Texts in Conversation
In Judges 4, Deborah's public judging shares the position held by Danel in the Tale of Aqhat, placing a woman in a role associated with male leaders in older stories.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.17 V:6
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
[…] […] I will bring a bow […] […] arrows. And lo, on the seventh day, then Danel, the man of healing, then the hero, the devotee of Hrnm, rises and sits at the entrance of the gate, beneath the nobles who are on the threshing floor. He judges the case of the widow, he decides the cause of the orphan. When he lifts his eyes, he sees: at a thousand fields, ten thousand acres, the coming of Kothar; he looks, and he sees the striding of Hasis. He brings a bow; look, […] […] arrows. Then Danel, the man of healing, then the hero, the devotee of Hrnm, calls aloud to his wife: “Listen, lady Danatay, prepare a lamb from the flock for the appetite of Kothar- wa-Hasis, for the hunger of Hayyin, skilled of hand. Feed, give drink to
Judges 4:5
Hebrew Bible
3 The Israelites cried out for help to the Lord because Sisera had 900 chariots with iron-rimmed wheels, and he cruelly oppressed the Israelites for 20 years. 4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She would sit under the Date Palm Tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites would come up to her to have their disputes settled. 6 She summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, “Is it not true that the Lord God of Israel is commanding you? Go, march to Mount Tabor! Take with you 10,000 men from Naphtali and Zebulun. 7 I will bring Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to you at the Kishon River, along with his chariots and huge army. I will hand him over to you.”
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Notes and References
“... Various features of Genesis 18:1-15 suggest continuity with an ar-
chaic tradition. As argued by Cooper and Goldstein, the position of the
clan chieftain at the entrance to the tent represents a longstanding
popular motif. They compare Abraham’s position in Genesis 18:1 with
Deborah’s in Judges 4:5, Danil’s in the Ugaritic myth of Aqhat (KTU
1.17 V 6-8; 1.19 I 21-25), and others.19 ...”
Hamori, Esther J.
When Gods Were Men: The Embodied God in Biblical and Near Eastern Literature
(p. 76) De Gruyter, 2008
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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