Prophet
Prophetess Deborah the Prophetess
XII век до Р.Х.
Also known as: Девора
Prophetess Deborah — an Old Testament prophetess and the only woman judge in the history of Israel during the period of the Judges (12th century BC); she inspired the Israelite commander Barak to victory over the Canaanite general Sisera; her victory song, recorded in the Book of Judges, is one of the oldest surviving monuments of biblical poetry.
The Prophetess Deborah is mentioned in the Book of Judges of Israel (chapters 4-5) as a woman judge who rendered judgment over the people of Israel under a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim. During a period when Israel had been oppressed for twenty years by the Canaanite king Jabin and his military commander Sisera, who possessed nine hundred iron chariots, Deborah summoned the commander Barak and, in the name of the Lord, ordered him to gather ten thousand warriors and march against Sisera at Mount Tabor. Barak agreed to go into battle only on the condition that Deborah go with him. The Israelite army won a complete victory; Sisera himself fled the battlefield and was killed by a woman named Jael. In memory of this victory, Deborah together with Barak sang a triumphant song (Judges 5), rightly considered one of the oldest and most vivid examples of ancient Hebrew poetry. The Church honors the Prophetess Deborah in the Synaxis of the Old Testament Righteous and Prophets.