Judices 4:21

Nova Vulgata

Tulit porro Iahel uxor Haber clavum tabernaculi assumens pariter malleum; et ingressa abscondite et cum silentio, posuit supra tempus capitis eius clavum, percussumque malleo defixit in cerebrum usque ad terram; qui soporem morti socians defecit et mortuus est.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
et dixit ad filios Israël : Quando interrogaverint filii vestri cras patres suos, et dixerint eis : Quid sibi volunt lapides isti ?

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Tulit itaque Jahel uxor Haber clavum tabernaculi, assumens pariter et malleum: et ingressa abscondite et cum silentio, posuit supra tempus capitis ejus clavum, percussumque malleo defixit in cerebrum usque ad terram: qui soporem morti consocians defecit, et mortuus est.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

took: Judges 3:21, Judges 3:31, Judges 5:26, Judges 15:15, 1 Samuel 17:43, 1 Samuel 17:49, 1 Samuel 17:50, 1 Corinthians 1:19, 1 Corinthians 1:27

a nail: One of the spikes of the tent. See note on Exodus 35:18.

and took: Heb. and put

smote: Psalms 3:7

he died: Judges 5:27

Reciprocal: Judges 7:13 - a cake 2 Samuel 18:14 - thrust them Psalms 107:40 - contempt

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a nail of the tent,.... When she perceived he was fast asleep, and it being now put into her heart to kill him, having an impulse upon her spirit, which she was persuaded, by the effect it had upon her, that it was of God; not filling her with malice and revenge, but a concern for the glory of God, the interest of religion, and the good of Israel, she took this method to effect the death of this enemy of God, and his people; having no arms in the house, for the Kenites used none, she took up an iron pin, with which her tent was fastened to the ground:

and took a hammer in her hand; which perhaps she knew full well how to handle, being used to drive the pins of the tents into the ground with it:

and went softly unto him; lest she should awake him

and smote the nail into his temples: as he lay on one side, these being the tenderest part of the head, from whence they have their name in the Hebrew language, and into which therefore a nail, or iron pin, might be more easily driven:

and fastened it into the ground; she smote the nail with such force and violence, that she drove it through both his temples into the ground on which he lay; and then, as it seems, from Judges 5:26; cut off his head, to make sure work of it:

for he was fast asleep and weary; and so heard not; when she came to him:

so he died; not in the field of battle, but in a tent; not by the sword, but by a nail; not by the hand of a man, but of a woman, as Deborah foretold, Judges 4:9.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If we can overlook the treachery and violence which belonged to the morals of the age and country, and bear in mind Jael’s ardent sympathies with the oppressed people of God, her faith in the right of Israel to possess the land in which they were now slaves, her zeal for the glory of Yahweh as against the gods of Canaan, and the heroic courage and firmness with which she executed her deadly purpose, we shall be ready to yield to her the praise which is her due. See Judges 3:30 note.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Judges 4:21. A nail of the tent — One of the spikes by which they fasten to the ground the cords which are attached to the cloth or covering.

He was fast asleep and weary. — As he lay on one side, and was overwhelmed with sleep through the heat and fatigues of the day, the piercing of his temples must have in a moment put him past resistance.