Deborah Lapidot

🗓️ Nov 1st

Deborah was a female prophet and the leader of Israel. In Judges 4:3, she is referred to as iššâ lapîḏôṯ, which has been translated as “the [woman] of Lapidot,” a name that doesn’t appear anywhere else in ancient Hebrew literature. Seeing as no man appears in conjugal attachment to Deborah, it’s far more likely that the epithet was to be taken literally, as the plural form of lapîḏ, a lamp or torch. In that case, she is Deborah, Woman of Fires, for she is a fiery woman. She commands Barak and 10,000 soldiers from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun into battle at Mount Tabor to free Israel from the oppression of Jabin, king of Canaan, and his general, Sisera. The Song of Deborah, in Judges 5, is considered one of the oldest surviving stories to be included in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Mandatory Fun:

• Start with her Wikipedia page.

• Judges 4 and 5

• God is a Grunt, chapter 11

• For God and Country (in that order), p.23