DEBORAH ; Sept. deppilipa. I. The nurse of Rebekah, whom she accompanied to the land of Canaan ; she died near Bethel, and was buried under an oak, which, for that reason, was thenceforth called Allonbachuth—' the oak of weeping' (Gen. xxxv. 8). the time of her death Deborah was with Jacob whilst on his return from Padanaram. This has been variously accounted for by conjecture ; some sup posing that Rebekah had sent her to fetch Jacob back, according to her promise (xxvii. 45); others, that Rebekah being dead, Deborah had returned home, and was now again journeying back with the son of her former mistress; and others, that she met Jacob on his way with tidings of his mother's death, and that thus a double significancy was given to the name assigned to the tree under which she was buried. This last is supported by Jewish tradition, and seems the most probable.] 2. A prophetess, wife of Lapidoth. She dwelt, probably, in a tent, under a well-known palm-tree between Ramah and Bethel, where she judged Israel ( Judg. iv. 4, 5.) This probably means that she was the organ of communication between God and his people, and probably on account of the influence and authority of her character, was ac counted in some sort as the head of the nation, to whom questions of doubt and difficulty were re ferred for decision. In her triumphal song she says ' In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, In the days of Jael the ways lay desert, And high-way travellers went in winding by Leaders failed in Israel, they failed, Until that I Deborah arose, That I arose. a mother in IsraeL' From the further intimations which that song contains, and from other circumstances, the people would appear to have sunk into a state of total dis couragement under the oppression of the Canaan ites, so that it was difficult to rouse them from their despondency, and to induce them to make any exertion to burst the fetters of their bondage. From the gratitude which Deborah expresses towards the people for the effort which they finally made, we are warranted in drawing the conclusion that she had long endeavoured to instigate them to this step in vain. At length she summoned Barak, the son of Abinoam, from Kadesh, a city of Naphthali, on a mountain not far from Hazor, and made known to him the will of God that he should undertake an enterprise for the deliverance of his country ; but such was his disheartened state of feeling, and at the same time such his confidence in the superior character and authority of Deborah, that he assented to go only on the condition that she would accompany him. To this she at length
consented. They then repaired together to Kedesh, and collected there—in the immediate vicinity of Hazor, the capital of the dominant power—ten thousand men, with whom they marched south ward, and encamped on Mount Tabor. Sisera, the general of Jabin, king of Hazor, who was at the head of the Canaanitish confederacy, immedi ately collected an army, pursued them, and en camped in face of them in the great plain of Esdraelon. Encouraged by Deborah, Barak boldly descended from Tabor into the plain with his ten thousand men to give battle to the far superior host of Sisera which was rendered the more formid able to the Israelites by nine hundred chariots of iron. The Canaanites were beaten, and Barak pursued them northward to Harosheth. Sisera himself being hotly pursued, alighted from his chariot, and escaped on foot to the tent of Heber the Kenite, by whose wife he was slain. This great victory (dated about B. C. 1296), which seems to have been followed up, broke the power of the native princes, and secured to the Israelites a re pose of forty years' duration. During part of this time Deborah probably continued to exercise her former authority, but nothing more of her history is known.
The song of triumph which was composed in consequence of the great victory over Sisera, is said to have been sung by Deborah and Barak.' It is usually regarded as the composition of Deborah, and was probably indited by her to be sung on the return of Barak and his warriors from the pursuit. Of this peculiarly fine specimen of the earlier Hebrew poetry there is an excellent translation by Dr. Robinson in the 1st vol. of the American Bibli cal Repository, from the introductory matter to which this notice of Deborah is chiefly taken.— J. K.
[3. The mother of Tobiel, the father of Tobit, a woman of Naphthali (Tob. i. 8). In the A. V. this name is spelt Debora.]