Ya‛el in Judges 4

Sleeping with the Enemy: Recent Scholarship on Sexuality in the Book of Judges

“…Instead, they focus upon the interpretation of Sisera’s murder as a ‘reversed rape’, in which a woman blitzes a man with the purpose of penetrating him. Blazed by Alter’s examination of Judges 5 (1985: 46-49), the path was followed, in addition to Fewell and Gunn, by Bal (1988b: 130-34), Niditch (1989; 1993: 113-15; 2008: 66-67), van Wolde (1995: 244-45; 1996: 292-93), Ackerman (1998: 59-61), and others, but implicitly rejected by Schneider (2000: 79-80, 93). The only major treatment of the episode along the Johanan-Zakovitch lines was offered by Reis (2005), who interpreted Judges 4 as having Jael ‘mount’ Sisera three times and even seduce Barak.…”

The Accounts of Deborah (Judges 4—5) in Recent Research

“…Five scholars focus on the narrative qualities of the text. A narrative analysis of Judges 4, according to Wolde (1995 and1996: 288), demonstrates that vv. 1-5, which form the beginning of the narrative, and vv.…”

“…Other interpretive issues include her unique name and her relationship to the other woman of the story, Deborah. Wolde (1995Wolde ( , 1996 notes her masculine name, a yiqtol third person masculine singular from the root ‫,הלע‬ which means 'to ascend', and argues that all five of her actions are related to the male sexual act. Therefore, her proper name is 'symbolic of the nature of her actions ' (1995: 245).…”