GIAELE (EBR. SSA'EL; VOLG. IAHEL) - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. VI, p. 227

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

JAELE (Hebr. ßa'el; Vulg. Iahel). – Wife of Heber the Kenite.

When Sisera, the Canaanite general defeated by Barak, fled along his path, he encountered a camp of Kenite nomads, who, from their encampment at Negeb, were moving northward with the permission and protection of the Canaanites, who were masters of the region. Thirsty and weary, he approached the tent of Jael, who, appearing at the entrance, invited him to enter confidently, without any fear. She covered him with a rug (or blanket); she gave him milk to drink (the *lebhen*). Sisera fell asleep, secure in the belief that Jael would divert his pursuers. Jael, taking a tent-peg used to fasten the ropes of the tent to the ground, and bending over him (the verb *tignah* is not to be referred to the peg, which would have penetrated the ground, but to Jael, according to the meaning of *gnih* in Jos. 15:18; Judg. 1:14), cautiously drove it with a sudden blow into the temple of the sleeping man, who, after some convulsions (ms. A; Lagrange; cf. Judg. 5:27), lay lifeless. Thus Jael showed him to Barak, who was pursuing him (Judg. 4:17-22). The prophecy of Deborah was fulfilled (Judg. 4:9). In her song, Deborah celebrates Jael’s deed, wishing her blessed among the inhabitants of tents (Judg. 5:24-27).

Jael belonged to a clan related to Moses (Judg. 1:16; 4:11) and thus to the Israelites (cf. 1 Sam. 15:6). Her intervention against Sisera, who was at war with them, is explained precisely by the principle of solidarity, which made it a duty for related tribes to intervene against the enemy (cf. Judg. 8:5-9, 15-17; 21; 1 Sam. 14:21; 29). For this reason Jael is praised, while the Israelite city of Meroz is cursed (Judg. 5:23) for not having acted against the defeated. This duty, arising from solidarity, even surpasses that of hospitality. Jael acted in accordance with the customs of her time.

BIBL.: In addition to the commentaries on Judges by M.-J. Lagrange, *Le livre des juges*, Paris 1903, and by C. F. Burney, *The book of Judges*, 2nd ed., London 1920, cf. L. Desnoyers, *Histoire du peuple hébreu*, I, Paris 1922, pp. 72 sq., 144 sq.; II, ibid. 1930, p. 65.

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