Sisera

About Sisera Written by AI

Sisera is mentioned in Ezra 2:53 and Nehemiah 7:55 as the ancestor of a family of temple servants (Nethinim) who were among the exiles that returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. The temple servants were a group of people assigned to assist the Levites in the maintenance and service of the temple. Sisera's descendants are listed among the temple servants who returned to Jerusalem, indicating that they had a hereditary role in serving at the temple. The return of Sisera's family, along with other exiles, was part of the restoration of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple after the Babylonian captivity. This Sisera should not be confused with the Canaanite commander mentioned in the book of Judges.

Drafted by an AI model for STEPBible's TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Check it against the verses below.

Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897

This entry is on the name Sisera, and may cover more than one person or place by that name.

(Egypt. Ses-Ra, “servant of Ra”). (1.) The captain of Jabin’s army (Judg. 4:2), which was routed and destroyed by the army of Barak on the plain of Esdraelon. After all was lost he fled to the settlement of Heber the Kenite in the plain of Zaanaim. Jael, Heber’s wife, received him into her tent with apparent hospitality, and “gave him butter” (i.e., lebben, or curdled milk) “in a lordly dish.” Having drunk the refreshing beverage, he lay down, and soon sank into the sleep of the weary. While he lay asleep Jael crept stealthily up to him, and taking in her hand one of the tent pegs, with a mallet she drove it with such force through his temples that it entered into the ground where he lay, and “at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell down dead.” The part of Deborah’s song (Judg. 5:24-27) referring to the death of Sisera (which is a “mere patriotic outburst,” and “is no proof that purer eyes would have failed to see gross sin mingling with Jael’s service to Israel”) is thus rendered by Professor Roberts (Old Testament Revision):

“Extolled above women be Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite, Extolled above women in the tent. He asked for water, she gave him milk; She brought him cream in a lordly dish. She stretched forth her hand to the nail, Her right hand to the workman’s hammer, And she smote Sisera; she crushed his head, She crashed through and transfixed his temples. At her feet he curled himself, he fell, he lay still; At her feet he curled himself, he fell; And where he curled himself, there he fell dead.”

M. G. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary, third edition (1897), public domain, from CrossWire. Shown as written; its Scripture quotes are from older translations.