Judges 4:17-22

International Standard Version

Heber’s Wife Jael Kills Sisera

¹⁷ Meanwhile, Sisera had escaped on foot to a tent belonging to Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, since there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the household of Heber the Kenite. ¹⁸ Jael went out to greet Sisera. “Turn aside, sir!” she told him. “Turn aside to me! Don’t be afraid.” So he turned aside to her and entered her tent, where she concealed him behind a curtain.^[a]

¹⁹ He asked her, “Please give me some water to drink, because I’m thirsty.” Instead, she opened a leather container of milk, gave him a drink, and then covered him up. ²⁰ He told her, “Stand in the doorway of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks ‘Is anybody here?’ say ‘No’.”

²¹ But Heber’s wife Jael grabbed a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other,^[b] crept up to him quietly, and drove the tent peg right through his temple into the ground below after he had fallen sound asleep from exhaustion. That’s how^[c] he died.

²² Meanwhile, as Barak continued chasing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him. “Come with me,” she told him, “and I’ll show you the man you’re looking for!” So he went with her, and there was Sisera, lying dead with the tent peg still embedded in his temple!