JAHEL (Heb. Jāʾēl; Vulg. Iahel). - Wife of Heber the Kenite.
Sisera, the Canaanite general defeated by Barak, in flight encounters along his way a camp of Kenite nomads, who from the negeb, their home, pushed northward with the permission and protection of the Canaanites, masters of the region. Thirsty and tired, he makes his way to the tent of J., who, appearing at the entrance, invites him to enter confidently, without any fear. She covers him with a rug (or blanket); she quenches his thirst with milk (the lebhen). Sisera falls asleep, certain that J. will divert his pursuers. J., having taken a peg used to fasten the tent cords to the ground, and having bent down to the ground (referring tisnāh not to the peg that would have penetrated the ground, but to J., according to the sense of ṣnḥ in Josh. 15:18; Judg. 1:14), cautiously drove it suddenly into the temple of the sleeper, who, after some convulsions (cod. A; Lagrange; cf. Judg. 5:27), lay inert; and so J. showed him to Barak who was pursuing him (Judg. 4:17-22). Thus the prophecy of Deborah was fulfilled (Judg. 4:9). She, in the canticle, celebrates the act of J., whom she wishes blessed among the dwellers of tents (Judg. 5:24-27).
J. belongs to a clan related to Moses (Judg. 1:16; 4:11) and therefore to the Israelites (cf. 1 Sam. 15:6). Her intervention against Sisera, at war with them, is explained precisely by the principle of solidarity, which makes it a duty for related tribes to intervene against the enemy (cf. Judg. 8:5-9, 15-17; 21; 1 Sam. 14:21; 29). Therefore J. is praised, while the Israelite city of Meroz is cursed (Judg. 5:23), which did not move against the defeated. Such a duty, derived from solidarity, even surpasses that of hospitality. J. acts according to the custom of her time.
Bibliography2 works
Francesco Spadafora