light for forty years." (70)

The enemy whom God raised up against Israel was Jabin, (71) the
king of Hazor, who oppressed him sorely. But worse than the king
himself was his general Sisera, one of the greatest heroes know to
history. When he was thirty years old, he had conquered the whole
world. At the sound of his voice the strongest of walls fell in a
heap, and the wild animals in the woods were chained to the spot
by fear. The proportions of his body were vast beyond description.
If he took a bath in the river, and dived beneath the surface,
enough fish were caught in his beard to feed a multitude, and it
required no less than nine hundred horses to draw the chariot in
which he rode. (72)

To rid Israel of this tyrant, God appointed Deborah and her
husband Barak. Barak was an ignoramus, like most of his
contemporaries. It was a time singularly deficient to scholars. (73)
In order to do something meritorious in connection with the Divine
service, he carried candles, at his wife's instance, to the sanctuary,
wherefrom he was called Lipidoth, "Flames." Deborah was in the
habit of making the wicks on the candles very thick, so that they
might burn a long time. Therefore God distinguished her. He said:
"Thou takest pains to shed light in My house, and I will let thy
light, thy flame, shine abroad in the whole land." Thus it happened
that Deborah became a prophetess and a judge. She dispensed
judgement in the open air, for it was not becoming that men should
visit a woman in her house. (74)

Prophetess though she was, she was yet subject to the frailties of
her sex. Her self-consciousness was inordinate. She sent for Barak