The Choice to Serve God and Assist His People 89 prophetess: she appoints Barak, instructs him where to organize his army, how many soldiers to summon, and where from. She also instructs him when to attack Sisera’s army. She does all this as a prophetess who transmits God’s instructions to Barak. When Barak refuses to accept the commission unless Deborah joins him, she delivers another prophecy, that a woman and not Barak will kill Sisera: “However, there will be no glory for you on the road on which you are going for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (v. 9) (24). The uniqueness of the story of Deborah is that it only presents the prophetic personality of Deborah and totally disregards her private personality. The vivid and lucid message is that God and not man is the source of salvation. The abstruseness of Yael’s motives for killing Sisera enables the reader to focus on Deborah who has foreseen that “the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (v. 9) (25). Yael’s role in the story is to materialize Deborah’s prophecy. The analogy between Rahab and Yael moves the reader to appreciate the prophetic personality of Deborah, essential to the meaning of the story. * ** In sum, this paper uncovers the web of analogies between Rahab and Yael, two gentile women who choose to assist Israel against its Canaanite enemy. The significance of the analogous structure is that divine providence works in surprising and unexpected ways, and that God often uses unanticipated and unexpected agents. God is sovereign over all, and all humans are instruments to implement his plan. Significant differences between Yael and Rahab enlighten the special meaning of each story. Rahab’s motives in assisting Israel are her acknowledgement of the greatness of God. She seeks to save herself and her family from the destruction of the Canaanites and to join God’s people. Yael’s motives to assist Israel are obscure. The concealment of her motives is meant to detract attention from the attractive qualities of Yael and to focus on the prophetic personality of Deborah who had predicted Yael’s actions. Bar-Ilan University (RA) Elie ASSIS Faculty of Jewish Studies Department of Bible Studies 52900 Ramat-Gan, Israel (24) Some think that this sentence is not a prophecy and does not refer to Yael but is a logical conclusion from Barak’s reluctance and dependence on Deborah. According to this interpretation Deborah is referring to herself. This interpretation was adopted by Qimhi, Joseph Qera. See Y. KAUFMAN, The Book of Judges (Jerusalem 1978) 124 (Hebrew). Above I have followed those who think that Deborah’s words are a prophecy referring to Yael, see e.g G.F. MOORE, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (ICC; Edinburgh 1895) 116-117; J.D. MARTIN, The Book of Judges (CBC; Cambridge 1975) 57. (25) Contrary to Amit who claims that there is not one central hero in the story and that there is a balance in the presentation of the heroes meant to convey the message that the Lord is the only hero in the story. Y. AMIT, “Judges 4: Its Contents and Form”, JSOT 39 (1987) 89-111.