud 5. We give a few verses from a revised version: See Barak. Jael.