Judges 4:21-24

4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. ¹  She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground ²  while he was asleep from exhaustion, ³  and he died. 4:22 Now Barak was chasing Sisera. Jael went out to welcome him. She said to him, “Come here and I will show you the man you are searching for.” He went with her into the tent, ⁴  and there he saw Sisera sprawled out dead ⁵  with the tent peg in his temple.

4:23 That day God humiliated King Jabin of Canaan before the Israelites. 4:24 Israel’s power continued to overwhelm ⁶  King Jabin of Canaan until they did away with ⁷  him. ⁸ 

[4:21]  ¹ tn Heb “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”

[4:21]  ² tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”

[4:21]  ³ tn Heb “and exhausted.” Another option is to understand this as a reference to the result of the fatal blow. In this case, the phrase could be translated, “and he breathed his last.”

[4:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “he went to her.”

[4:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “fallen, dead.”

[4:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “The hand of the Israelites became more and more severe against.”

[4:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “cut off.”

[4:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “Jabin king of Canaan.” The proper name and title have been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.