Yael’s Prayer before Killing Sisera

Pseudo-Philo

Biblical Antiquities 31.5

1st Century

And when Sisera was sleeping, Jael went out to the flock and got milk from it. And when she was milking, she said, “And now be mindful, Lord, of when you assigned every tribe or race to the earth. Did you not choose Israel alone and liken it to no animal except to the ram that goes before and leads the flock? And so look and see that Sisera has…

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Yael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, makes a brief but crucial appearance in Judges 4:17–22. In Deborah’s song in Judges 5, Yael is celebrated for killing the enemy Canaanite general Sisera when he fled from the battlefield and sought refuge in her tent. Pseudo-Philo, in Biblical Antiquities, presents Yael’s decisive action as the result of her prayers. She seeks a sign from God before embarking on her daring course of action.

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Creator Bio

Pseudo-Philo

1st Century

Pseudo-Philo is the name given to the otherwise unknown, anonymous author of Biblical Antiquities, which may have been written in Hebrew but survives only in Latin. The text was originally attributed to Philo of Alexandria, but that has been disproven. Biblical Antiquities is a retelling of the biblical narrative filled with literary reworkings, including many traditions not found in other sources.

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